(This press release is also available online here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_Summit_%E2%80%9CWikimania%E2%80%9D_comes_to_London_-_Largest_ever_gathering)
Wikimania’s 2014 team today announce the programme for this year’s historic event. Wikimania 2014 will be held at the Barbican Centre in London from 8th to 10th August, with a two day pre-conference held August 6th and 7th. Over 4,000 attendees are expected; more than twice the number at any previous Wikimania.
The future of Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia projects, forms the central theme. As technological advances promise big changes on the platform, Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales will delve into what the future has in store for the world’s fifth most popular website.
“Wikipedia is the largest knowledge base in the world, consulted by over half a billion people each month,” says Wales. “However, we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what can be done with it. Through international expansion, a new focus on open data, and a big investment in technology development, our movement is charting exciting new territory.”
Attendees will also welcome Wikimedia’s new executive director, Lila Tretikov. Her keynote will focus on the impact of Wikipedia in our changing world and its potential for our future.
Tretikov sees Wikipedia, a top five website, as an opportunity to for unlocking and democratizing knowledge globally: “I’d like us to think beyond what we know today. Think beyond our accomplishments, towards opportunities. Opportunities for all our collective minds to build the future of knowledge, collaboration and trust.” Recent developments have included plans focused on overhauling Wikipedia’s user experience for readers and editors, a programmatic approach to grant-making and community, and establishing a development platform for knowledge building.
Open to the public, Wikimania is a five-day, community-organised event focusing on new projects in the world of MediaWiki, transparency, and open knowledge. Themes include collaborative working, natural language processing, crowdsourcing, education, journalism, scientific and medical research, open data, and multimedia.
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The conference is organised around five questions with massive implications for the future.
Lectures from prominent leaders across technology and media will include the following.
The conference takes place from 8th to 10th August at The Barbican Centre, London, with a programme of fringe events already underway. Alongside will run a pre-conference on education (6th and 7th August) and a hackathon (6th to 10th August), with the opening ceremony on the evening of the 7th. The main conference website is: www.wikimanialondon.org; where tickets are now on sale for £30/45/55 (1 day/3 days/5 days).
There are a number of complimentary tickets available for journalists who would like to attend. Please contact press@wikimanialondon.org.
The conference is being supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, Google, Ask.com, Mathworks, Tupperware, and Wikimedia UK.
For Wikimedia UK press enquiries please contact Stevie Benton, Head of External Relations, on 020 7065 0993 or 07803 505 173 or stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk.
For Wikimedia Foundation (non UK) press enquiries please contact Katherine Maher, Chief Communications Officer, on kmaher@wikimedia.org.
Images: all are CC-by-SA, and fully available for print, broadcast or online use.
Jimmy Wales -
Lila Tretikov - :https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lila_Tretikov#mediaviewer/File:Lila_Tretikov_April_2014_%285%29.jpg
The Barbican Centre -
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