With less than three months to go until the fourth annual Wikimania conference, registration has finally opened and will remain so until the 15th of June. This year Wikimania starts with the a promise to "Change the Shape of Wisdom" as it is hosted by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the reincarnation of the ancient Library of Alexandria, one of pillars of this Earth when Philosophy and Wisdom are bought into question. In Alexandria, from the 17th to the 19th of July, ideas will be shared and discussed between people from all over the globe, once again igniting the golden cosmopolitan age of the city.

As always, the conference will take place over 4 different tracks, with a variety of speakers: Keynote, invited, and other. The conference tracks this year are:

* Wikimedia Communities - Interesting projects and particularities within the communities; policy creation within individual projects; conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and identity; multilingualism, languages and cultures; social studies.

* Free Knowledge - Open access to information; ways to gather and distribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia projects in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality and usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that interfere with Wikimedia projects. Free Content in Middle-East/Africa countries.

* Technical infrastructure - Issues related to MediaWiki development and extensions; Wikimedia hardware layout; new ideas for development (including usable case studies from other wikis or similar projects).

* Scientific track - Papers submitted to the scientific track were peer reviewed by scientific standards and accepted or rejected based on these reviews. The papers will be published in proceedings afterwards. Based on the number and the quality of the submission, a journal special issue may be pursued

This year the conference is taking an interesting direction that hopes to enlighten third world and Middle Eastern countries about the new digital realm that is continuously expanding and evolving; as such, along with many well reputed figures, an emphasis has been put on bringing in Arab speakers. Speakers include Ahmed N. Tantawy, the Technical Director of IBM in the Middle East; Eliane Metni, the founding director of the International Education Association; Tim Spalding, the founder and lead developer of LibraryThing; Eric M. Johnson, the team leader for the Knowledge Management Action Team at the U.S. Department of State; and Usama Fayyad, Yahoo!'s executive vice president of Research & Strategic Data Solutions.

Take part on one of the most important IT events of the year. Check the registration prices online. http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration

While these prices do not include accommodation, the local team has taken the effort to make all sorts of housing opportunities available, starting from dorms up to luxury hotel rooms. Check these when your registering. You will also be pleased to know that transportation is available to and from Cairo International Airport in the 2 days before and after the conference.

And what is a gathering without fun? Tours and parties are being planned out for the participants of the event. After all Alexandria is cultural city that brims with hospitality and the main idea of the event is to provide a gathering place.

Hope to see you there! The Wikimania Local Team

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