Dear all,
I know you have been waiting for our follow up from my previous announcement, and I thank you all for your patience on our response.
Wikimedia Deutschland will not host a virtual Wikimedia Summit in 2020. We hope we will be able to welcome you all in Berlin again for the Wikimedia Summit in March 2021 as planned, if the global health situation allows.
Together with Ryan Merkley, members of the movement strategy core team, and external consultants, we have been exploring options to move the objectives and content of the three days in Berlin into a series of virtual events. Planning and co-design for this is starting, but takes a lot of time, and careful consideration, including also what was learned during the last 1.5 years of drafting the recommendations.
The objectives and audience groups of the Wikimedia Summit will be addressed and involved in different ways and parts of the series of events. To reduce the level of complexity, and to be able to design such a series of events from scratch, we decided together to let go of the idea of hosting one of the events under the Wikimedia Summit framework and brand.
On a personal note: The Wikimedia Summit 2020, be it the physical or the virtual one, would have been my last conference to organize in my position at Wikimedia Deutschland. I’m incredibly sad that I could not realize this last part of my job, which besides a lot of stress means also a lot of joy and passion for me. I trust Ryan and his team to co-create a great series of online events, and in the remaining time of my job, I’ll support them with my experience of organizing the particular and peculiar conference since 2015.
Of course, I won’t “leave” the Wikimedia Movement (can you actually do that?), and will continue in my volunteer capacity as a Wikipedian and Wikimedian.
Best wishes,
Cornelius
--
Cornelius Kibelka
Internationale Beziehungen | International Relations
Vorstandsteam | Office of the ED
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 BerlinTel. (030) 219 158 26-0http://wikimedia.de
Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German): Subscribe now. Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207