[Foundation-l] Wikimedia events

[Ray Saintonge]

effe iets anders wrote:

>Hello everybody,
>
>As you all know, Wikimania is only in one place in the world. And
>well, lots of people are unable to attend. On #wikimedia , we had a
>healthy discussion about the possibilities of side-events. Both
>national as continental events had supporters, but the biggest contra
>was that it could be a competitor for the WIkimania. That is why this
>idea came up:
>
>1)  A annual world wide Wikimania, about august
>
>2) Lots of national events, as far as countries or parts of countries
>of groups of countries care to orginize them: about october, november
>
>3)  Continental Events, about march. Of cource as far as the
>continents feel ok to orginize them. Only one event per continent of
>this size.
>
In principle this is fine, and setting the date and place of Wikimania 
sooner would make that kind of planning easier.  Below that, the 
continental and national levels of organization are likely to be 
different in each continent.  In North America, a national conference 
miight as well be continental with a day set aside for the three nations 
to meet separately to deal with their own special concerns.  Where 
Europe would have national conferences, we here would be inclined to 
less formal regional meetups.  It is certainly more convenient for me to 
drive two hours to Seattle for such a thing than to go to Eastern 
Canada, and yet the combined area of Oregon, Washington and the southern 
10% of British Columbia is a big as the largest European country.

>That national events are wanted, is proven already numerous times by
>Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia Nederland and also in China, Poland
>and other countires. People like to meet eachother, and have a good
>conference in their own language. They can speak much more freely,
>mostly about a smakker group of projects, and share thoughts more
>easily.
>
Language based conferences may require a different level of 
organization, and a different time slot. (End of December perhaps?)  It 
is not a problem for English since Wikimania is primarily conducted in 
English anyways.  Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese and Arabic are 
all spoken over a large geographical area.  Even Russian remains as a 
common tie for much of the former Soviet Union, but for that we could 
have our own definition of continent.  I don't know how the Dutch would 
handle Surinam and Curaçao.

>The continental events could be like wikimania, so a conference mainly
>for the active contributors, but could also get another character. The
>orginizers should really think well about this. What kind of public do
>you want to attrack, what kind of event do you want it to become. The
>major pro for this event is that the travelcosts will be reletively
>low, and people will go somewhere with somehow, minor or less, the
>same culture.
>
Essentially yes

>The big Wikimania would mainly be for the world wide public, would be
>for sharing thoughts such as "how do you guys do this, and you?".
>People from all the communities could meet eachother, and a lot of
>mixing of thoughts could happen. However, it is very well possible
>that Wikimania would change it's identity over the years, as the
>tradition is not that old. 
>
The role of Wikimania does need to be reviewed.  In some respects it's a 
PR showcase, and media event that draws attention from the entire 
world.  It did that very well at both Frankfurt and Boston.  It also 
does a good job of presenting a big picture of what is happening in 
Wikimedia around the world.

In addition, it should have part of it's time closed to all but active 
Wikimedians.  That should be the major policy and planning event of the 
year.  It should be able to do almost everything that the Frankfurt 
retreat did, but without leaving the impression that this event is only 
for the invited few.  Those who are interested in that kind of thing 
would still need to find their way to Taipei or wherever the conference 
is held in future years, and a preference for continental rotation of 
Wikimania would insure that policy is not overwhelmingly influenced by 
the views of one continent.

Ec