[Foundation-l] The Wikimania of my dreams

[Milos Rancic]

On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 1:51 AM, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Wikimania should be an open event, not dedicated for Wikimedians, but
>> a possibility to involve other people in Wikimedian work.
>
> Wikibooks is finding that we have a lot of friends in like-minded
> book-oriented organizations outside the WMF umbrella. We've talked,
> perhaps informally, about setting up our own meetups for Wikibookians
> and other open-content book enthusiasts. Whether we ever get this
> initiative off the ground or not relies on a number of factors, money
> not the least of which. It is a good idea, however, and as things
> mature it might make sense for the single Wikimedia to become a number
> of smaller project-centric or purpose-centric meetups instead.
>
> I would love to see an educational conference organized with Wikibooks
> + Wikiversity + Wikieducator + (insert other cool education and
> textbooks groups here) to talk about the present and future issues in
> open education. This is the kind of thing that really feels tangential
> to the current Wikimania format.

This is another idea which was not on my mind when I was writing
previous email (but, it was on my mind from time to time).

I was thinking about openness in the sense of transforming Wikimania
into a public event. If some outsider is willing to listen/watch
speeches, they should be able to do so. Of course, we may start
cautiously.

Let's say that Brisbane is holding "auxiliary Wikimania" next year. It
doesn't need to be an event for gathering people from South-East Asia
(but it may be), it may be a place for gathering just Brisbane and
maybe (West-)Australian Wikimedians. However, it should call
inhabitants of Brisbane to participate. Organizers should, for the
beginning, require applications at least, let's say, three months
earlier, but to be open for everyone and to do some marketing in
media. If such concept is going fine, someones may try with fully open
event next years.

> This is a very interesting possibility, with the primary benefit being
> that we can increase wikimedian participation in the event without
> having to break everybody's bank. If we make it clear that events in
> multiple places are all connected to the larger whole, it will be
> easier to secure funding and donations at each venue.
>
> Maybe not next year, but in 2010 maybe the committee should select
> three wikimedia venues instead of just one with the intention that
> they be synchronized and videolink connected. We might be able to
> secure donations from computer hardware manufacturers to support video
> chat, videoconferencing, and other telepresence.

It is good to have a central Wikimania, which should move from place to place.

"Major" Wikimanias may be at more or less constant places (Frankfurt,
San Francisco, New York/Boston etc.). And this, indeed, requires
serious preparing.

But, it is always possible to make "small" Wikimanias, "auxiliary
ones", which should be a significant local event connected to the
global one. So, even the next Wikimania may try with a couple of such
localized events.

It is not so hard to organize, let's say, in Poznan, one conference
room with some local program and good Internet connection for video
link with Buenos Aires.

So, requirements are:
* Central place (Buenos Aires) should have a good Internet connection.
* A couple of places from different parts of the world may say that
they are willing to held "auxiliary Wikimanias"; which means to
prepare a technical minimum.
* All organizational teams should be technically coordinated.