[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2008: Call for Participation

[Casey Brown]

Please circulate this call among Wikimedia communities, researchers
and other people that may be interested! This call is also online at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation

== Wikimania 2008: Call for Participation ==
[[w:Wikimania|Wikimania]] is an annual global event devoted to
[[foundation:Main Page|Wikimedia]] projects around the globe
(including [[w:Main page|Wikipedia]], [[:w:b:en:Main page|Wikibooks]],
[[:w:s:en:Main page|Wikisource]], [[:en:n:Main page|Wikinews]],
[[:w:wikt:en:Main page|Wiktionary]], [[:w:v:en:Main
page|Wikiversity]], [[:m:q:en:Main page|Wikiquote]], [[:species:Main
page|Wikispecies]], and [[:commons:Main page|Wikimedia Commons]]) and
for its editors and users to gather, meet each other, exchange ideas,
and report on research and projects.  It is a community event, which
is also open to the public and to researchers. This year's conference
will be held from '''July 17-19, 2008''' in
[[w:Alexandria|Alexandria]], [[w:Egypt|Egypt]] at the new Library of
Alexandria ([[w:Bibliotheca Alexandrina|Bibliotheca Alexandrina]]).

For more information, please visit the Wikimania 2008 Home page at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org

We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels,
posters, open spaces, and artistic artifacts. Please carefully follow
the submission guidelines below. Submissions can be sent via the
following link:

:https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission/wikimania2008

=== Important dates ===

* 1 February – 16 March : Submission
* 17 March – 30 April : Review, feedback and notification of acceptance
* 17 – 19 July 2007 : '''Wikimania'''

=== Conference Tracks  ===

Submissions should address one or more of the following themes:

; Wikimedia Communities : Interesting projects and particularities
within the communities; policy creation within individual projects;
conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and identity;
multi-lingualism, languages and cultures; social studies. We
explicitly invite you to discuss your local Wikimedia project's
community.

; 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 the Middle-East/Africa.

; Technical infrastructure : Issues related to MediaWiki development
and extensions; Wikimedia's technical infrastructure; new ideas for
development (including case studies from other wikis or similar
projects).

; Scientific track : Papers about massively collaborative work, open
and free content creation, community dynamics, the social or economic
aspects of the Wikimedia projects, and other topics related to
Wikimedia projects. Papers submitted to the scientific track will be
peer reviewed by a reviewing committee regarding their novelty,
rigour, and estimated impact, and accepted or rejected based on these
reviews. The papers will be published in proceedings afterwards, and
depending on the number and the quality of the submissions, a journal
special issue may be pursued. Scientific track papers must be in
English, and must not exceed 7,500 words (or 15 pages LNCS).

Your topic must be related either to the Wikimedia projects and their
communities, or to the creation of free content in general.

=== Types of Submissions ===

We are seeking submissions for

* presentations (10–30 minute talks with discussion afterwards)
* workshops (60–120 minute session with more involvement of the audience)
* panels (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss on a specific subject)
* posters (printed presentations or visual displays that can stand on their own)
* artistic artifacts (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, or
other representations of some aspect of the projects)

In addition there will the possibility to give [[lightning talks]] (5
minute short presentations). These will be organized on the Wikimania
2008 wiki without need to submit via the submission system.

=== Submission Guidelines ===

Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us minimize
wasted effort by submitting via the [[submission]] system and
following these guidelines. All submissions MUST explicitly include
the following:

# an English "Event title"
# a short English "Abstract" of your event in 50 to 100 words. The
abstract will be used for the public schedule.
# the "Track" your submission fits in best (Wikimedia Communities,
Free Knowledge, Technical infrastructure, or Scientific)
# the "Event type" (presentation, workshop, panel, poster, artistic...)
# information about the speaker (full name, email, a short description
of at least 2 sentences...)
# for submissions to the scientific track: set "Submission of paper
for proceedings" to "yes" and upload a paper instead of the
"Description" below as "Attachment". Papers must be in English, and
must not exceed 7,500 words.

In addition you can add some more information like a a subtitle of the
event, an image (will be resized to 128x128px) and private "Submission
notes" for reviewers and conference organisation. In particular you
should give:

* a more detailed "Description" of your event in English or Arabic.
The description is essential for review: please give an overview of
the areas to be covered or taught. The better you describe your
submission, the more likely it will get accepted. State clearly the
relevance to the Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a
specific wiki project. You can also include links. The description
will later be used for the public schedule but you can edit it before.
* special requirements (such as equipment for a workshop or panel) if needed
* the language used for presentation
* whether you want to submit a paper for proceedings
* whether you want to submit presentation slides
* whether the presentation is intended to be a specific length
* the target audience you are going to reach and what previous
knowledge is needed
* images or sketches of the poster or artistic artifact if available
* for panel submissions a suggested moderator and short biographies of
each suggested panelist

In the "Submission notes" you should tell us whether you will attend
to Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is
accepted, or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation. You
can also add yourself to the public list of attendees at the Wikimania
2008 wiki: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees

Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later ''and'' the Creative
Commons Attribution License! By submitting for Wikimania 2008 you
agree to this condition.

For more information see the submission guidelines at
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission

===Submissions===

Once you are sure you have included all of the required information,
please send your submission before the respective deadline through our
'''submission system''':

:https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission


== See also ==
* About the venue: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Venue
* Brainstorming page for program ideas:
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_ideas
* Editable list of attendees: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees