Hello all,
On this day of Wikidata’s birthday, I’m excited to announce some news about the
next edition of the WikidataCon
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2021>.
The WikidataCon is an event organized by Wikimedia Germany and focused on
the *Wikidata community in a broad sense*: editors, tools builders, but
also 3rd party reusers, partner organizations that are using or
contributing to the data, the ecosystem of organizations working with
Wikibase. The content of the conference will have some parts dedicated to
people who want to learn more about Wikidata, some workshops and
discussions for the community to share skills and exchange about their
practices, and some space left to include side events for specific projects
(WikiCite, Wikibase, GLAM, etc.).
During the first two editions, we gathered an international crowd in Berlin
for a few days. However, as the global COVID pandemic is still hitting the
world, and the forecast for 2021 doesn’t indicate much improvement, the
situation doesn’t allow us to plan a traditional onsite international
conference. In order to allow the event to take place, and to ensure the
safety of all participants, we had to make some clear decisions. In 2021,
we will not gather all participants in Berlin, and we will avoid any
international travel. Instead, we are experimenting with a *hybrid format* for
the conference: most of the content and interactions will *take place
online*, and small, *local gatherings* will be possible, if the situation
allows it.
In a similar way to the distributed Wikidata birthday events, we will
encourage *Wikimedia chapters, local groups and communities* to organize
their part of the event, to support and gather people inside their country,
and to contribute to the content, for example with running talks, workshops
and discussions. Wikimedia Germany will provide the technical
infrastructure and support the coordination of these distributed events.
We’re already inviting Wikimedia organizations to include the event in
their 2021 plan (especially if you’re requesting an APG), and to reach out
to me if you want to be involved in the distributed conference.
On top of this, we would like to partner with a *Wikimedia organization
outside of Europe/North America*, to strengthen the Wikidata community in
their country and to allow a fairer distribution of content and speakers.
We are currently evaluating several possibilities, focusing on groups who
have been very active with Wikidata-related events over the past years. Our
criteria include not only the motivation and past activities, but also the
ability of the group to support part of the WikidataCon organization
workload. The choice of the partner organization will be announced at the
end of November. If you would like to know more about the process, feel
free to contact me off-list and I’ll be glad to give you some details.
In these quite unpredictable times, organizing an event is a challenge, and
the WikidataCon 2021 will definitely be one of a kind: we will have to
adapt, to be agile, to make the best out of the situation, and to work
closely with the local Wikidata groups all over the world.
Since the first WikidataCon in 2017, I am deeply committed in providing a
nice experience for everyone and making sure that this event remains a
gathering for and by the Wikidata community. I’m really excited to
coordinate this project and run this new experiment with you all!
If you’re interested in joining the effort, if you have questions,
suggestions for formats, etc.: feel free to use this talk page
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:WikidataCon_2021> or to reach
out to me off-list.
Cheers,
--
Léa Lacroix
Community Engagement Coordinator
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.