Yes, we were thinking more along the lines of an
expanded preconference
with greater regional opportunities, rather than a separate track during
the actual Wikimania.
Thanks,
Pharos
On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 1:11 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.ayers(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Or -- my favorite solution -- leaving LOTS of
time in the schedule for
meetups and discussion tracks, so that all kinds of groups -- including
those interested specifically in North America-related issues (like
building a coalition of NA usergroups, planning future conferences, doing
NA-specific outreach or lobbying) can meet to discuss such things.
We've had discussion time historically at most Wikimanias but I think
we can always leave more time in the schedule for this kind of meetup.
Additionally a preconference day could work too, when multiple thematic
tracks could be scheduled (lots of people have historically asked for
preconferences, not just the hackers -- everyone from researchers to
librarians to glam outreach coordinators to affiliates have considered it
in the past).
(Of course, if I was in charge of the schedule I would probably get rid
of individual presentations altogether during Wikimania, and just have
panels/lightning talks/discussions. Best not to put me in charge of the
schedule! :)
-- Phoebe
On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 1:00 PM, Leila Zia <leila(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hi Pine,
>
> Co-located events in conferences work well if the event that is
> co-located with the main conference attracts a new audience that the main
> conference doesn't usually get by default. In the case of Wikimania and
> WikiConference North America, I can see a lot of overlap based on the last
> couple of years' schedules. This will result in what Lodewijk is concerned
> about: splitting the potential audience in smaller groups while they can
> benefit from getting in one room. Also, an already hard task of scheduling
> events will become even harder: For example, we need to worry about not
> scheduling two GLAM events at the same time, one focusing on North America
> and the other a general/global event.
>
> This being said, I understand that you want to be mindful of the cost
> and time spent for these conferences. My suggestion would be for you to
> consider a 1-2 day event pre/post Wikimania focused on North America.
>
> Best,
> Leila
>
> Leila Zia
> Research Scientist
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 1:43 AM, Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Pine,
>>
>> Thanks for sharing your thought process. I can see why you identify a
>> topical overlap between Wikimania in North America and the North American
>> WikiConference. I also see why those topics should be part of the programme
>> at Wikimania - I don't expect much disagreement in that field. And whatever
>> you do, it will be.
>>
>> The question is, why would you want to organise it in a special
>> 'track' beyond a grouping of similar topics - which seems overly formal
and
>> separatist. There's an overlap between all topics that you mention, and I
>> wouldn't see either why there should be a 'legal track', 'glam
track' etc.
>> Every 'regional topic' will likely also fall under Nature, Glam,
>> Technology, Law, Education or one of the other topical groupings.
>>
>> Having a 'track' in a formal way, is much more heavy than grouping
>> topics that are related, together. To me it would suggest that 1) North
>> Americans can't learn from projects from elsewhere (I think the opposite is
>> true) and 2) Non-North Americans should not attend those presentations
>> (which I also think would be quite untrue).
>>
>> The question is what you're trying to accomplish. I would be a fan of
>> rather mingling geographies, rather than separating them out, unless you
>> have a strong reason to do otherwise. It makes more sense to me to have
>> three presentations about education grouped together where they come from
>> different regions, with different approaches than to have three
>> presentations about North America on a variety of topics grouped together.
>> I would find it even more odd to have a whole track dedicated to a region -
>> and it would be without precedent (I think).
>>
>> Best,
>> Lodewijk
>>
>> 2016-07-06 9:06 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>om>:
>>
>>> I'm fine with multiple language tracks (most likely including French
>>> and Spanish).
>>>
>>> The reason for a geographic track (in this case, North America) is
>>> that otherwise we'd be having a separate conference that served this
>>> purpose. I'm sure that many of us in North America will want to attend
>>> tracks on subjects other than geographic interest (technology, research,
>>> GLAM, STEM, law, education, outreach, community health, and governance come
>>> to mind), so there will be substantial benefit in effectively co-locating
>>> the conferences. My guess is that this can be done in a way that is a net
>>> positive for all. For example, the scholarship budget that would otherwise
>>> be requested for a separate WikiConference North America 2017 could instead
>>> be used to facilitate increased attendance by North Americans in Montreal,
>>> which I think would have the benefit of increasing attendance at Wikimania,
>>> and at the same time we would eliminate the need to find a time and venue
>>> for a separate conference with separate expenses.
>>>
>>> Pine
>>> On Jul 5, 2016 23:36, "Lodewijk"
<lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hey pine,
>>>>
>>>> As most people will be able to confirm, having a bigger presence of
>>>> regional topics is likely to happen anyway in any Wikimania. When
Wikimania
>>>> is in Asia, you'll see more Asian speakers, and when it's in
Europe, more
>>>> Europeans.
>>>>
>>>> Separate and successful tracks have been organised before, to the
>>>> best of my knowledge, in three ways: 1) language tracks - which were
>>>> separate for very practical reasons (translations). 2) type-of-session
>>>> tracks - which again are very practical (different needs for a
discussion
>>>> than for a presentation) and 3) A thematic track - but that was often
>>>> organised like a type of side conference (with the US govt in 2012, with
>>>> WikiSym and the hackathon).
>>>>
>>>> To be honest, I don't see right away why 'North American
regional
>>>> and local subjects' would require such track and even more why it
would
>>>> require a special committee. It will find its way in the programme, and
>>>> it's not like non-Americans won't enjoy those topics per se. Why
try to
>>>> separate it from the rest of the programme? In general I'm no big fan
of
>>>> splitting up the programme into smaller pieces too much - it leaves too
>>>> much opportunity for good proposals to fall between the cracks and get
>>>> lost. And it gets confusing easily to the participants.
>>>>
>>>> Now I *do* see an added value for a French language track... but I
>>>> guess that'll be of little use to you.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Lodewijk
>>>>
>>>> 2016-07-06 7:44 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>om>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Wikimania folks (Ellie and the Montreal organizers in
>>>>> particular),
>>>>>
>>>>> Those of us in the US have expressed a hope that WikiConference
>>>>> North America 2017 can be united with Wikimania 2017 in Montreal.
This
>>>>> would likely lead to economies of scale and reduced total cost, in
terms of
>>>>> both time and money, for what would otherwise be separate
conferences.
>>>>>
>>>>> I would like to ask if WMF and the Montreal organizers would be
>>>>> willing and able to have some tracks at that conference dedicated to
North
>>>>> American regional and local subjects, perhaps coordinated by a
dedicated
>>>>> North America program committee. I foresee a modest increase in
attendance
>>>>> at Wikimania 2017, and decreases in personal and WMF costs, if we can
make
>>>>> what would otherwise be separate conferences happen harmoniously.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks, and I hope to see you in Montreal next year.
>>>>>
>>>>> Pine
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimania-l mailing list
>>>>> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimania-l mailing list
>>>> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wikimania-l mailing list
>>> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimania-l mailing list
>> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-l mailing list
> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
>
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org