Hey Lane,
I think the meeting spaces idea was done actually at various Wikimania's
(At least I'm pretty confident about a few who did it in a structured way)
and after a while it was moved to the break times (which is why we have
such long breaks usually), but still in rooms on-site. I recall at least
one such meeting in Washington where we both were present. Such meetings
were also possible in Esino Lario.
I know there were some serious experiments about this (definitely in
Boston/Taiwan) on having open spaces that could be used in unconference
style. If you want to experiment with that again, it's probably good to dig
a bit into that, and gather lessons from the previous years for an optimal
experience.
Best,
Lodewijk
2016-07-07 14:27 GMT+02:00 Lane Rasberry <lane(a)bluerasberry.com>om>:
Hello,
On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Marc-Andre <marc(a)uberbox.org> wrote:
Hey Pine,
On 2016-07-06 01:44 AM, Pine W wrote:
Those of us in the US have expressed a hope that
WikiConference North
America 2017 can be united with Wikimania 2017 in Montreal.
Like many others on the list, I'm not entirely clear on what you'd like
to achieve?
The intent of having a North America meetup would be developing regional
connections in least expensive, most attractive place to bring local people
together. The problem to address is that very active Wikimedia members in
North America mostly have not met each other, and consequently, the social
networks which ought to be developing over time have not yet been
established.
Backing up - one way to improve Wikimania to meet this and other demands
is to
1. Have extra spaces for small meetups
2. Put those spaces on a public schedule which can be edited by the
community
There has never been a Wikimania to attempt this yet. Having 2-3 open
rooms which can be reserved by groups without organizer review for
semi-private meetups would be a big help. There might be demand for more
space - I do not know, but that should be a minimum.
In retrospect, many Wikimanias are in venues with extra space, and anyone
could have set up on-wiki schedules for events in those spaces. But in
practice, if the open spaces and schedule is not set up online in advance,
then it becomes very difficult to set up group meetings in a set location
close to or during the conference. Organizing at Wikimanias is sensitive
and the conference planners need a schedule under their control, and there
should be some open schedule space, and both should be very easy to find
and as close together as possible.
yours,
Certainly, any topics that would have been
welcome and appropriate at a
the WikiConference would be welcome at Wikimania, with no need of distinct
tracks?
Certainly, some meetings will have discussion topic that would be
generally less interesting to an international audience; but then remain
suitable for meetups. (Speaking of which, there will be a lot of available
space and time for both organized and impromptu meetings in Montreal that
are self-organized by the participants; both BoF sessions that are
organized in advance with scheduled time and places as well as space set
aside for unconferency impromptu meetings).
That said, if you feel the need to avoid division of audience, we do have
two full days of preconference during which it may be possible to make
additional meeting space avaliable for a more "distinct" WikiConference?
-- Coren / Marc
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Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
206.801.0814
lane(a)bluerasberry.com
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