While I concur with Coren’s conclusion, I’ll try to neutrally report on the
events at Wikimania which led to this result. :)
Full disclosure: I’m a fan of Wikimania being yearly, and was asked to
serve on the Wikimania Committee after Esino Lario. I was also the main
moderator of the Wikimania 2016 session on the “Future of Wikimania.” These
views are my own, and not anything official from the committee.
Background: Many folks (I’d say a majority) who I talked to in Esino Lario
early in the conference thought that the decision to do Wikimania every
other year was a done deal, as a result of the IdeaLab consultation. I told
them that might not necessarily be so. The vote was close, not particularly
widely known, and we could still be heard. Chris Schilling from the WMF,
who oversaw the Idealab consultation, sought me out specifically at the
start of the conference and to my delight, said that the consultation was
“just another data point,” and that it was by no means the final word on
things. Obviously, this was good news to people who were interested in
keeping a yearly Wikimania.
I was scheduled to moderate the “Future of Wikimania” discussion session
[1] at the very end of the conference, and encouraged people to let their
views be heard. It was under these conditions that we entered into the
final discussion room and I asked Chris Schilling to give an opening
statement to the room. Most people were happy to hear him say that it was
“just another data point.” During the discussion, there was overwhelming
support to keep Wikimania going every year, which is not a surprise
considering this was *at* Wikimania. I encourage folks to peruse the
Etherpad notes, which are quite extensive and expertly done by several
folks there.
Some views I’d highlight:
- Having yearly Wikimania is important to keep the momentum of the movement
going, according to many
- A case for cancelling yearly Wikimania was to encourage/fund regional
meetups. However, there is no guarantee that those regional meetups would
actually take place, or that WMF would necessarily take the money saved
from Wikimania to fund them. Some folks from Asia specifically said that
there is weaker linguistic, cultural and geographic synergy for an “Asian”
conference like there is in Europe and Africa, which is why it has been
hard to do one.
- One person noted that one trip to Wikimania served the same role as
several international trips to get the same benefit from meeting other
Wikimedians/developers, so there are indeed cost efficiencies in having a
central conference.
Thanks.
[1]
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discussions/The_future_of_Wikimania
[2]
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Wikimania2016-discussion7b
-Andrew Lih
Associate professor of journalism, American University
Email: andrew(a)andrewlih.com
WEB:
http://www.andrewlih.com
BOOK: The Wikipedia Revolution:
http://www.wikipediarevolution.com
PROJECT: Wiki Makes Video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wiki_Makes_Video
On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 10:18 AM, Marc-Andre <marc(a)uberbox.org> wrote:
On 2016-07-08 10:01 AM, Chris Keating wrote:
Interestingly, I couldn't see any sign of the
Committee's decision being
informed by the WMF's consultation on the future of Wikimania, or anyone
from the WMF's community engagement department being present.
Wikimania is, and always was, a community led and organized event. The
WMF, as its traditional biggest sponsor[1], has a great deal of influence
in the matter - but ultimately no decision power beyond "fund and resource
or not".
The committee's decision has indeed taken into account the consultation
you refer to - as well as the roundtable discussion on the "Future of
Wikimania" that took place earlier[2]. Our evaluation, which is reflected
in that resolution, is that the consultation was clearly flawed and that
its conclusion does not reflect consensus - neither of the community
members who organize nor of those who attend Wikimania.
-- Coren / Marc
[1] Although "underwrite" might be a better term - the WMF has pretty much
shouldered the vast majority of the costs and given the most logistical
support year in and year out.
[2] Where the consensus was to overwhelmingly reject that consultation's
conclusion in favor or continuing with Wikimania as a yearly even given its
irreplaceable role in our movement.
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