[Foundation-l] New Board for Wikimedia Germany

[Christophe Henner]

Hey folk,

Emmanuel Engelhart (User:Kelson) and I (Christophe Henner,
User:Schiste), attended Wikimedia Deutschland's General Assembly as
representatives of Wikimédia France (also present were representatives
of WM-CH, WM-NL and WM-PL). For the first time, Wikimedia Deutschland
decided to hold workshops on Saturday and the general assembly on
Sunday.

I will not tire you with details of the flight; I shall briefly
describe the weekend, starting Friday evening upon arrival at the
hostel. After being welcomed by members of Wikimedia Deutschland, we
took advantage of it being a Friday night to taste some local
specialties (potatoes during the meal and beer afterwards ;) ).

Saturday was, then, the day given over to the workshops. Here is the schedule:
* 11 am – 6:30 pm : Workshops (three sessions at 2 hours each)
         o 11 am: Session #1
               + Legal Basics for Wikimedia Customer Support (German) (Part 1)
               + Opportunity to visit the nearby Museum for
Communication and the exhibition "globalisation 2.0", where Wikipedia
is a topic among many others
         o 1 pm: Lunch
         o 2 pm: Session #2
               + Wikimedia, an international movement (English)
               + Legal Basics for Wikimedia Customer Support (German) (Part 2)
         o 4 pm: Coffee break
         o 4:30 pm: Session #3:
               + Wikimedia - Technical infrastructure (German)
               + Visions and Reality Checks (German)
               + Communicating Effectively about Wikimedia Projects (German)
* after 7 pm: get together (probably barbeque)

(See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mitgliederversammlung_2007/en for
more details.)

The first workshop of Saturday morning was about OTRS and started at
11 AM, but I did not go because my German-language skills are limited
to ordering food and drink, clearly not enough to talk about OTRS and
legal jargon. I went to the Museum of Communication to visit the
Globalisation 2.0 exhibition, which mentions Wikipedia. A video is
shown which is accompanied with text stating that Wikipedia started in
2000. We looked for the "edit this page" button, but can't found it.
Honestly, the museum wasn't really interesting, the exhibition being a
little too disorganized, but it did permit some discussion on how the
German-language Wikipedia works.

At noon, lunchtime, then a workshop called "Wikimedia, an
international movement". It started with a "presentation" by Delphine
Menard in which she talked a bit about the Foundation and its history.
Then the representatives of the chapters got up and gave quick
overviews of them.

What followed were discussions between the members on the chapters'
respective projects and problems and the things they wish to improve
and how they should go about improving them. A wish to improve
communication between chapters was expressed, as well as the creation
of joint projects.

The workshop was quite interesting, but really too short. I hope we'll
have the occasion to repeat this experience or improve upon it. ;)

After the afternoon workshops, the weather being nice, we all ate
outside and barbecued. A very nice time was had by all. I, for one,
finished the finished on the banks of the Main with many other
wikimedians.

The following day was rather quiet. The general assembly was held in
the afternoon. I did not attend it as I had to take the plane back
home.

I found the idea of holding the general assembly on a Sunday and
workshops the day before excellent. I hope the chapters will copy this
idea for their general assemblies. It enables people to work, learn
and perhaps most importantly, develop links with the other attendees.

There we are, I think I have summed things up. I have surely forgotten
a few things, but the weekend was quite full and rich for me. It was
an experience I would gladly repeat. I have naught else to say but
thank Nina for the organization, as well as the Wikimedia Deutschland
members who invited us.

Have a good day,
schiste / Christophe Henner

PS: Thanks to Arria who have made the translation of this report :)