[Foundation-l] New Board for Wikimedia Germany

[Gabe Johnson]

On 7/5/07, Christophe Henner <christophe.henner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 :)


With all this talk of national chapters, I'm getting jealous. :-) But
seriously, why don't we have a Wikimedia USA chapter? Or do we? ~~~~

-- 
Absolute Power
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