[Wikimedia-l] Iberoconf 2012

[Osmar Valdebenito]

(sorry for cross-posting)


Hi,



In the past few days, representatives of different Wikimedia chapters and
working groups met in Santiago de Chile for the Second Ibero-American
Wikimedia Summit (also known as Iberoconf). This event took place between
June 1st and 3rd at the DUOC UC Institute – Campus Alonso Ovalle, with two
representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Italy,
Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela, and for the first time,
guests from Panama and Peru.



The event was an incredible opportunity for the different groups to share
their experiences from a local and regional perspective and articulate a
common framework for future projects in Ibero America. The use of the
native language of all the participants instead of a foreign language as it
happens in most of Wikimedia events was a



Here is a summary of the main topics of the summit:


   - Recommendations for the creation and development of Wikimedia chapters.
   - Experience of Brazilian and Mexican wikipedians at universities.
   - Discussion on development of projects in indigenous languages.
   - Best practices for grant making , accountability and GLAM projects.
   - Workshop of external communication and social media.
   - Workshop of “Wiki Loves Monument”

In the following days, we expect to release an extended summary of the
event in Meta, and records of the sessions and photos.  Also, every chapter
and working group will upload the slides of their “State of the Chapter”;
some of them are already available at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Presentaciones_en_el_Encuentro_Wikimedia_Iberoamericano_2012



I would like to thank to the Wikimedia Foundation for funding this project
and their representative at the meeting (Samuel Klein as part of the Board
and Matthew Roth as part of the Staff) because their valuable and really
helpful participation at the sessions.  The same to Délphine Menard, who
came as a guest in representation of Wikimedia Deutschland. Thanks also for
all the participants, -some of them even flew for more than 24 hours, and
for those that voted our bid past March.



But, more important, I want to thank to all the members of Wikimedia Chile
that helped to organize this event. We bid in February mainly as a joke and
now we are finally resting after organizing such a big event. It was a
great opportunity to bring closer our members and learn about event
organization. To Juan David, Lily, Daniel, Dennis, Eduardo, Sarah, Rocío
and Marco, thank you!



I’m really happy with this Ibero-American Wikimedia Summit, which is
becoming one of our traditions as a movement and as an example for regional
cooperation activities. We expect anxiously next summit in 2013 and, as a
general recommendation, I public encourage our fellow chapters to start
ambitious projects like this one.



Kind regards,

Osmar Valdebenito Gaete

Presidente de Wikimedia Chile

http://www.wikimediachile.cl