Grants:TPS/Kiril Simeonovski/Wikimania/2017/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2017!

Participant

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Kiril Simeonovski

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Macedonian Wikipedia

Outcome

Option 2: Learning Pattern: What is one useful learning pattern you can share with the Wikimedia movement?

Add a link to a learning pattern - either a new pattern you created with insights from your participation, or an existing pattern to which you added your endorsement and some significant new "considerations" or “examples” from your experience.

Wikimania 2017 for me has started several months before it actually took place because of my involvement in shaping the programme as member of the programme committee for the fifth time in six years. The work that my colleagues from the committee and I were doing before the conference was very useful in acquiring knowledge of what might happen at the conference and it also helped me improve my skills and also learn new ones. The programme of this year's Wikimania has been one of the most diverse one so far in the context of the different types of submissions and the variety of topics that were included. These efforts of the committee were greeted on the closing session of the conference, when the committee members attending the event were invited on the stage.

A group discussion on building the community that I facilitated

Before the main conference, I participated in the Learning Days that the Wikimedia Foundation staff members usually organise with the goal of improving various skills. The most productive session for me from this pre-conference was the Facilitation Skills workshop in which I learnt valuable things about the goals of facilitation, the facilitation techniques, the use of phrases for drawing out information from participants in a discussion and phrases for participation aimed at concluding a discussion. Other interesting sessions from the Learning Days full of ideas were the Community Health: Tips & Tools session in which I shared and learnt new ways to deal with four difficult challenges and the Programs Lighting Talks.

During the main conference, I was one of the moderators in the session on the topic "Growing a User Group, a roadmap for survival", which consisted of a brief introduction to all attendees and a workshop with three working groups discussing on three different topics, where I facilitated a group discussion on building the community. Of the other sessions, I was particularly interested in the research on the readership conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation researchers, which was presented in two subsequent lectures titled "Readership metrics: Trends and stories from our global traffic data" and "Why We Read Wikipedia" as well as in the regular presentation on the most interesting projects of the Wikimedia chapters titled "The Coolest Projects of Wikimedia Chapters - Be Inspired". As a representative of Shared Knowledge, I also actively participated in the CEE meet-up and the Chairpersons' meeting.

The new creation that resulted from my participation at Wikimania 2017 immediately after the end of the conference is a learning pattern on the preparation for Wikimania, which is intended to help future Wikimania participants prepare for the conference in a way that will allow them increase their learning and enrich the conference to advance the Wikimedia movement in a straightforward way. As a Wikimania participant in six occasions and a multiple scholarship recipient, I felt that my knowledge and experience should be shared with those who may need it through this learning pattern.

Connections

Every edition of Wikimania is a nice opportunity to meet with the old friends and also get introduced to new ones and Wikimania 2017 was not an exception either. I had many valuable conversations with other Wikimedians on various topics that cannot be done on-line. The session I co-moderated attracted some 20-30 attendees, while the discussion I facilitated was among a group of about 10 people.

Anything else

Thanks for the scholarship!