Grants:TPS/Zabien/EMWCon Spring 2018

This Wikimedia Participation Support request was funded in the fiscal year 2014-15. A report is available.

statusfunded

Travel & Participation Support

EMWCon Spring 2018

summaryHolding a beginners' training workshop, improve documentation and training material, participate in MWStakeholders' Group discussions

event locationHouston, TX, USA

event websitehttps://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/EMWCon_Spring_2018

event date(s)March 21-23 2018

amount requested2274.35 USD

home countryVienna, Austria

creator• Zabien

submitted on16:02, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

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Proposed participation

I work with MediaWiki for a couple of years now. Since then, I have attended 4 Semantic MediaWiki conferences and engaged in discussions there. I always helped beginners learning to use MediaWiki to become power users, making use of templates, forms, ontologies etc. I truly believe that mastering a field has something to do with being in a master-scholar relationship with others. Learning and teaching are part of the same process.

At the conference in Houston, I would like to offer Semantic MediaWiki training for beginners (and medium advanced) users. The topics and talks at this conference are usually addressed at proficient users, since they usually constitute the major attendance group. However, it is likewise important to approach novice users and to attract them with an attractive program. New users are coming every year and they are coming back not the least due to the warm and social welcoming they received, the helpful hands they were offered. Since the community of users using MediaWiki in business contexts is gradually expanding, but at this point still easy to overlook (at least of users participating in the community), there is an even higher need to connect.

A first ontology

The idea is to develop one’s own working ontology in the wiki – within minutes, without having to google “ontology” ever. MediaWiki shall be easily approachable, usable, non-tech-friendly. I will be working with a newly developed (and open sourced) ontology for this purpose. It shall be translated into "dummy-friendly" language. Wikitext is magic for non-developers that are keen on learning some code. MediaWiki users want to set up their own wiki, work autonomously and develop for their needs, while staying independent from software companies' feature realisations. Wiki's strengths!

Together with the conference participants, we will be working on and improving this ontology, to make it easy to use for everybody.

About me

I offer consulting services around MediaWiki in Vienna, Austria. I am part of the MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group, part of the Datencockpit, offering an Open Source solution for the new European GDPR on basis of MediaWiki.

I am writing my (second) master thesis this spring term in Applied Knowledge Management at FH Burgenland (status: approved exposé) and will include analysis and case study parts. To gain overseas insight into working with wikis will be valuable input for my work. I will try to schedule 1-2 research interviews during my stay.

The training at EMWCon

Program of EMWCon Spring 2018, (last section Create Camp, training).

See also:

• Semantic Forms & Family (Slideshare) (user training at SMWCon Fall 2016)

Goal and expected impact

• The goal of my presentation and overall participation at the conference is to give novice users a good starting point in their work with MediaWiki. I would like to share my experience and collect questions from new users. This shall continually improve the on-boarding experience in the future.
• Tutorials and help in German are rudimentary. In Europe, with Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, as well as many German speakers in adjacent countries, German is an important language for training material. For many users, following technical/processural instructions in English is hard and impairing the user experience.
• Experiences from this conference can be integrated into the overall technical documentation. Also, participation around this topic in the MWStakeholders' Group is encouraged.
• I would also like to bring the idea of "country ambassadors" forward with the MWStakeholders' Group.

Budget breakdown

• Flight Vienna – Houston roundtrip: USD 1100
• Accommodation: on average USD 125 per night x 6 nights = USD 750
• event registration: 424.35 USD

= 2274.35 USD

Endorsements

• As the general chair of EMWCon and someone who has seen Sabine in action before, I'd like to see this get funded. EMWCon will benefit from Sabine's training. ☠MarkAHershberger☢(talk)☣ 14:51, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
• Sabine's knowledge and expertise would be beneficial. Yaron Koren (talk) 15:32, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
• Sabine's tutorials will be an important part of the program that will, as she mentions, aid in retention of new conference attendees. I strongly support her participation. CCicalese (WMF) (talk) 16:15, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
• Sabine's been around in the 3rd party MediaWiki community quite a while, providing valuable insights and ideas. -Mglaser (talk) 17:49, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
• Sabine's deep understanding of MediaWiki as enterprise knowlege management system will be of highest value to the EMWCon. Krabina (talk) 20:09, 5 February 2018 (UTC)