Talk:Wikimania

You can have look on Talk:Wikimania 2005 overview.

About this page

I'm trying build a comprehensive historical overview of wikimanias past & present -- please add relevant information if you know it. Thanks! -- phoebe 03:39, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Wikimania Handbook

Similarly, a handbook for running Wikimania, from the end of a bid and resulting volunteer and local interest (and preliminary press) to the crunch period leading up to a successful conference. 66.31.29.221 01:37, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikimania Committee

A discussion for a Wikimania Committee is linked above. Please contribute. Seddon 05:35, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Sub-pages

I find the sub-pages relating to Wikimania confusing, and it seems that structurally, they are redundant of the category system. For instance, I would like to be able to link to Wikimania Jury without creating a redlink. A redirect seems like it would address the symptom more than the problem. Any objections if I move these pages to their more natural titles, and let the category system keep track of what belongs with what? -Pete F 21:34, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Done -- I addressed this issue in most cases (moreso with the recent Wikimania pages). Wikimania jury (note lower case "j") is no longer a red link. -Pete F (talk) 02:46, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for all the quiet work you've put into curating and improving the Wikimania mes--^H^H^Hpages! :) Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 04:49, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for noticing Asaf! I'm hoping to make it easier for everyone to navigate and find the information they need, whether they're a bidding team, jury member, media source curious about Wikimania…etc.

There's some even more important quiet work going on right now though -- I've noticed User:Harej is putting some effort into the Wikimania Handbook. I'm thinking some sort of barnstar might be in order… -Pete F (talk) 16:19, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

À propos des critères pour le choix des lieux d'organisation des rencontres Wikimania

Je pense qu'il serait à l'avenir souhaitable qu'un projet aussi humaniste que Wikimédia ait l'ambition de choisir ses lieux d'événements non pas seulement en fonction de leurs facilités balnéaires, mais aussi en fonction de critères tels que : le respect des droits de l'homme et des minorités, le respect de certaines valeurs démocratiques, la corruption régnant dans le pays... Il faut absolument intégrer ces éléments aux critères de sélection. Faire des conférences dans un pays où des gens meurent sous les balles pour certains, ou dans dans un pays où certains se gaveraient pendant que d'autres crèveraient de faim, c'est assez déconcertant, inconvenant, indécent :-/ 78.250.243.101 22:25, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Red link

Wikimania 2012 lessons is a red link, I'm reporting it because I am not sure it is meant to be like this. --Elitre (talk) 12:18, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Two years to plan and implement Wikimania

Wikimania Esino Lario bid is proposing now in 2014 an event for 2016. Two years time would allow our event to manage properly risks, but it would obviously be also a change in the way Wikimania is planned and organized with a series of positive and negative implications. --iopensa (talk) 18:41, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

+1 (Seen on Wikimedia Forum feeds; thanks for wide distribution.) We're not in 2006 any longer. Nowadays, not only Wikimania is more complex, but Wikimedia programs are expected to meet a higher standard of planning:

• mid-term strategic planning, annual planning, budgeting are heavily impacted by such a big program as running a Wikimania;
• two years of programmatic results are now required to even start considering asking being trusted with stable recognition (and then perhaps annual grants);
• not to speak of reporting of course, which takes time and is needed by the next organising team;
• the interaction between the organisational side of Wikimania, the program, scholarships is tricky and needs to be carefully put together in advance (just think of the 6 months that can be needed for visa of some participants), otherwise we'll exclude some valuable volunteers or otherwise fail to be on par with our increasingly challenging strategy goals.

We can no longer afford organising Wikimania on the whim of a few weeks or months. --Nemo 19:10, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Allowing two years to organise an event like Wikimania - which has attracted attendees by the hundreds year after year - seems a logical thing to do. — foxj 19:20, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

I think it is appropriate to pick the winner much sooner so they have a longer period to prepare everything. This will allow more of the preparation tasks to be undertaken by volunteers rather than using donor-funded staff. John Vandenberg (talk) 20:49, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

I'd worry about whether the volunteer teams behind such bids can be sustained over the course of 2 years of planning - which is a really long time! If this can be done, then that would be great though. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 21:16, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

A large event of this nature requires a large venue. Major venues often have to be booked over a year in advance. Two year planning is very normal in international conferences for this reason. Regarding volunteer teams over a long period, I note that with a two-year cycle, it does not increase the overall amount of work to be done -- there will be periods in the two years when nothing much needs to be done and other periods which will be just as intensive as with a one-year cycle. Kerry Raymond (talk) 23:49, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

You can find other comments also on the Wikimania mailing list thread. --iopensa (talk) 08:59, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

I think that two years is a good idea, but if 24 months seems difficult for some reason, then let's try adding at least a few months to the lead time. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:26, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Two years would make organization easier but is very long for volunteers. What about pushing the deadline from 6 months to make it somewhere in between ? Anthere (talk)

I understand the problem of keeping volunteers active; it is a good point. At the same time - for fundraising and risk managements - adding six months doesn't change efficiently. Below you find how i looked at it (please note that I calculated for fundraising at least 6 months; not in the current system because deadlines for project applications are often September-October and March-May or the beginning of the year). --iopensa (talk) 11:46, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

'	Current system 1 year	Possibility 1.5 year	Possibility 2 years
December 2013			Jury selected and opening of the biding process
January 2014
February 2014
March 2014			Bidding ends
April 2014			Decision
May 2014			25
June 2014		Jury selected and opening of the biding process	24
July 2014			23
August 2014			22 (event)
September 2014		Bidding ends	21
October 2014		Decision	20
November 2014		19	19
December 2014	Jury selected and opening of the biding process	18	18 (expected answer from fundraising and possibility to select another location)
January 2015		17	17
February 2015		16	16
March 2015	Bidding ends	15	15
April 2015	Decision	14	14
May 2015	13	13 (expected answer from fundraising)	13
June 2015	12	12	12
July 2015	11	11	11
August 2015	10 (event)	10 (event)	10 (event)
September 2015	9	9	9
October 2015	8	8	8
November 2015	7	7	7
December 2015	6	6	6
January 2016	5	5	5
February 2016	4	4	4
March 2016	3 (expected answer from fundraising)	3	3
April 2016	2	2	2
May 2016	1	1	1
June 2016	Event	Event	Event
July 2016	Event	Event	Event
August 2016	Event	Event	Event

Strategic review

There seems to be some prospect of a strategic review of Wikimania [1]. I suggest that details and a timeline could profitably be posted at this page. It would help to publish the terms of reference, the deliverables and the customer. It would also help to publish the stakeholder mapping and arrangements for the engagement with the various parts of the community involved. Rogol Domedonfors (talk) 21:07, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

A good suggestion. Wikimania is also an opportunity to involve those who are currently outside the movement. For Montreal we at WPMEDF have invited speakers from PAHO, the CDC, and the NIH. We had someone from the WHO attend in 2012 which turned into a Wikipedian in Residence their. And in London had people from the NHS. People from Cochrane have attended for a few years now. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:23, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Redesign

Those subpages Wikimania 2016, Wikimania 2017, Wikimania 2018, Wikimania 2019 etc. needs some redesigning. They looks very messy IMO. There are too many banners and logos and they are not very consistent. Stryn (talk) 20:05, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Online meeting template

I suggest use an "online meeting template" for Wikimania. Perhaps I can give an example (with topic, date and time and basic parameters).BoldLuis (talk) 09:24, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

This was a good idea, BoldLuis, have you done this for other events? –SJ talk 

I have found Template:Online event. BoldLuis (talk) 08:23, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

Open source toolkit for events

Let's make Wikimania a flagship example of an open community event. Relying on a fully open stack, from program review and registration to streaming and online participation. A number of other similarly-sized networks already do this; but I can't think of one that explicitly helps support and maintain their stack. –SJ talk  19:35, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Components

Components we use most years (for Wikimania and other large events):

• Program organization: submissions and reviews
• Party planning: performances and entertainment; tools for photo walks, contests, collective games
• Program scheduling + presentation: Fixed schedule, collaborative real-time unconference + hackathon schedules

  Bonus: decentralized calendar combining many regional events

• Virtual and in-person presentation experience: A/V, recording, streaming, archiving
• Attendee experience: Chat and Q&A, Localization (subtitles, real-time translation, chat translation), Real-time notetaking
• Crossovers: inviting people on stage, open mics, &c (BBB is good at this)

  Bonus: ability to start an open-space session anywhere / anytime and turn on/off recording

• Registration: scheduling, payments, ticketing

  Bonus: Travel + housing coordination

  Bonus: Scholarship coordination

• In-person details: badge printing, sign templates, event kit
• Swag: swag generation, pop-up storefront
• Media: media kit template

• Support network: translators, designers, hosting for any of the above tools that have non-trivial needs, emcees, tour guides

Tools community groups currently use: (and their limitations)

• Overall event-hosting
  1. BigBlueButton
  2. Vircadia
  3. Tivoli (VR)
• Videoconf
  1. Jitsi
• Note-taking
  1. Etherpad
  2. MediaWiki
• Scheduling + online programs
  1. MediaWiki events (calendar, new namespace*)
  2. Unhangout

Toolchains of other orgs:

• MozFest: ?
• WordPress / WordCamp:
• LWN: BBB

2023 hosts + timeline?

Dear members of the Wikimania Committee ( @Phoebe, Fuzheado, Deror avi, Anthere, ProtoplasmaKid, EdSaperia, Exec8, and Eric Luth (WMSE): ) -- revisiting iopensa's thoughts above on how far out to schedule, and wondering about the current plans -- if we're returning to in-person (and even if we're not!) might we have a discussion on-wiki about 2023 hosts, ideas, timeline? I'd love to see us return to having potential hosts say a few words at the preceding Wikimania ... or some suitable substitute this year :) –SJ talk  20:24, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

Oh, actually, we have already been working on that... there should be an announcement very soon. Anthere (talk) 13:56, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Yes, we will make the announcement soon. The next host might have left some bread crumbs on the floor so there might be clues. --Exec8 (talk) 15:08, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 March 2024

under "future wikimanias": where to hold the conference is based on proposals that are vetted by the 2601:646:897F:9F20:2DAD:92B6:4A4C:3081 00:32, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Done. * Pppery * _{it has begun} 05:12, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Wikimania in relation to future affiliates meetings

The 2024 Wikimedia Summit was designed to be "the last of its kind" given that the Movement Charter (MC) process is finishing. The MC may result in a very different type of need for in-person meetings for affiliates and/or a Global Council, including rotating the meeting to different places.

The obvious parallel to this is Wikimania, which is the largest international gathering of Wikimedians, and also has a geographical rotation in its design. Therefore, I wanted to note the conversations happening in relation to this, and how the Wikimania Steering Committee has offered to collaborate in thinking about how we might work together on this.

• Announcement from Wikimedia Summit, and the working group of affiliates: Wikimedia_Summit_2024#Purpose_2

• Discussion about how Wikimania Steering Committee might work with this effort: Talk:Future_of_Affiliate_Gatherings#Comment_on_"Discussing_the_future_of_global_affiliate_gatherings"

Fuzheado (talk) 13:10, 24 April 2024 (UTC)