Talk:Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017/Bids

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) in topic Committee decision made

This is a talk page to discuss bids for organizing Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017 and is a relevant page for discussion about this bidding process in general, as well as posing questions and comments and presenting answers related to each and every application in particular.

Community consultation and discussion for the bids will officially take place after submission of all applications from 15th to 25th of September 2016.

Questions and comments about bidding process edit

Dear User:Asaf (WMF), User:AWang (WMF), User:Mjohnson (WMF) (sorry if I've pinged the wrong people or missed someone) - please be aware that these bids exist and that the public consultation starts now. This is also of interest to you User:NTymkiv (WMF). Sincerely, Wittylama (talk) 21:21, 15 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

It's @KHarold (WMF):, who's responsible for the Conference grant program, I suppose. --Cornelius Kibelka (WMDE) (talk) 08:33, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

Questions and Answers for Application #1: edit

  • Thank you for your comprehensive application User:Polimerek and WM-PL. Your application mentions "audio and video streams" in the summary section. Can you clarify that this means that you intend to provide *live* streaming of the presentations? Can you indicate if the venue has previously facilitated this in their conference centre as it is something that is often promised in wikimedia conferences (e.g. wikimania) but rarely (ever?) achieved. Wittylama (talk) 21:12, 15 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • @Wittylama: In addition to what Natalia wrote above, the manager of the venue told me that the venue itself does not have experience with video transmission; some conferences they organised did have video streaming, but it was arranged by the organisers themselves, not by the venue. They also have a video agency they could recommend should we need it. Anyway, we will make sure that the infrastructure handles it should we decide to offer live video streaming after all. From our experience all conference venues always assure us that their internet connection is great, but things usually look a tad different when 100+ wikimedians show up with laptops. Which is why we plan to arrange our own WiFi network at the venue, independent of the WiFi they have there. Historically we had good cooperation with large telecoms here in Poland (Play sponsored the 10th Birthday of Wikipedia, Netia sponsored our 2009 conference, TK Telekom was the main sponsor of the 2008 conference, there's more IT companies on our Donors page), so we'll try to ask them for help (and sponsorship). But it's a little to early too talk about that. Halibutt (talk) 09:22, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • It's not quite clear to me if you are planning to split up accommodation and book rooms in three hotels or if you're currently looking at three hotels and then deciding to book all the rooms in one of them. Could you please clarify that? Best, Braveheart (talk) 08:14, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
No, we have offers from 3 hotels - but all of them for 100 beds. So we will choose one of those hotels and only one. All 3 of them are large - they have more than 300 beds each. Polimerek (talk) 08:53, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
To clarify, we're talking twin rooms here, not double rooms or a mixture of both. :) Halibutt (talk) 09:20, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for the clarification and the the quick answers :-) Braveheart (talk) 19:58, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Yes - Actually the venue in POLIN can be hired for 9-18 or 9-22 - but 9-18 option costs 6 000 PLN per day and 9-22 costs 12 000 PLN per day - therefore we have chosen 9-18 option + room in Hotel for late evening. It is still possible to hire POLIN with 22 option for one or 2 days anyway. There is also option to discuss with POLIN discount - but they are willing to discuss this seriously after we will be sure we really organize the conference, therefore we placed the cost we know at the moment. We have also decided to organize 3rh day in hotel - as it would be very inconvenient for participants to walk to POLIN with their luggage or come back and forth to POLIN in order to check-out. Polimerek (talk) 10:53, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • Dear WM PL team, thank you for taking your time for completing your bid! I see that you suggest that you see the program emphasis be on practical discussions, to which I generally agree with, but I also feel that for Wikimedia meetings and especially for CEE meeting in particular, off-program discussions (so to say Bochka sessions / off-wiki toolset implementation, but as well other evening events like WikiDojo) are essentially important in building and maintaining the wonderful network we have. As a result I would like you to describe in more detail the possibilities you are creating for off-program evening time discussions and events (e.g. where could be WikiDojo held, where would be the space for GLAM or education team meetings and other meet-ups etc.). I thank you for your kind attention and look forward to your answer! Best regards, --Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) (talk) 10:58, 17 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Regarding night sessions we suggest to have them rather in hotel than in POLIN, although it is also possible to have it in POLIN (but expensive). All 3 hotels we consider have at least 2 conference rooms, so it is possible to organize 2 parallel evening session if needed. Our idea is to combine this with dinner - I mean just to buy pizza or other take-away meals and provide it during the sessions. Or the other idea - eat dinner first provided in "Swedish table style" and then have sessions in hotel. Regarding "Bochka" style evening - the Sunday dinner and Friday after party are meant to be like that. The restaurants we consider are very informal ones. Rather like students clubs than 4-star restaurants. We can send to you the list of them if needed. Polimerek (talk) 21:38, 17 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
As we calculated, We have now 33 user-groups and chapters in the region. Assuming that there will be 2 scholars from each one - there are 66 scholars. Then some chapters (lets count 5 of them) - will send additional people on their own expense (+ 2 on average) = +10. Then WMF usually sends around 5 people, and there are some invited speakers not from WMF (+3), then there will be 11 people of core organizing team + around 5 of other volunteers helping in organization. So it gives: 66+10+5+3+11+5 = 100. So, 100 is kind of maximum, realistic estimation. Of course not all organizing team will sleep in hotel, but for sure it all needs to be taken into account regarding food, seats etc. Polimerek (talk) 11:20, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for your clarification! Cheers, --Cornelius Kibelka (WMDE) (talk) 11:33, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • Hello :-)! I am impressed with the bid, with the number of people who will participate at the organisation and the experience of the team. Apart from the questions that I asked to both bidders I have one only for you: why is the cost of travel for domestic participants 0? Will Wikimedia Polska pay for that? --Lord Bumbury (talk) 16:06, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Yes - Wikimedia Polska is about to cover all costs of organizing team and travels of Polish participants. It is hard to predict how much it might be - but It shouldn't be too much as vast majority of us are located or work in Warsaw. My rough estimation is that it might be no more than 2000 PLN - as it is shown in the our bid tables and probably it is more than enough. Polimerek (talk) 10:22, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

Questions and Answers for Application #2: edit


  • Can you elaborate on what you mean by "Innovative form of individual reporting" that is mentioned in the summary section? Wittylama (talk) 21:01, 15 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
    Vojta will say more about it soon.--Jagro (talk) 16:03, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
    Hi Wittylama, we feel that individual reporting is weak - not enough people from local communities can learn about the outcomes of the conference. This is often because 1) attendees do not have enough time to write reports and 2) reports are boring to read or they are not adequately distributed through conventional Wikimedia channels in corresponding languages. We would like to shoot short 2-3 minute video-summaries during the last conference day with one attendee per country because we think that such videos would attract much bigger audience than long boring written reports (which are not completely useless but generally serve to the few who have deeper interest in the conference). People would say in their language of choice what the program of the conference was, what they learned or what are the outcomes. This is just one of the innovations showing the organizing team has put together some real thoughts during the at least 6 months we have been preparing this program. --Vojtěch Dostál (talk) 19:53, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply


  • Can you clarify how many people you expect to participate in this event? For your 'travel' budget you refer to 70 'domestic' and 60 'international' travellers (130 in total), but your accommodation budget refers to 70 people for 'hotel stay' and 'catering'. Wittylama (talk) 09:47, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
    We expected 70 participants: 60 from different countries and 10 from Czech Republic. Domestic travel for 70 people means city transportation (from the airport/train station) for everyone; domestic travels from different Czech cities for 10 participants are included in 4.1 and funded by WMCZ. --Jagro (talk) 16:03, 16 September 2016 (UTC)Reply


  • Dear WM CZ team, thank you for taking your time for completing your bid! I see that you have planned evening events for off-program activities and I do believe that for Wikimedia meetings and especially for CEE meeting in particular, off-program discussions (so to say Bochka sessions / off-wiki toolset implementation, but as well other evening events like WikiDojo) are essentially important in building and maintaining the wonderful network we have. As a result I would like you to describe in more detail the possibilities you are creating for off-program evening time discussions and events (e.g. where could be WikiDojo held, where would be the space for GLAM or education team meetings and other meet-ups, is there alternative space created for people who do not want to participate in karaoke evening etc.). I thank you for your kind attention and look forward to your answer! Best regards, --Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) (talk) 11:00, 17 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Hi Kaarel, for the evening events we are planning three kinds of activities:
  • official for those, who are into a little bit more serious kinds of spending time: these will take place in small lounge and will take place every day and include WikiDojo, Hackatons etc.
  • funny for those, who prefer a little bit less serious spending their conference evenings: talking with glass of beer, singing karaoke; organized karaoke (restaurant reserved for us) will take place only one night
  • exploring for those who wants to see more from Prague and want to explore the citylife: these people can join one of the night activities outside (guided walk with a homeless person, beer tasting etc.), these we will try to put on the last day, because they are more relaxing.
The point of these activities is to build a relationships between the people and help them to spend their time together in a way that they like, not split people into small (mostly local community based) groups which will appear when they will be no organized program; because of this we want to provide more kinds of activities, which will suites to everyone. And because the conference program will include three full days, there will be lot of time for official meetups in the main (afternoon) program. --Jagro (talk) 02:16, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply


  • I see that you have listed facilitators under expenses as paid staff. Can you expand on this, what kind of people will take these positions? Does this mean you were not satisfied with volunteer facilitators in Dilijan and Voore? Thank you. It may seem that Polish proposal is more visually polished (sic!), but I see both proposals quite equal. --Papuass (talk) 09:39, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • I support strongly this question. Given our experience with volunteering facilitators during recent years I would consider paid facilitators a waste of money. Moreover it would demotivate volunteers, who felt appreciated by being given the opportunity to facilitate sessions in the past. --Lord Bumbury (talk) 16:06, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Vojtěch will answer the question mere in detail today, it is a little bit misunderstanding, of course we do not want to hire facilitators instead of our wonderful facilitators from the community. ;)--Jagro (talk) 00:13, 24 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
What we call facilitators in the budget is not a "presenter" nor "moderator" but a special position requiring expertise. The facilitator is skilled in helping people find potential opportunities for collaborations, identifying problems and matching them with people with possible solutions, etc.--Vojtěch Dostál (talk) 07:14, 24 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
I am sorry that I re-ask the question, but how do you think that such people could help our very specific community find potential opportunities for collaborations, identify problems and match them with people with possible solutions? In my experience people from outside the community are seldom capable of writing a meaningful newspaper article about us, let alone identify problems and match them with people with possible solutions. Doing this would, in my opinion, be possible only for people with a lot of experience in the Wikiverse and I cannot imagine them being paid for that. Would you please explain in more detail how exactly you think the people you hire would be useful and helpful? --Lord Bumbury (talk) 21:56, 25 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
I personaly dont think, that only people from the Wiki community are able to help us. Of course, that external trainers don't have enought knowledge about the community, but they are able to identify our problems and help us with finding the pathes how to be more productive. As we mentioned above, we have good experiences from trainees for trainers, where we were guided how to be a better presenters, for example. --Jagro (talk) 23:27, 28 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • Hi Cornelius, we expected, that number of participants will be given by the biding team, to create more comparable budgets, but then we counted these numbers based on lists of participants from last years, to do the calculation more realistic. We are expecting, that not every country will send their two participants, because there are not so strong communities in some of the CEE countries, for example Cyprus, Montenegro etc. Lot of our community members. --Jagro (talk) 15:57, 23 September 2016 (UTC)Reply


  • Hello :-)! Thank you for the comprehensive information which you have provided the community with. I am happy to see that you have experience in organising similar sized national conferences.
I'd like to know what you would do to onboard the new three of seven (43%) of the team members who possibly will have no previous experience with Wikimedia.
Also, a matter of frugality – do we really need paid city tours? There is surely a Czech Wikipedian, who knows Prague inside out and has created more articles about the city than any paid guide. What would the community win of this?
Why have you chosen not to have video recording of the sessions?
Thank you in advance, --Lord Bumbury (talk) 16:06, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • Hi Nikola, thanks for your questions, here are the answers:
  • As far as I counting, only 2 of 9 team members will have no experiences with Wikimedia events and these two will be the students, which will do a practice training, which they need to do while they are studying. These students will help us with airport welcoming etc., so no wiki-knowledge is needed. Our ED will be working from begining of the year full-time, so after trail period of three months she will have enough wiki-knowledge (we have the same experience with our education manager). And of course another community members will help us on the venue and with organizing, but it won't be on a continual base, so we didn't mentioned them as a core team, which will provide longer-period support.
  • As was mentioned above, the tours are part of the program, because they are kind team-building activities. Of course, we will never pay for a guy, who will guide us with an umbrella through the city center. From my work for another non-profit I personally have excellent experiences with special tours, like guiding by a homeless person, which includes not only new perspective of the city but also includes games and tasks which helps to get know another people ad build stronger relationships.
  • In fact there is no decision for not doing it. We have long-term cooperation with SlidesLive, where you can find 62 presentations mostly from our annual conferences, so if community will decide to start recording CEE meeting presentations, we can simply ask guys from SlidesLive again.--Jagro (talk) 15:57, 23 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

General questions edit

  • Thank you both for providing such comprehensive overviews of your planning and budget. I like it a lot that both venues are fully accessible. I am interested in
how the cost of flights was computed
how the number of participants was decided (66 vs 60 international participants and 70 vs 0 international participants).
It is hard to compare the budgets with different methods for computing one of the largest parts of the budget.
A also beg you to not put everyone in taxis, but only people who come late at night. We should be frugal with money from donations.
Another question for both bidders is
will there be an international programme team like in the last two years and would international organisers be allowed to participate at the organisation during the week before the conference and the conference itself, possibly people from one of the next communities who wish to organise the conference. I hope that it would be doable. --Lord Bumbury (talk) 16:06, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
  • First of all, a big thank you to the organizing teams for the first competition in the history of organizing the CEE meetings. I would like some more information on the proposed schedule of the conference: one team proposed thu-mon, the other fri-mon. What I would like to find out is:
    • When will the participants arrive/depart?
    • What will be the days with presentations?
    • How many separate tracks have you planned? If more than 2, how do you expect to ensure smaller communities can fully benefit from the conference considering only two members will participate?
    • How were the dates chosen? Why do both of teams consider that late September is a good time for a conference? Given the specifics of the CEE region (schools and universities begin around this time, some people take their holidays now due to lower prices, others go to the countryside to help their families etc.), my personal opinion is that this time is almost as bad as summer high season with regards to availability of participants.--Strainu (talk) 20:05, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

WMCZ answers edit

Hi Nikola & Strainu thanks for your question:

  • Prices of the flights were computed as cheapest comfortable flights from capitals of CEE countries (nonstop flights in most of the cases) for TUE-MON booked three months in advance multiple 1,4 coefficient, which includes higher season in conference dates and possible later bookings of some participants.
  • Number of participants was counted based on last three years statistics, more above; and as I say, unfortunately there wasn't given number of participants by the bidding committee in advance, so now it will be hard to compare the bids. But I think, that it can be done by easy recalculation for more people, I was speaking about number of participants with Mosaic House management and they have a lot of space for extra participants, if the number of them will be known in some advance.
  • We are not counting with transferring everyone by taxi, the price is counted for using the public transport with some extra money for taxis specially for early morning departures and disabled participants of the conference.
  • Of course, that it will be not only possible but also highly appreciated. As is written in the proposal, we will love to cooperate with wikimedians from another comunities, who will be able to help us with the preparations of the conference and also get knowledge for next years or local conferences.
  • We are counting with arrivals on FRI after noon and departures on MON morning; if someone will be interested in longer stay in Prague or Czech Republic, we have agreement with Mosaic House, that these people will get discounted price based on a promotion code. Also people with smaller budget can book a shared room in the same hotel, which starts at 10 EUR.
  • The official program is designed to start at FRI morning and continue till SUN evening. Three full days will help to have time for meetups as well.
  • We are counting with two tracks, one will be based on presentations and panels in the main hall and second one will be based on discussions and workshops in smaller lounge.
  • The decision is made on experiences from last two years of the CEE meeting. We have to think about Wikimania which will take place in mid-August and I think, that there have to be at least two months break between Mania and CEEM, because of time of the volunteers etc. Based on this we decided to organize the conference at late September/early October.--Jagro (talk) 00:04, 24 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

WMPL answers edit

Lord Bumbury questions
Regarding costs of flight - as it is explained in our bid - we just checked the current prices in biletybiety.pl and esky.pl for all destinations from CEE scholars might possibly arrive assuming purchase done 1 month in advance. See: [1]. Of course next year prices might be higher or lower, as well as buying tickets 2-3 months in advance might lower the prices. However, our experience with buying tickets to CEE in Kiev, tells us that there might be quite a number of participants who decide to arrive very late, even a week before the conference. So, the current estimation based on one month advance purchase is a rough, fair estimation of these costs. Our method proves that actually cost of travel to Prague and to Warsaw is very similar and tiny advantage for Warsaw is near the statistical error of our method. Polimerek (talk) 10:45, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Regarding number of participants - the answer has been already given above - see my answer to Cornelius question. Polimerek (talk) 10:49, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Regarding international organizing team: I think we have all learned that what works wonders in the wiki-world (and especially in the CEE community) is exchanging and gathering experiences. This is why it is very much important for us to include the international community in any way we can. We feel that the idea of an international program committee proved to be very successful (and we know quite a lot about the process because Polimerek was working with the committee in Voore and in Dilijan). So this is something we want to keep. We would also want the preparation process to be known and opened and reported on a regular basis so that the community can know what we are doing, but also ask questions, make suggestions or give advice. We also want to include people in the event - especially in facilitating sessions. And while we feel that having someone from the other community in Warsaw a week before the conference could be very valuable (the WMDE experience with a Visiting Wikimedian project shows that this type of experience sharing can work wonders) we also know that it would cost money (which would have to be included in the grant). So we would rather invite someone from the community to participate in the preparations during the conference itself, like helping with the registration, reception, some things at the venue etc. We will have a team of Polish volunteers for that of course but if anyone wants to join them to experience how the organization process works, they would be more then welcomed. Also we want to pass our experience through learning patterns. What is very important to us: we do not want it to be a Wikimedia Polska conference attended by the CEE community. We want it to be a CEE community conference prepared by Wikimedia Polska. It will happen only if we will be opened to the experiences of those who have prepared CEE Meetings before, to the needs of those who are to attend and to the ideas of those who are interested. And if we do our best to make it a learning opportunity to other communities. Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska (WMPL) (talk) 06:57, 23 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Strainu questions
When will the participants arrive/depart? - Our bid is based on the concept that participants will arrive at Friday at various times and leave on Monday after lunch, so 3 nights in hotel are needed. Because we do not plan to transfer participants by bus as it was in Voore and in Armenia - participants will have more freedom of choice of their arrival and departure times, but there is a question if WMF will accept additional nights in hotel. However there are plenty of hostels in Warsaw - with prices starting from 40 PLN per night - so the participants willing to arrive earlier or leave later can do it on their own expense. We may help with booking of the hostels. Polimerek (talk) 11:06, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
What will be the days with presentations? - this is clearly explained in our bid as we put a preliminary general program there. On Friday we plan to have Polish Wikipedia birthday celebration with some short speeches only and invitation after-party. On Saturday and Sunday we plan to have full day conference with 3 tracks and Monday 2 tracks up to lunch time. Polimerek (talk) 11:11, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
How many separate tracks have you planned? - see the answer above. Regarding the issue of smaller delegations - we can't help with this, I am afraid participants will have to decide what to choose by themselves. The idea of separate third track for workshops only came from this year experience in Armenia, when we had applications to organize longer workshops but having this within 2 main tracks would have ruin the entire program. Also - many people during the conference this year were asking to arrange third - workshops only - track for next year, so we found a venue where this is possible. But if program committee will decide to have 2 tracks only, so let it be. Polimerek (talk) 11:17, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
How were the dates chosen? - actually there is also a result of discussion during the conference in Armenia. There were voices that CEE Meeting shouldn't be too close to Wikimania, which is planned on August 11-13, and the very late autumn is too late due to weather and also fact that many participants are students. Previous experience - from Kiev and Voore proved that there is no big problem with availability of time during September for most of participants. Regarding specifically Poland - we found interesting the idea to combine CEE Meeting with Polish Wikipedia Birthday which might add a new value to the conference - to produce the opportunity to meet and mix with people from outside world and with more Polish Wikipedians. Polimerek (talk) 11:25, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Hmmm, if I remember correctly, Kiev was in December, not September.--Strainu (talk) 12:04, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
Well, yes - regarding Kiev - you are right. Actually CEE Meeting 2012 was on October, 2013 was on November, 2014 on December, 2015 on September, 2016 - end of August... and all of them were rather successful... Polimerek (talk) 12:43, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

Question about workshop track edit

Difficult to find things to ask, as both proposals seem very well thought out:

The Polish proposal mentions a third track for workshops:

  • Question for Polish team: What kind of workshops are planned or will be considered? Will the communities be asked beforehand what kind of workshops are needed the most?
  • Question for Czech team: What is your opinion on a 3rd track and what do you think about the points above?

--Tobias1984 (talk) 21:11, 21 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

WMPL answer edit

  • At the moment it is hard to predict, and in fact the questions about detailed program is rather subject to international program committee than to local organizers. As a former member of the program committee for CEE Meeting 2016, I think it would be good to repeat the process of questioning the CEE communities, but maybe with more thoughtful and detailed questions for the survey, and also form the program committee as early as possible, so there will be more time to tailor really good program. Polimerek (talk) 12:51, 22 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

WMCZ answer edit

  • Hi Tobias, our opinion about third track is, that we are limited by number of scholarship per country, so there will be two people from most of the countries and because of this we don't want to organize third track, because for lot of the communities will be impossible to attend all of the tracks. If you mean our answers for questions, that you asked WMPL, we want focus the workshops more to communication between CEE countries, but as mentioned Polimerek, this is more question to international program committee. --Jagro (talk) 00:10, 24 September 2016 (UTC)Reply

Committee decision made edit

Hereby I announce that committee has made its decision and the location for Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2017 has been chosen. I thank you all for your questions and comments during the bidding process and encourage you to be involved in further discussions related to next year's CEE Meeting. --Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) (talk) 10:13, 1 October 2016 (UTC)Reply

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