Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Meeting notes/2013-01-12

Attendants

• Theresa Hume
• Douglas Scott
• David Richfield
• Oarabile Mudongo

Previous minutes

Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Meeting notes/2014-01-15

Media Outreach

Douglas had meeting with Human IPO, African based http://www.humanipo.com/. Very positive.

Status of the bid

• Reasonably high quality bid as it is now.

Douglas had conversation with Ian Gilfillan about Wikimania. Ian made some edits to the bid and made some suggestions. First issue is sponsorships although this is not too important at this stage. We can't get assistance from them on this issue but they have provided us with a list of their sponsorship partners.

Theresa is on the sponsorship task team. By next week: need a list of possible sponsors with approaches. From Isla: A list was compiled and shared with members two weeks ago, this should be the starting point the link is here.

Required level of sponsorship activity is currently none, but it can help. By enlarge something that is done after the bid is awarded.

Legacy sponsors from UK bid can be recycled, e.g. Raspberry Pi. (list from

Event management tool - how does this compare with the Wikimedia Foundation system? Task allocation and accountability system. UK chapter system is a way to allocate tasks and keep everyone on point as to when tasks are completed. More project management tool, whereas WMF tool is more about managing applications etc.

Prof Adam Habib has replied to us, is positive about being a keynote speaker. Theresa to check with his PA to schedule his diary.

Suggest prelim invite to communities and internationally. How is this different from WikiIndaba? Perhaps a way of gaining more interest. Wikimania always has enormous interest so this might not be necessary, most important now is to illustrate we have the capacity to host the event. More interest from the Southern African region specifically. WikiIndaba will be test bed for that. Oarabile suggests 'pre-notification' system. As and when the bid is awarded, we should revisit this idea. Perhaps part of the bid is to make sure marketing to African countries is covered. Start working with interested parties (who have applied for scholarships to London) to get their skills to workable level. Understand who the community in Africa is. We cannot allocate 20% of budget to African scholarships as their presence is not big enough.

In terms of WikiIndaba - perhaps offer more scholarships and send more invites for this event? David confirms that invitations have been sent out to all African working wikipedians. Banners advertise this event. What else can we do to promote this event? Suggest we go onto Wikiprojects and African language websites and target individuals. David has been in contact with some scholarship applicants for London. Should involve discussions with Dumi.

List of tasks to be done

• Theresa - List of sponsors with approaches
• David - Scholarships page (use Italian bid as guide)
• Theresa - confirm Prof Habib
• Oarabile to make contact with academia to determine interest in WM2015 with media release
• Oarabile (and other volunteers) - suggest three activities that we can have during WM that promote "briding divides" theme (beyond just giving out more scholarships). Talk/workshop? Activity? Anything: virtual presentation/class or volunteering by Wikimedia conferencegoers.
• New people are intimidated by existing community. Focus on experts who do not yet edit Wikipedia (e.g. academics)
• Draw up a list of leading ZA academics who might be interested in contributing to Wikipedia. Use letter of introduction to open doors and start discussions.
• List of activities to promote Wikipedia in Education. Bring in Academics to talk about how Wikipedia can be used in education. (note: kiwix folks have worked on this, and there is a WikiProject about this with a well-developed method - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Student_assignments )
• (Something something information bill?)
• How Wikimedia Commons can support the local photographic or media industry. A way to get people who would not normally be aware of the projects to get involved.
• Get more females involved (bridging the gap between male and female / gender divide)
• Be careful of overlapping previous issues. Compare lists to see which issues have been addressed before. See what can be linked to the Diversity Conference (DR). http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference/Documentation

Task teams

Making the vision a reality. We have articulated a vision, but we need to make that a reality through solid activites and projects, that deliver the vision. The "Bridging divides" can be divided up into:

• Geographical distance group: Africa vs America/Europe/South Korea/
• Giving the developing world a greater voice; giving developed world a better understanding of issues affecting developing world
• Gender gap

Next meeting

19 February 2014 19:00 South African time, 17:00 UTC. Etherpad link

Further reading

• Wikimania Handbook
• Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary
• Does "cultural imperialism" prevent the incorporation of indigenous knowledge on Wikipedia?