Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

My two cents regarding volunteers and organizing team: Just as others, I did spend lots of time in the organization of Wikimania, mostly in recruitment, training and logistics of the Yellow Army, and in many other small things helping Ivan, Carmen and the rest of the organizing team. As we

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

hi Ivan, On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 6:42 PM, Ivan Martínez wrote: > Darius, I think that "motivations criris afterward" must also be > considered in the planning and prior call for Wikimanía volunteers and can > be avoided. In Mexico we always tell to people that we did not

Re: [Wikimania-l] "Friendly and inclusive", and Brexit at Wikimania

I had a bit of the same problem, but with people making disparaging jokes about Trump. I think it's an important thing for people to remember that even as we come together in this movement, our politics are not necessarily the same as other folks, and making hostile comments in any direction

Re: [Wikimania-l] "Friendly and inclusive", and Brexit at Wikimania

Dear Deryck, there's a good deal of reasons why there's an etiquette rule in Italy that states "don't talk about politics at the dinner table". :) I'm sorry if you felt excluded by us EU citizens, especially by those (as I am) who deeply care about the future of the EU. If it can be of any good,

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

It's a lot of work, last week before Wikimania Mexico the coordination team slept less than 4 hours each day. But for me being honest was not a shaming time, was great. And we can have people intended to keep Wikimania annual and run similar challenges. Harry, we had here 72 committed volunteers

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Yes, London was big, and the two Wikimaniae since have been on a smaller scale, but I'm not sure a ~1,000-person conference is significantly less of a headache than a ~2,000-person conference, and actually I'd wager that Esino was more logistically complicated due to the location - for example

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Thanks Harry, Ed, Of course London was a bit of an exceptionally big Wikimania - but did you evaluate your effort somewhere, and note what you spent your time on somewhere? Just to get an impression which components take most effort (as Dariusz suggested)? Best, Lodewijk 2016-07-10 20:25

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

I agree with Ed here. Organising a conference of this size is a huge undertaking to ask of volunteers. I wouldn't want to see Wikimania go down the road of being organised by a team of professional conference organisers because then it would lose the organic community feel that makes it so

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Thanks for that comment, Dariusz; Wikimania London took over two years of preparation, and occupied me full time for six months in the run up to the event. It's a massive undertaking, and in retrospect it seems deeply unfair to expect volunteers to do this. There was a bidding process, so there

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Hi, I think that switching to regional conferences model will not reduce but increase local organisers involvement. In fact, any conference means that local organisers must arrange: * Programme (either local organisers manage themselves or they have to set up and work with an international

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Regional events work where there are strong cultural ties between countries and where there are a lot of strong local communities, but they fail abysmally when that isnt there. So for Europe and North America thats always going to work maybe it'll work for South/Central America even possibly

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

my two cents (please, forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, or if I'm repeating things that were said elsewhere or already addressed): First, I don't think that an event every four years will have the mobilizing and motivating role that an annual one does. Four years is longer than a typical

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

One goal :) you always side effects. If the goal is to be a community event why don't we don't we do a huge event every 4 years where we fly in every single editors? Instead of doing 4 Wikimanias. That is why setting expections and goal is key, so then we can make decisions. We're talking about

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 8:22 AM, Gnangarra wrote: > ​ >> Is it a community event? > > Is it a knowledge sharing event? > Is it an outreaching event? > >> Is it a way to reward people? >> > > ​The answer to these four are yes > >- ​Yes its a community event, one that

Re: [Wikimania-l] "Friendly and inclusive", and Brexit at Wikimania

Dear Deryck, I'm terribly sorry that Brexit left a sour taste to your (and actually my) involvement Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone Deryck Chan wrote >I apologise for the somewhat emotionally charged post. Please read to the >end and I promise my argument will come together...

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

> > ​ > Is it a community event? Is it a knowledge sharing event? Is it an outreaching event? > Is it a way to reward people? > ​The answer to these four are yes - ​Yes its a community event, one that brings people together and empowers them - Yes it where we share the lessons of our

Re: [Wikimania-l] "Friendly and inclusive", and Brexit at Wikimania

Dear Deryck, I'm terribly sorry that the recent events made your (and also my) experience of wikimania left a slightly bitter taste. Even we had our differences, I think we should strive to make the conference inclusive, otherwise if one sort of correctness takes hold it's rather unhelpful

Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania - annually, with South Africa in 2018?

Hey, So, as with everything, Wikimania is going through a process where we (as à group) will define if it pushes our mission forward or not. First, WMF staff working so we can have the discussion with all the cards in our hands. Which is not the case now. Second, what is Wikimania purposes?