Hi Pine, Thanks for sharing your thought process. I can see why you identify a topical overlap between Wikimania in North America and the North American WikiConference. I also see why those topics should be part of the programme at Wikimania - I don't expect much disagreement in that field. And whatever you do, it will be.
The question is, why would you want to organise it in a special 'track' beyond a grouping of similar topics - which seems overly formal and separatist. There's an overlap between all topics that you mention, and I wouldn't see either why there should be a 'legal track', 'glam track' etc. Every 'regional topic' will likely also fall under Nature, Glam, Technology, Law, Education or one of the other topical groupings. Having a 'track' in a formal way, is much more heavy than grouping topics that are related, together. To me it would suggest that 1) North Americans can't learn from projects from elsewhere (I think the opposite is true) and 2) Non-North Americans should not attend those presentations (which I also think would be quite untrue). The question is what you're trying to accomplish. I would be a fan of rather mingling geographies, rather than separating them out, unless you have a strong reason to do otherwise. It makes more sense to me to have three presentations about education grouped together where they come from different regions, with different approaches than to have three presentations about North America on a variety of topics grouped together. I would find it even more odd to have a whole track dedicated to a region - and it would be without precedent (I think). Best, Lodewijk 2016-07-06 9:06 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com>: > I'm fine with multiple language tracks (most likely including French and > Spanish). > > The reason for a geographic track (in this case, North America) is that > otherwise we'd be having a separate conference that served this purpose. > I'm sure that many of us in North America will want to attend tracks on > subjects other than geographic interest (technology, research, GLAM, STEM, > law, education, outreach, community health, and governance come to mind), > so there will be substantial benefit in effectively co-locating the > conferences. My guess is that this can be done in a way that is a net > positive for all. For example, the scholarship budget that would otherwise > be requested for a separate WikiConference North America 2017 could instead > be used to facilitate increased attendance by North Americans in Montreal, > which I think would have the benefit of increasing attendance at Wikimania, > and at the same time we would eliminate the need to find a time and venue > for a separate conference with separate expenses. > > Pine > On Jul 5, 2016 23:36, "Lodewijk" <lodew...@effeietsanders.org> wrote: > >> Hey pine, >> >> As most people will be able to confirm, having a bigger presence of >> regional topics is likely to happen anyway in any Wikimania. When Wikimania >> is in Asia, you'll see more Asian speakers, and when it's in Europe, more >> Europeans. >> >> Separate and successful tracks have been organised before, to the best of >> my knowledge, in three ways: 1) language tracks - which were separate for >> very practical reasons (translations). 2) type-of-session tracks - which >> again are very practical (different needs for a discussion than for a >> presentation) and 3) A thematic track - but that was often organised like a >> type of side conference (with the US govt in 2012, with WikiSym and the >> hackathon). >> >> To be honest, I don't see right away why 'North American regional and >> local subjects' would require such track and even more why it would require >> a special committee. It will find its way in the programme, and it's not >> like non-Americans won't enjoy those topics per se. Why try to separate it >> from the rest of the programme? In general I'm no big fan of splitting up >> the programme into smaller pieces too much - it leaves too much opportunity >> for good proposals to fall between the cracks and get lost. And it gets >> confusing easily to the participants. >> >> Now I *do* see an added value for a French language track... but I guess >> that'll be of little use to you. >> >> Best, >> Lodewijk >> >> 2016-07-06 7:44 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com>: >> >>> Hi Wikimania folks (Ellie and the Montreal organizers in particular), >>> >>> Those of us in the US have expressed a hope that WikiConference North >>> America 2017 can be united with Wikimania 2017 in Montreal. This would >>> likely lead to economies of scale and reduced total cost, in terms of both >>> time and money, for what would otherwise be separate conferences. >>> >>> I would like to ask if WMF and the Montreal organizers would be willing >>> and able to have some tracks at that conference dedicated to North American >>> regional and local subjects, perhaps coordinated by a dedicated North >>> America program committee. I foresee a modest increase in attendance at >>> Wikimania 2017, and decreases in personal and WMF costs, if we can make >>> what would otherwise be separate conferences happen harmoniously. >>> >>> Thanks, and I hope to see you in Montreal next year. >>> >>> Pine >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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