Talk:Wikimedia Conference 2014
Getting involved[edit]
Hi there, the Program Evaluation and Design team at WMF wants to get involved at the conference! We'd love to talk to whomever we need to talk to about hosting a workshop and some related evaluation activities. Please contact me on this talk page, on my meta talk page, or via email at sarah
wikimedia
org. Looking forward to Berlin! SarahStierch (talk) 21:08, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
- Actually, I just talked to some folks on the program committee, so I'll sit patiently :) SarahStierch (talk) 23:28, 2 January 2014 (UTC)
Who is invited?[edit]
For clarification, who is allowed to attend? Is it only chapters and a thematic organization or is it open to user groups, thematic organizations and chapters currently before aff-comm? --LauraHale (talk) 07:55, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
- And the corollary question to this: Would travel scholarships be available to these other entities? I.e. Recognized usergroups, and/or chapters and thematics not yet recognized, but at an advanced stage in the AffCom process.--Pharos (talk) 19:51, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
- Hey, sorry for not getting back earlier. The volunteer program team is currently finalizing the main themes and goals and after that – in consultation with the AffCom – will publish a recommendation of which organizations to invite. Scholarships will be available for all invited entities who have not budgeted the travel costs in their grant requests (like FDC; GAC; start-up grants etc.). Hope this helps. --Nicole Ebber (WMDE) (talk) 11:22, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
- The Programme Team is split on the issue and also not all its members are sure whether it is competent to decide on this. So at Nicole's suggestion I want to invite more comment here.
- Personally I would say chapters/thorgs in planning should be invited so long as the organisation is active. However, it's also been pointed out that the programme is focused around "how do we share experience and learning in future" not on "this is how you set up a new chapter/thorg" Chris Keating (The Land) (talk) 19:26, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
- This is definitely a recurrent conversation for the Wikimedia Conference. :-) My personal viewpoint is that having entities attending that are close to being formed is beneficial, as their representatives will gain much more insight into what can be done when their organisation exists, and can get a headstart with learning what has worked well before and what could work well for them in the future. It also means that they gain a lot of valuable contacts that they can approach if they run into any problems further down the line, or want to bounce ideas off experienced people. The downside is that there are more people present at the event, and more cost to the movement - but providing there aren't too many of this type of organisation attending then there's only going to be a fractional impact on the event and its budget. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:13, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
- I don't think organization that didn't approve yet by the AffCom should be invited. It's not only a matter of budget and donors money, but also the fact that I really don't think that what will make them "better" organization after they will be approved. To wait for the year after, when they are officially recognized by the movement, will not affect them and will be better for them first to focus on the basic steps for organization (subjects that is really not related to the conf) --Itzike (talk) 10:38, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
- I agree with Itzik. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 17:38, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
- I don't think getting an AffCom aprroval is difficult for those who deserve it and WMCON can definitely use it as a screening criteria for access to the limited resources. However, it would be nice if the criteria is communicated to the community well ahead of time so that people who are eligible to get recognition can get it before the deadline for WMCON application. --Taweethaも (talk) 21:06, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
- I agree with Itzik. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 17:38, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
- I don't think organization that didn't approve yet by the AffCom should be invited. It's not only a matter of budget and donors money, but also the fact that I really don't think that what will make them "better" organization after they will be approved. To wait for the year after, when they are officially recognized by the movement, will not affect them and will be better for them first to focus on the basic steps for organization (subjects that is really not related to the conf) --Itzike (talk) 10:38, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
- This is definitely a recurrent conversation for the Wikimedia Conference. :-) My personal viewpoint is that having entities attending that are close to being formed is beneficial, as their representatives will gain much more insight into what can be done when their organisation exists, and can get a headstart with learning what has worked well before and what could work well for them in the future. It also means that they gain a lot of valuable contacts that they can approach if they run into any problems further down the line, or want to bounce ideas off experienced people. The downside is that there are more people present at the event, and more cost to the movement - but providing there aren't too many of this type of organisation attending then there's only going to be a fractional impact on the event and its budget. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:13, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
- Hey, sorry for not getting back earlier. The volunteer program team is currently finalizing the main themes and goals and after that – in consultation with the AffCom – will publish a recommendation of which organizations to invite. Scholarships will be available for all invited entities who have not budgeted the travel costs in their grant requests (like FDC; GAC; start-up grants etc.). Hope this helps. --Nicole Ebber (WMDE) (talk) 11:22, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
- Hi all. Just to give a bit of input, we in AffCom have also discussed this issue and tried to provide guidance to the programme team. We felt similarly to Itzik that the programme might be best suited to existing organisations, but what is more important, that it would be beneficial to set up invitation criteria that are stable over the years and so the volunteers, groups, chapters, thorgs can all prepare for it. For this reason of predictability, in the hope that future programme teams will also adopt similar criteria, we have recommended to only invite recognised affiliates, and in the case of user groups to consider inviting only those that have shown that they are active. It is my hope that this will increase the value of recognition, and also provide something that active groups can look forward to. For logistical reasons (the time to set up travel, visas, registration) we have recommended that the team apply a cut off date for eligibility in case of all affiliates roughly three months before the conference. --Bence (talk) 23:12, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
Times[edit]
As booking flights, etc. becomes necessary do we have start times (Thur/Fri especially) and an end time for Sunday? Sjgknight (talk) 13:03, 5 February 2014 (UTC)
- No exact times, yet. On the Open Thursday, the starting time is up to the groups who are planning to offer special sessions or workshops on that day. The official programme will only start on Friday. Depending on the schedule the programme team will come up with, expect the event to start between 9 and 10 am on Fri and end around 5 pm on Sunday. --Nicole Ebber (WMDE) (talk) 11:01, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
Cost of the conference[edit]
Are there any data about the total cost of the conference? I'm interested in reading a report similiar to the 2013 one prepared by Wikimedia Italia. (Pinging @Nicole Ebber of Wikimedia Deutschland.) Thanks! odder (talk) 15:08, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
- Hi odder, we are still waiting for one or two invoices (from the venue, for example) and will of course share the data as soon as we have it all together, most probably before the end of June. Sorry for the delay. --87.138.110.76 15:12, 4 June 2014 (UTC)