WikiConference India 2011/Feedback

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Your feedback is valuable. Please leave feedback on what's worked well at WCI 2011, what could be have been better and if this event should be an annual feature in India from now on.

Venue[edit]

  1. A good venue choice in terms of it's historic and educational positioning. A bit iffy on things like toilets and other such ancillaries. Geographic location was excellent - well connected. Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Good venue choice, but things were a bit unplanned. There were no clear indications though volunteers managed the odds. Lack of Wifi was a big hindrance. రహ్మానుద్దీన్ 11:03, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Great venue. Some sound problems in lecture room 1. WereSpielChequers 14:00, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. The venue was great. And as a historical place it added an extra value. Nasir Khan Saikatlets talk 16:44, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Point 0 - I hate paid venue. Leaving apart, multiple exits on seminar halls was required. Single door classroom setup meant people were forced to sit and interested people who came late couldnt enter since all seats are full. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Accommodations[edit]

  1. Good venue. Close by residential accommodation. But so many people cramped up :( DebashisM 13:58, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. This was great. May be next time we need to reserve some rooms for people who didn't got scholarships, but still would like to avail the subsidized accommodation by paying for it. --Shijualex 17:18, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Accommodation facility was very good and near to the venue. which was very helpful . Nasir Khan Saikatlets talk 17:38, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Good choice, felt a little costly though again. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Transport[edit]

  1. Used our own vehicle, so did not . Plus the choice of accommodations ensured that the public transportation charges would automatically be minimal. Full marks. DebashisM 14:01, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. The venue was near the accommodation area and public transport was available so it was ok. Nasir Khan Saikatlets talk 17:49, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Information on public transport could have been given well before along with registration information.

Catering[edit]

  1. Very up and down. Some meals were good. Snacks were good. But at least one meal was rather iffy. Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Snacks were good and heavy, meals weren't so good! రహ్మానుద్దీన్ 11:03, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. I thought this worked well. We've had Wikimanias with insufficient drinking water or lack of cultural consideration in food choices - this avoided both pitfalls. WereSpielChequers 13:50, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. I ate on the first day, and decided that whatever I do, I need to skip the lunch - they weren't any good! The snacks though were filling DebashisM 13:56, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Had only on first day. Felt the quantity was less for lunch especially on a day which had an early start. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

City[edit]

  1. IMHO, the only *real* city in India. :) Except for certain things outside of our control, a good choice. Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. a. Costly b. More ground soldiers in the run up to would have been better. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Scholarships[edit]

  1. Mostly good. We need better coordination prior to the event and post the event for reimbursements et. al. Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Needed better co-ordination. రహ్మానుద్దీన్ 11:03, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Good. But next time we need a waiting list to make sure scholarships are all used up. Also next time we need to divide it into 2 categories. One, for wikimedians, and another for non wikimedians. A small amount of scholarships (may be 10% of the total scholarship) can be reserved for non-wikimedians. --Shijualex 17:21, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. It was good but if the announcement was made earlier then it would be better. From the next time a quota should be allocated for the neighboring countries.--Nasir Khan Saikat 17:55, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Needed much better co-ordination, better selection, communication. Lot of room for improvement. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tourism[edit]

  1. The bus tour was ok. But a list of the attractive places could be provided to the participants. I had to manage these information from different websites but i found that far all the people searching and finding the same ans it not useful. --Nasir Khan Saikat 18:00, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Party[edit]

  1. Was lovely! Gautam John
  2. Nice రహ్మానుద్దీన్ 11:03, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Us oldies need a quieter option. Glad to see a crowd of young and young at heart editors enjoying themselves, but I'd suggest for next time an alternative choice where people can talk to each other. Also for the other evening and the evening before the event started it would be nice to have a designated venue or two, even something as informal as "Some wikimedians will be in ***** bar - look for laptops with this logo or anyone wearing a wiki Tshirt". WereSpielChequers 13:56, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. The party was nice. but if we consider all the attendees then it was not that good, because i found that some of the people were not comfortable there. --Nasir Khan Saikat 18:04, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Programs[edit]

  1. All the programs need to be documented. రహ్మానుద్దీన్ 11:03, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Require a strong and big team for the Programs. Program teams should select the talks and prepare the final schedule at least one month before the confernce, The task of running sessions during the conference should not be given to the Program team. Separate teams need to be formed for running the sessions smoothly, selecting moderators, preparing the basic infrastructure, and other stuff. --Shijualex 17:10, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. +1 to Shiju. The three months in programs teams have worn me out. The schedule was finalised on Nov 14. This is unacceptably close. It should be frozen atleast a month before (barring emergency dropouts). This "programs doubles up as scholarships", "programs doubles up Ext speakers" , "programs doubles up as venue logistics" is very injurious to the programs team health.--Sodabottle 17:50, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. The program was good. I have enjoyed most off the sessions that i have attended. But the presentation materials should be collected and reviewed properly. the speaker were overloaded. there should be more topic based open discussion sessions.--Nasir Khan Saikat 18:26, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  5. A big disappointment, lot of things could have been better. +1 to Sodabottle. Inspite of programs team worn out, the quality was lacking IMO. More community members should have done talking, fewer good proposals meant, most of the submitted proposals got accepted to fill in slots, this is sad. Response from the speakers too were not very encouraging, very few sent out the slides before hand. Most didnt respond on time. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Future of WikiConference India[edit]

  1. How can we not have another one? Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. An event that successful deserves a repeat. WereSpielChequers 14:26, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  3. should be continued. --Nasir Khan Saikat 18:08, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Though I would love having more of these, Community is no where geared to organize one more. No city in India has the community support to pull off big event like this. Lets not forget 1 person worked 6 months for the conference full time (partly with a fellowship help), another person worked 4 months. There serious crunches in terms of people on ground. Many people were there to comment on mailing list, do flame wars, what not but when it came to on ground support in the run up, am sorry to say it was a big 0. With the kind of money spent and lack of volunteer support, the sustainability of the event is highly questionable. Logicwiki 17:43, 25 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  5. An absolute no for another conference with the current format. There is no ground support or volunteer base for another event like this in one city (Bangalore comes to mind, but i am skeptical). This one was possible (as logic points out) by having two full time office bearers with fellowship help and a small pan-Indian team busting their backs. In this setup, there is a real danger of those who do the actual lifting burning out and retiring from wiki projects. For a three day event at such cost (financial and volunteer bandwidth), i dont see any proportional ROI. Without the small amount of publicity generated by the protests, i believe this would have stayed very quiet. Yes we got 400 newbies at a single place (but that doesnt require a 30 lakh budget and 6 month preparation). How many of them have started editing? and how many will be converted to long term editors?. I believe the conversion rate will be similar to any other outreach event (minus the huge costs). What i would like to see again is probably a single day conference with a about a fifth or sixth of this budget, more emphasis on quality presentations (instead of searching for ext speakers with name recognition) and bringing wikipedians together for networking and something that would have a lasting impact. --Sodabottle 18:50, 27 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Miscellaneous[edit]

WiFi[edit]

  1. WiFi, of course. Gautam John 05:52, 24 November 2011 (UTC). Second that. DebashisM 13:53, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Outreach[edit]

  • I was really impressed at the number of non-Wikimedians you'd attracted and I made some interesting contacts. But I'd suggest for next year you try and add a Wikihelp area where experienced editors can teach others one-on-one WereSpielChequers 14:13, 24 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Badges[edit]

Disability Access[edit]

Two of the three rooms were on the ground floor but Seminar room 2 and the toilets were not wheelchair accessible. WereSpielChequers 22:09, 26 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]