Grants:Conference/Expressions of Interests for Regional Conferences/East Asia Conference/Wikimedia Korea

Expressions of Interests for Regional Conferences

please add a conference name

proposed organizerWikimedia Korea

contactYoungjin (WMKR)

conference year2025

fiscal year for grant proposal2025-26

conference city and countrySeoul, South Korea

conference regionESEAP

All Expressions of Interests

Local Wikimedia Community and organizing team

Local organization

Korean Wikimedia communities including Korean Wikipedia and Wikimedia Korea (affiliate itself). Wikimedia Korea has three staff members that are able to take care of these conference events, while collaborating with the volunteers around the region for scholar and programming.

Experience

We didn’t host a regional or large conference in South Korea.
While we have hosted an annual local conference since 2012, this is our very first time expanding our annual conference to the global community, mainly for the East Asia region.

Challenges

Challenges: Visa issue, government support, entertainments, dietary issue

Community alignment

Korean community: Decision made to expand conference for East Asia community during Wikiconference Seoul 2024.

We have to ask ourselves about the needs of this conference. Especially since the Eseap conference/summit is held on an annual basis, is there a need to organize a separate conference in East Asia? We have two points to figure out: Asia is too big, there are events related to the ESEAP conference, summit, but there is a limit to the number of people who can participate. We want to strengthen the organizational capacity of each community/affiliates in east asia and foster interaction between the East Asian community, the most underrepresented region on the wiki, and connect them to the global and ESEAP regional communities.

Location and date

The conference will take place in Downtown Seoul, South Korea on October 24 to 26 (Fri to Sun). The conference hotel will be selected nearby the conference venue (or venue can be at conference hotel)

For the travel to the conference hotel, The participants can either take a subway, express train to Seoul Station and airport limousine bus.

For local participants, the scholarship funding will be provided from the organizing team.

Travel and visas

link
South Korea has visa exemption for 62 countries, while required to fill K-ETA prior to arrival; The visa exception is provided for all targeted countries except Mainland China, but there could be visa requirement for the South East Asia countries (such as Malaysia and Philippines)
- en:Visa_policy_of_South_Korea
Our affiliate doesn't have any prior experience with a government authority.

Cultural/Religious considerations and competency

We are expecting a maximum of 70-100 target audiences. 20 are offered for local participants, 40 participants from the East Asia region and 10 participants from representatives from ESEAP Hub. We will also able to invite 3~5 WMF staff who are exclusively working for our region.

The target audience is Wikimedians located in the East Asia Region, which includes: South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

While most scholarships will be provided within the East Asia region indicated above, to increase engagement with the hub and regional community, the representative from ESEAP Hub will be also invited as well.

Eligibility

Note that you need to be an affiliate or a Fiscal Sponsor:

With no outstanding reports and that are in compliance with the funding and Wikimedia Foundation agreements.
That can receive funds from WMF and potentially can also reimburse participants.

As Wikimedia Korea will be taking charge of this event, there shouldn't be any fiscal sponsor.