Grants:IdeaLab/Towards a New Wikimania/en
This consultation concluded on 19 January 2016 at 0:00 UTC. Analysis of feedback and outcomes are available at Grants:IdeaLab/Towards a New Wikimania/Outcomes. |
Background
Wikimedia movement conferences include:
- Wikimania - traditionally a conference for everyone who participates in the Wikimedia movement
- Wikimedia Conference - traditionally a conference for Wikimedia affiliate organizations (Chapters, Thematic organizations, User Groups, and Wikimedia committees) in addition to Wikimedia Foundation staff.
- Regional or country focused conferences - regional community gatherings (e.g. WikiArabia, Iberocoop Conference, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)), or country-specific Wikimedia Conferences (e.g. WikiCon USA)
- Thematic conferences - global community gatherings focused on particular themes Diversity Conference, Wikisource Conference, Global Hackathons, GLAMWiki Conference
Idea
What is the problem you're trying to solve?
Problem 1: The Wikimedia movement invests valuable resources in Wikimania, including significant time and energy from volunteers and paid staff, but we have not yet built a shared understanding of the outcomes we want to achieve with these resources. As a result, it is difficult to know if Wikimania is meeting the movement's needs.
- Over the past 10 years, there has been an increase in the number, scope, and complexity of Wikimedia movement conferences. As the largest movement conference, Wikimania in particular has continued to grow. The total spend by WMF for Wikimania 2014 in London and 2015 in Mexico, including all travel, accommodations, scholarships, staff support and direct conference expenses, was ~$1 million USD, with 1,520 attendees for London and 800 for Mexico. Affiliates and individuals outside of the WMF have also put significant funds and time into these events. How will we (as Wikimedian conference organizers, funders, hosts, speakers, attendees, etc) know if the resources we put into Wikimania are meeting the movement's needs?
Problem 2: The way that Wikimania is organized and executed has grown organically over time, with small changes adopted to address individual issues. As a result, a number of issues have remained unresolved year over year.
- The bid process for hosts, and unclear roles and responsibilities of the various groups involved in making Wikimania happen each year are two areas of particular concern. At this point, larger structural changes seem to be needed. But what form of changes to Wikimania will support the movement's needs best?
Based on conversations with past Wikimania hosts, committees related to Wikimania (e.g. Jury Committee, Steering Committee, Program Committee), WMF Staff, and community volunteers and participants, the following issues have been identified. You can edit this table to add other issues, if you like.
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Outcomes & Connections between conferences |
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Roles & Responsibilities |
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Process |
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Communication & Resources |
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What is your solution?
Instead of continuing to make small changes to address single issues as they arise, let's take this opportunity to take a wider view. Let's consider what outcomes we value from movement conferences like Wikimania, and consider what form of Wikimania could serve us best as a movement going forward. From this bigger picture, we can then begin to work together on more specific process improvements. The outcomes of this consultation will begin to be implemented starting in 2018.
Goals
This consultation will address two major issues:
- Building shared understanding of Wikimania's value, in the context of other movement conferences
- Rethinking the overall form of Wikimania for 2018 and beyond, with clarification of roles & responsibilities
Timeline
15 December 2015 | Consultation launches for public input |
18 January 2016 | Consultation ends |
8 February 2016 | Report back findings and next steps |
March-May 2016 | Begin laying groundwork to pilot changes for 2018 |
June 21–28 2016 | Wikimania 2016 |
September – December 2016 | Analyze outcomes from Wikimania 2016 for incorporation into 2018 plans, finalize selection for 2018 |
Issue 1: Building shared understanding of Wikimania's value
The following statement was built by aggregating quantitative and qualitative data and testimonials from past movement conferences.[1] [2] [3] [4]
The value of Wikimedia movement conferences
Gathering together at a movement conference helps to deepen and strengthen our relationships, both within our communities and as a global movement.
There are three ways this outcome can be seen:
FloNight, Rosiestep, and I already knew each other before Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. But at Wikimania this year, we came together and were inspired to form the WikiWomen's User Group, a group that provides "a space for women on Wikimedia to collaborate on projects, discuss issues, socialize with each other, and a space for Wikimedians to work on gender-related issues." Wikimania inspired us to create the group because we were able to have those inspiring conversations in person that wouldn't have happened over email. As of December 2015, there are now 74 members.
— Keilana from Wikimania 2015
It was only looking backwards in late 2014 that I, The Interior, Sadads, and Nikkimaria realized all four of us leading the The Wikipedia Library had met in person for a weekend-long GLAM Bootcamp in Washington D.C in 2013 over a year before. We shared a coincidental interest in GLAM, but it wasn't the particular subject that brought us together those three days: it was the personal connection, rapport, familiarity, and sense of possibility we developed. By socializing in a shared 10-bed hostel, sharing day-long discussions around a conference table at the National Archives, taking breaks to explore historical monuments, and spending nights crafting hilariously well-referenced Wikipedia trivia articles, we were unknowingly laying the foundation of the Wikipedia Library’s core. At an event only designed to give us the basics, what we really came away with was the basis of trust and drive to come together again with an instant sense of confidence and possibility.”
— Ocaasi about GLAM Bootcamp in 2013
User:Soni and I attended Wikimania 2014 in London, and we were able to attend two roundtable discussions on helping new users getting started on Wikimedia projects, and how best to retain their participation. Both of these discussions highlighted two things that help engage and retain new users: (1) personalizing invitations and (2) making a personal connection that shows there is a human behind the username. These discussions informed some of the aspects of the mentorship space we were creating, The Co-op. The roundtable discussions motivated our decisions to prepare semi-personalized invitations, create user profiles that included more personal information (such as a free-hand description on why the mentor / learner was in the space), and to recognize the achievements of successful new editors.
— I JethroBT from Wikimania 2014
My first CEE (Central and Easter European) Wikimedia Meeting was in Kiev in December 2014. Me and the other two Bulgarians who attended heard for the first time of the Wiki Loves Monuments and the Wiki Loves Earth contests. Actually, I had heard of WLM, but having no Freedom of Panorama and no Fair Use in Bulgaria, I had immediately ruled it out that we could ever have a Bulgarian edition of WLM. The truth was that from our colleagues from CEE we learned a lot about how to set up the contest in a way that avoids the Freedom of Panorama problems, and in 2015 Bulgaria joined both contests for the first time. That wouldn't be possible if we hadn't learned from the experiences other people shared at a real life event, with all these seeable and touchable WLM and WLE framed photos, calendars, postcards, beer coasters and pin buttons. It was really inspiring!
— User:Spiritia, about the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Conference in 2014
The first WikiArabia conference was held this year in Tunisia, as the “first annual conference for Wikipedians and Wikimedians from across the Arabic world.” One session at this conference focused on “Arabic Wikipedia policies and suggestions for new solutions”, where attendees discussed how to address old or outdated policies that needed to be updated. One solution proposed was to establish a committee of users (admins and editors with sufficient experience) to review a policy periodically. When the conference organizers followed-up after the conference with an admin, they confirmed that some of the policies were actually reviewed after the conference!
— Vivaystn from WikiArabia 2015
The unique value of Wikimania
The above outcomes can be seen at a lot of different movement events. So, what outcomes can/does the movement achieve at Wikimania and nowhere else? Please visit the talk page or take the survey to share your thoughts about both the value of Wikimania and the value of movement conferences in general!
Issue 2: Rethinking the overall form of Wikimania
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Current rolesHost: The organization or team representing the region where Wikimania is held. Program Committee: Group responsible for requesting and selecting sessions to include in the Wikimania program. Jury: Group currently responsible for selecting the host. Steering Committee: Group tasked with making recommendations to members of the jury for the host selection process, and generally advising Wikimania hosts. WMF Events Manager: WMF's main point of contact for Wikimania coordination |
Options for new forms 2018-2021
Keeping in mind the outcomes Wikimedians aim to achieve from Wikimania or other movement conferences, let's consider some ideas about what new form(s) might support those outcomes best. Feel free to suggest improvements to these options or add ideas for other options on the discussion page! Note that Wikimania 2016 is also currently experimenting with a new format[5] - lessons learned from this experiment should also be fed into future forms for 2017 and beyond.
Option 1: Change to Global Rotation
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Option 2: Change to Regional/Thematic Conferences
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Option 3: Alternate years between Global and Regional/Thematic
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Host Selection |
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Program Setup |
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Logistical Support |
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Get involved
WMF staff will review, aggregate and qualitatively code all feedback together before reporting back on outcomes. You may share you feedback via the talk page, or privately via a survey hosted by Qualtrics (a third party survey provider).
- Your answers will be protected under the following privacy statement.
Have a story about something great that happened at or after a Wikimedia movement conference?
- Instigator Would like your input to build a more sustainable plan for supporting Wikimania and other movement conferences. Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:17, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Community organizer Helping facilitate communications and engage groups and individuals interested in Wikimedia movement conferences. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:42, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
- Project manager help coordinate feedback and work with community and WMF to implement changes. EYoung (WMF) (talk) 01:19, 2 December 2015 (UTC)
- Researcher Finding, summarizing and analyzing qualitative and quantitative information from past movement conferences. Shouston (WMF) (talk) 04:46, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
Endorsements
Notes
- ↑ Conference reports submitted by WMF grantees (e.g. Wikimedia Conference report, reports from regional conferences such as Wiki Indaba and WikiCon USA)
- ↑ Post-conference evaluation surveys conducted by the organizing teams, e.g. Wikimania 2014, Wikimania 2015, Wikimedia Conference 2014, Wikimedia Conference 2015, Wiki Indaba 2014, WikiArabia 2015
- ↑ Hundreds of Wikimania Scholarships reports from 2014 and 2015
- ↑ Conversations with conference organizing teams, volunteer committees, and conference attendees
- ↑ See fundamental principles in planning, evaluation tasks, and general programming considerations for Wikimania 2016
- ↑ See Conference & Travel Support grants from the Reimagining WMF Grants consultation report