Wikimania 2006/Planning

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An overview of conference planning: from the conference software used and written for Wikimania, to the timeline for logistics, to communication channels and international coordination.

Outstanding issues: layout of wiki pages; pagename conventions (colons or no); where to use a non-wiki database-backed application; how to get last year's attendees in touch with one another (wikimania-l or some other list).

Add your own questions here (or add them to the next meeting agenda).

• We are building our own system for registration and payment; Austin is working on this.
• We are using Indico, an open source package started at CERN, for paper submission & review; Ivan is maintaining that system.
• We are allocating speakers into timeslots via Indico at the moment; but may use another package; the Ubuntu conference software looks better for this purpose.

There have been suggestions for an attendee reference -- that is, community software that lets people log in and customize views of the schedule and materials. Somehow doing this via the conference wiki would be simplest.

Upcoming face-to-face volunteer meetings are on the Wikimania wiki.

For other notes and archives from meetings, see Wikimania 2006/Notes
General discussion:

November 5, at 22:00 UTC. (Minutes)

November 19, at 16:00 UTC. (Minutes)

December 10, at 22:00 UTC. (Minutes)

April 16, 22:00 UTC - (minutes) - volunteer meeting

Program discussion:

November 23, at 22:00 UTC (Minutes)

January 29, at 23:59 UTC (Minutes)

Followup: January 31, 23:00 (Notes)

February 4, 22:00 UTC (Minutes)

February 16, 22:30 UTC (Minutes)

February 23, 23:00 UTC (Minutes)

March 2, 23:00 UTC ( Minutes)

March 5, 23:00 UTC - speakers meeting -- (Minutes)

March 9, 23:00 UTC - (Minutes)

March 16, 23:00 UTC - speaker discussion

March 19 (informal) - discussion of Indico & paper reviewing process

March 23, 23:00 UTC - (Minutes)

April 13, 22:00 UTC - (Minutes) - reviewing process

April 23, 14:00 UTC - Workshop reviewing meeting

Please add your preferred times to meet, in general.

• Angela: anything other than 3-11pm UTC
• phoebe - not 09:00-16:00 UTC; weekends generally best.
• Anything after 21:00UTC, most days; more on weekends. Sj
• Ivan: generally not free before midnight UTC on weekdays

Future program meetings for submission reviewing... times tbd.

Agenda items! Got your agenda items right here! Hot off the griddle!

• Publication of abstracts
• Workshop discussion

Potential times : Depends on schedule of key Wikimaniacs.

• Registration and publicity
• Site design and cross-promotion
• Announcements, press releases
• Scholarships, sponsorships and fees
• Parties & press conference

Open meeting for volunteers in #wikimania on IRC.
next one tbd -- see notes from April 16 meeting, above

Here are some pressing volunteer teams and opportunities:

• Call for Participation & BOFs : Distribution; how to encourage submission (cookies?); outline of a good proposal

  Linuxbeak, brassratgirl

• Wikimania online :
  • Live video/audio : Podcasts; audio & video streaming;

    Colin R, michael, Apple

  • Live session text: multilingual transcripts, live-blogging, conference IRC channels

    (mindspillage, ROC, steve g)

• Design : Posters, banners, buttons, site

  Tlogmer, B4, Linuxbeak, ngb, LockeShocke

• Content : Local guidebook, program, proceedings

  ngb, await, LockeShocke

• Outings : Tours and events before & after Wikimania

  jkb, betsy devine

  • Crash space : Coordinating crash space and rides to/from the airport among remote and local Wikipedians

  ...

• Community outreach : Announcements, translation, wiki banners, &c.

  aphaia, Sabine Cretella, ngb

• Contests : Writing and Media contests; tool/hacking contest; visualization contest

  Arnomane. Potential: ngb, Fir

Provisional time: Saturday 3rd June, 17.00 UTC

• Distribution (printed, online, both?)
  • printed or online only?
  • if online, where to post, and in what format (wikimania2006 wiki, permanently?)
  • if printed, where/how? (most academic publishers have unattractive licenses, and most who don't are unaffordable; other models?)
• What to publish
  • full papers or abstracts only, or whatever we can get?
  • what kind of content for posters? (images, abstracts, ?)
  • deadline for authors? We've told them July 1st for full papers; people will need to be prodded to make this; we'll have to decide how much to prod. What file format should they submit in? Include slides?
• Logistics
  • edited? by whom? on what timeline? what kinds of edits?
  • should the online proceedings be protected after they are finished, or editable?
  • Include a 'comments' section?
  • how to keep an eye on vandalism etc if editable?
  • how should the site be designed, to make the proceedings attractive, findable, and (in a perfect world) linked to the online conference schedule (programme)?
• 2005 proceedings?

• February 2006 : Call for participation
• February 2006 : Save the date announcements; early CfP release
• April 30 2006 : Deadline for paper submissions & key speakers; second press release
• early 2006 : Registration open to community
• May 30 2006: Tentative program
• July 1 2006 : Deadline for print-ready content
• August 1-3 2006: Wikimania Hacking Days (MIT Media Lab)
• August 4-6 2006: Wikimania (Harvard Law School)
• August 10 2006: reunion party in Tahiti

click here for notes from previous meetings regarding Wikimania 2006 <-- this is probably not updated, see the program notes above for the latest meetings

400-800 people are expected to attend Wikimania. A few things the budget will encompass, in decreasing magnitude: housing and meals; transportation and other support/scholarship for community members; transportation and other support for speakers; social events; and equipment rentals. Most rooms and supplies can be arranged at no cost.

What should the conference fee schedule be? How much of a difference should there be between regular and discounted rates? When should early-bird registration fees end? Should there be differential rates for community members, students/low income attendees, both? A special blogger rate? Differential rates based on country of origin? &c.

Authentication: How to verify pay-level, student status, press/blogger status, project-membership status?

Information from comparable conferences in cities like Boston would be helpful. For instance : Wikisym was 80ドル (ACM student), 80ドル (student), 315ドル (ACM member), 375ドル (non-ACM member) up to 6 weeks in advance; 80,ドル 80,ドル 375,ドル 450ドル after that [for a 3-day conference in San Diego with coffee and snacks].

All this conferences are too expensive, if you don't get paid for going there. Keep that in mind, that a lot of wikipedians pay the travelcosts and the confernece fee out of theirn own pocket. It would be different if you ONLY organize a scientific conference. --PatrickD 15:46, 5 January 2006 (UTC) [reply ]

Right. And it's definitely not only a scientific conference . Sj

The official conference fees are almost like a hotel "rack rate": that's what you pay if you don't ask about other options. Students typically pay less, some people might get in free because the conference organizers want them--speakers, for example, but not just speakers. As far as authentication goes, I think social pressure will help keep most people honest. Most conferences issue a different colored badge for each class of users, and I think few non-students will want to walk around wearing a badge that says "student." Betsythedevine 04:52, 8 January 2006 (UTC) [reply ]

I would not bother too much on authentication of status. First of all because also consider attendible source of authentication of student staus are known to be avabile to non-student. Second if you make things such that the student/member/etc. fare are actually the "normal" rates, and the standard rate a higher rates just for pepole who have no problem in paying (that is they are refunded), people who pretend to be student/member/etc. while not being so will only pay the "normal" fare. Just make the "reduced" rates more difficult to see. People who do not bother having a discount will book standar rates. Doing this way will allow to offer "reduced" rates even to people that are not students and can not afford the standard rate. Morover, in my opinion, special arrangements should be avaible for people who could not afford expences (for instance resident of very poor countries) and organization has interest on their presence. These people could recive free or very reduce rate invites. AnyFile 11:39, 30 January 2006 (UTC) [reply ]

Agreed re: special arrangements. Let's see what we can do. Sj 18:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC) [reply ]

Wikimania is looking for sponsorship, for the conference at large and for specific goals (travel & student scholarships, hosting satellite speaking events & parties) in particular. If you know of an organization interested in sponsoring the event, or considering it, please have them write to wikimania-info((@))wikimedia.org, or send an email there yourself.

• NEASIST (New England chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology : offered help with transcriptions (pros?) and loaner hardware encoders (audio/video).

See Wikimania 2006/Attendees#Volunteering for more about volunteering and translation

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de: Sitzungen und Planung für Wikimania 2006

en: Meetings and planning for Wikimania 2006

es: Reuniones y planificación para Wikimania 2006

it: Riunioni e pianificazione per Wikimania 2006

zh: Wikimania 2006的会议和计划