Grants:Conference/Expressions of Interests for Regional Conferences/ESEAP Conference 2026/Wikimedia Taiwan
Local Wikimedia Community and organizing team
[edit]We are convinced that despite certain challenges, the Taiwanese community is capable of hosting such an event. This can be analyzed from the following levels:
- Local organizations: Wikimedia Taiwan has been established for 17 years and currently has five full-time employees; there are many active local organizations, including the Paiwan language community that has been a user group, and the Wikiwomen community holds an editathon every year. The Wikidata community just hosted an international conference. Whether as staff or volunteers, Taiwan has rich organizational experience.
- Experience: Wikimedia Taiwan hosted Wikimania when it just was established, and we also supported Wikidata Taiwan held WikidataCon 2023.
- Social relations: The governmental office located at the host city,Kaohsiung City, is quite supportive to this event. The government has a department responsible for supporting conferences and exhibitions, and has proactively contacted Wikimedia Taiwan to express its willingness to provide resource matching services.
- Challenges: The biggest challenge is getting enough reception manpower. Although Taiwanese people have English courses in their 16-year compulsory education, the proportion of people who have the ability to speak fluent English is still limited. We will try to find English-major university departments as partners to provide service certificates in exchange for the assistance of their students. Scholarship attendees can also be asked to volunteer for duties that do not require training, as was the case at Wikimania 2024.
Community alignment
[edit]Kaohsiung as the host city of ESEAP Conference 2026 was voted by participants from the entire region at the ESEAP Conference 2024 in Kota Kinabalu. Please see the video of the voting process at that time. ( Voting start from 7:16:21)
Location and date
[edit]The location is Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
Kaohsiung has an international airport and a MRT station at the airport, making it easy to reach the conference venue. Cities with regular flights to Kaohsiung International Airport (IATA Code:KHH) include: Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, etc.
If a passenger can only land at Taoyuan International Airport (IATA Code:TPE), it's still easy to travel to Kaohsiung via Taiwan High Speed Railway (THSR). It will take 1:35 to 1:15 from Taoyuan station (in the airport) to Zuoying station, then it can transfer to MRT.
The date will be in early May 2026, so as the conference in 2018 and 2024. The targeted date is just after the previous version of the Wikimedia Summit(usually in April), which is very suitable for the region to discuss and exchanges the news and ideas from the global movement. According to past experience, there are no other large-scale Wikimedia international conferences at this time.
Travel and visas
[edit]The Visa-Exempt countries of entry to Taiwan are:
- Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Palau(90 days)
- Malaysia, Nauru, Singapore (30 days).
- Thailand, Brunei and Philippines (14 days, effective till July 31, 2025, high possibility of extension).
The full list of all Visa-Exempt countries could be found here.
Participants people from other countries (except China, Hong Kong, and Macao) can apply Visa for participating conference. Wikimedia Taiwan is a registered Non-Government Organize and legal person in Taiwan, so the invitation letter we send can be used as a document for visa application. In 2023, we have success to invite Indonesia speaker traveling to Taiwan in-person for the WikidataCon.
Participants from China, Hong Kong, and Macao will need to apply for a visa through Wikimedia Taiwan. We will engage with government departments in advance to assist them.
Cultural/Religious considerations and competency
[edit]The audience for this meeting is all Wikipedians in the ESEAP region. Of course, there may also be some participants who were not born or live in this region, but activities in the movement are related to here.
According to the past practice of ESEAP Conference, which agenda will be accepted or who can receive the scholarship was decided by two committees composed of the whole ESEAP regions:Program Committee and Scholarship Committee. Volunteers from Taiwan will also join the committee, and assist with connecting committee decisions and local logistic needs.
Eligibility
[edit]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.