Grants:TPS/Góngora/Wikimania/2016/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2016!

Participant

• Name: User:Góngora
• Projects: Spanish Wikipedia, Catalan Wikipedia, Norwegian bokmål Wikipedia
• Activities: Member of Wikimedia Norge, Wikimedia España and Amical Wikipedia.

Outcome

Option 1: Shared Experience: What is one way you shared something from your experience with your community (either locally or globally), after the event?

I wrote a post on Wikimedia Norge blog, explaining what were the most interesting things from both the place and the first day of the event. Personally, I believe that Wikimania 2016 was a success, people were really nice and welcoming, and the environment was friendly. I met long-time friends as well as new people. I could finally meet the chairperson of my chapter Wikimedia Norge and other supportive members based in Oslo. In addition, I was tweeting a lot during the event, under the hashtag #wikimania2016.

I had the chance to learn about several ongoing projects about Wikipedia and education (I liked the fact that Wikipedia is an optional subject for medical students in Israel, for example). I enjoyed the GLAM experience, and I also learned from what other members from Amical were/are doing. The presentation on freedom of panorama, delivered by volunteers from Wikimedia Belgium, was striking. The opening ceremony, with Jimmy's discourse and our shared conviction in Wikipedia values (.e.g. as a drive for change, as a bridge in a world with so many walls, etc.) was also noteworthy. I also took part in an open discussion on Content translation across Wikipedias. It was interesting and rewarding to share feedback with other fellow Wikipedians. We came up with the conclusion "Be bold. Use reliable sources and avoid unreferenced content during the translation process unless you can find independent sources".

There was also an interesting discussion on leadership, in which we discussed how the word "leader" can have different positive/negative connotations in several languages/cultures. The term, as a cultural construct, is somehow controversial. Some alternative names were proposed, such as "administrator", etc. We also went through the qualities that an ideal leader should have. I found all this particularly thought-provoking because I could match some of these features with those which are expected from an editor on Wikipedia (not to say from an administrator). Last but not least, I exchanged viewpoints with colleagues from Switzerland, Latin America, Spain and Scandinavia. The unfinished business of gender gap on Wikipedia also caught my attention, so I decided to join the Wikiproject:Women on both Spanish Wikipedia (Wikimujeres) and Catalan Wikipedia (Viquidones).

Connections

I met a lot of people with the same inquisitiveness. We sat together and we shared our experience. There were many points of convergence. As I mentioned before, I took active part in a discussion on Content translation across Wikipedias. I talked to people from several chapters.

Anything else

I would like to thank all the volunteers and all the people from Esino Lario for such a great week. My gratitude goes also to Wikimedia Foundation for this partial scholarship and to Wikimedia Norge for paying my flight to attend the event. I uploaded some photos to Commons.

• 
  Wikimedia España group picture (thanks, Superzerocool!)
• 
  At Wikimania 2016.
• 
  Wikimania 2016 Day 2.
• 
  During the discussion on Content translation across Wikipedias, 25th June 2016.