Wikimedia Northern Europe Meeting 2018

Background

Nordic Wikimedia affiliates (i.e. Northern European affiliates) have been meeting up on bigger Wikimedia conferences for years and also there have been several collaborative activities (e.g. Yearbook), but during discussions in 2017 it has been more and more clear that this regional collaborative could use an in-person meeting to support regional cooperation and peer mentorship in a more effective and functional way.

In preparation of the meeting, a few key thematic areas for collaboration have been highlighted: strategic discussions, GLAM, Education, Tech, Advocacy and Communication. The open space format of the meeting will facilitate discussions, idea generation and next steps.

The format of the meeting

The programme of the meeting outlines that WikiNEM will be organized as an open space meeting, with an introductory social event on Friday evening. The meeting is facilitated by Ulrika Eklund. Because it's the first meeting for the region, time will be dedicated on getting to know each other and establishing the purpose of meeting in the region is. This is the first session of the Saturday. The outcome of that discussion will be documented and form a shared understanding for regional collaboration. The WikiNEM open space will open up from lunch on Saturday and become the backbone of the meeting until it closes on Sunday.

"What does an Open Space Technology event look like?" .

Prepare for the meeting

Here are a few instructions for participants on tasks to do as preparation for the meeting.

Organizational profile

Each affiliate is asked to submit a poster with your Organizational profile showcasing the opportunities and challenges that your organization is facing. We suggest that you fill out the poster as a team effort with all representatives from each affiliate.

Find the template for the Organizational profile

There is no need for you to start your poster from scratch, we will be using a poster profile template available on Commons: Organizational profile template.

How to submit your poster

The deadline for the poster is on Wednesday 3 October. You submit it by uploading it to Commons naming the file “WikiNEM 2018 Organizational profile [name of affiliate]” and add it to the WikiNEM documentation page.

How the posters will be used

The WMSE event team will take care of printing all posters and they will be displayed in the meeting venue. The posters will be presented by your teams during the Gallery Walk at 17:00 on Saturday, and you will get more instructions for how we will run that session.

Lightning talks

Each affiliate is invited to decide one participant to submit one lightning talk. The talk should address a topic relating to the affiliates organizational profile, such as a pressing challenge, an idea for cooperation, something you’ve learnt that others can learn from.

Each talk will be five minutes, and can make use of no more than five slides.

Participant presentations

On the participants page everyone is welcome to add a very brief introduction about themselves, and browse other participants in WikiNEM.

Timeline

31 August: Registration opens
9 September: Registration closes
14-21 September: Bookings of flights/trains and accommodation
28 September: Welcome letter sent to all participants.
3 October: Deadline for submitting Organizational profile.

Host

Sweden has been approved by members of Nordic Wikimedia as an ideal location for organizing this event for its central geographical location and for notable experience that local chapter Wikimedia Sverige and its staff has in organizing international events (e.g. Wikimedia Diversity Conference 2017).