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User:Jojit fb/ESEAP Conference 2018 Report

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Scenes before event started
and during the sessions
attended by Jojit

First day

Second day
For questions, comments and reactions regarding this report, go to the talk page.

Jojit Ballesteros, a veteran Filipino Wikimedian, attended the Wikimedia movement's first ever ESEAP Conference 2018 last May 5 to 6, 2018 at Bali, Indonesia. This page serves as his official ESEAP Conference 2018 Report that discusses his experiences during the said regional conference for Wikimedia communities and affiliates in the East, Southeast Asia, and Pacific or ESEAP. The event was hosted by Wikimedia Indonesia (WMID) and funded by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). It was organized by WMID and several Wikimedia volunteers across the region. Those who wanted to attend the conference were required to apply for a scholarship. Therefore, all of the successful participants, including Jojit, were given scholarship covering airfare and accommodation.

As Jojit wanted to share his experiences during his outreaches in the Philippines, he submitted a presentation for the conference and it was accepted by the ESEAP 2018's Program Committee as one of the breakout session topics for the first day of the conference. His presentation is entitled Conducting a successful edit-a-thon, which tells his personal experiences on holding edit-a-thons in the Philippines.

Journal

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May 4, 2018

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On the day before the conference, Jojit Ballesteros together with his wife, Bel Ballesteros left their home and went to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Pasay City, Philippines where they met the two other Filipino Wikimedians Maffeth Opiana and Irvin Sto. Tomas who are both from the PhilWiki Community. They boarded the same flight going to Bali, Indonesia as they were all attendees of the ESEAP Conference 2018. After approximately four hour air travel from Manila to Bali, they safely arrived at Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, Indonesia where they were welcomed by Ivonne Kristiani and Rachmat Wahidi from Wikimedia Indonesia (WMID).

They have also met other attendees of the conference from other countries at the Bali airport. They all entered a van that transported them to the Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar, which was the venue of the conference and also served as the lodging for the participants. At the hotel, they were greeted by Nurleni Noertam and other people from WMID. Afterwards, Jojit and Bel stayed and slept in the room as assigned by the organizers.

May 5, 2018

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In the morning of the first day of the conference, Jojit and Bel went to the main room of the conference, the Jimbar Ballroom, to register. Since the conference was not yet officially started, they introduced themselves and talked to other attendees from different countries. Specifically, they had long conversations with Bonaventura Aditya Perdana and Dimas Agus Putera Hardijanto. Later on, Jojit saw a table for sweets and souvenirs that was arranged according to the country of origin. The table was set up to accommodate those sweets and souvenirs given by the participants for other participants as token of goodwill. He went back to his room to get the Philippine souvenirs that he and Bel bought for the participants of the conference. Upon returning to the Jimbar Ballroom, he laid down those Philippine souvenirs on the table consisting of postcards, key chains and bracelets.

When the conference officially started, one of the first activities was the ice breaker. The conference facilitator, Idaman Andarmosoko of Jakarta, Indonesia, grouped the participants randomly with the help of pieces of paper attached to each of the bottom leg of the chairs where the name of a group was written there. Each person got a paper on the chair where they were sitting and the group that each of them belonged was based on what was written on the paper. After all were grouped, each person in the group would introduce someone based on the format that was also written on the paper. Some groups have three or four members but Jojit belonged to the group named Komodo with only two members. Jojit was with Chris Antonio from Perth, Australia as his only group mate. After all participants were acquainted, each of them introduced someone from their group at the assembly. When it was the time for Komodo group to tell something about each of their members, Chris presented Jojit first and then Jojit presented Chris.

After the event's opening ceremony and introduction, the first breakout sessions began at Zanoor 1 and Zanoor 2 rooms. Zanoor 1 was allotted for community advancement topics while Zanoor 2 for community development. At Zanoor 1, the activities were combined as talks and discussions for community outreach. According the program, Takashi Ota from Japan would speak first about helping new contributors to write articles and it would be followed by the Jojit's talk about conducting a successful edit-a-thon. In actuality, Jojit spoke first and then followed by discussions and questions of his talk. The next speaker was Takashi who presented his topic and after which, there were also discussions and questions related to his presentation.

After the Community Outreach breakout session, there was a lunch break. During lunch, Jojit was with the other four Filipino delegates (Bel, Irvin, Maffeth, and Butch Bustria). At some point during lunch, Jan Gerlach, Public Policy Manager of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), joined them and they had a short chat with him. Afterwards, Jojit attended the next breakout session at Zanoor 2, which was about initiating partnership and collaboration. Just like with the other breakout sessions including the succeeding sessions, every talk was followed by discussions and questions. For the first talk of this breakout session, Bel spoke about collaborations done in Eastern Visayas that improved content in Wikimedia projects specifically the Waray Wikipedia. The next speaker, Eun-Ae Gu from the Wikimedians of Korea User Group, discussed about sharing public information in cooperation with the South Korean government. The last speaker for the session, Ravishankar Ayyakkannu from the WMF, talked about the strategic partnership in the ESEAP region.

The next breakout sessions began and Jojit entered Zanoor 1 to attend the workshop on Education Program Planning and Evaluation that was facilitated by Nichole Saad from the Wikimedia Foundation. She was the only speaker for this session. Jojit participated in group work and discussions of the workshop. There was another break after Nichole's session and then Jojit was there at the next breakout session at Zanoor 2. The topics for this breakout session were about ups and downs of organizations. The first speaker for this session was Tze-wen Wang (a.k.a. Reke Wang) from Wikimedia Taiwan and he talked about the composition and structure of the board of a chapter. The next speaker was Butch Bustria, a Singapore-based Filipino Wikimedian, and he gave reasons on making a Wikimedia affiliate sustainable.

The last session of the day was a plenary that was held at the Jimbar Ballroom where Erick Guan from Wikimedia User Group China reviewed the results of the Wikipedia Asian Month. After the plenary session, participants were advised to prepare for the last activity of the day, which was to watch the "Kecak Dance" performance at Uma Dewi Stage, Kota Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. The stage is located around 4.6 kilometers from the venue and all conference attendees rode buses to get there as arranged by the organizers. It was already evening when they arrived at Uma Dewi Stage. Since the performance is open to the public, there were other people aside from the ESEAP attendees who watched the Kecak Dance, which is actually a Balinese dance and music drama.

Upon returning to the hotel, the participants had dinner. Jojit was at the dinner table with the other Philippine delegation and the Wikimedians in Thailand. Afterwards, Liang-chih ShangKuan of Wikimedia Taiwan conducted an ice breaker. It was another get-to-know-you type of ice breaker named Human Bingo. The ice breaker is just like the game Bingo. The difference is that interesting facts are written on the Bingo boxes instead of numbers. Some of the facts written in the boxes include "have been in Wikimania," "an affiliate board member" and "a Wikimedia Foundation staff." Each participant were given a sheet of paper with these kind of questions, which served as their Bingo card. The objective of this game is to gather signatures from the participant who fits the description written on each of the box. In some situations, the winner of this game is the one who filled out all the boxes but Liang opted to apply the usual rule, which is completing either vertical or horizontal rows only. Jojit wasn't able to complete a row but there were several winners. The first day of the conference ended after this activity but some people continued to socialize after the ice breaker.

For additional things happened during the first day of the conference at the perspective of Jojit, refer to the First day section below.

May 6, 2018

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It was pass 9:00 am when Jojit arrived at the Jimbar Ballroom to attend the second day of the ESEAP conference. Although he was a bit late, the sessions were not yet began. The facilitator, Idaman, was just giving the rundown of the things to expect for the second day when Jojit came. The first activities for the day were the lighting talks where speakers were given very short time for presenting their topic.

The first speaker was Rachmat Wahidi from WMID who discussed about working with GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) institutions in Indonesia. This was followed by Irvin Sto. Tomas from the PhilWiki Community and he presented the Bikol Wikipedia as local resource. Leung Chung-ming, also known as Spring Roll Conan, who is an administrator of the Chinese Wikipedia came next to speak about the administering the Chinese Wikipedia and its activities. After this talk, Daniel Chong Choon Yuen of the Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia showed the history and status of Wikipedia in Malaysia. This was succeeded by another speaker from the WMID, Nur Rahmi Nailah, who is also a Javanese Wikpedian and she explained about the development of the Javanese Wikipedia and its community. Then, Nur Fahmia who is also an editor of the Javanese Wikipedia and from WMID followed next as speaker for the topic about the challenges of local languages in Wikipedia and Nusantara (a contemporary Malay term for the Malay Archipelago and Indonesian Archipelago). Finally, the last speaker for the lightning talks was Athikhun Suwannakhan from the Wikimedians in Thailand User Group and he talked about the three-year experience of the Wikipedia Education Program in Thailand.

When the lightning talks ended, a taped video message of the Wikimedia Foundation's Executive Director Katherine Maher for the conference was played and wished for a successful event. It was supposed to be played on the first day of the conference but due to technical problems, it was finally shown on the second day. After the recorded video was played, all attendees gathered for a group picture. They all wore the T-shirts given by the organizers that were primarily intended specifically for the group photo. Then there was a short coffee break and after that, Jojit attended the breakout session about grants for individuals at the Zanoor 1 room. Kacie Harold, the Grants Program Officer of WMF, was the speaker for the talk at Zanoor 1. When her talk ended, questions were entertained by Kacie. After this session, Kacie approached Jojit and Bel and had a conversation about Wikimedia grants.

After the morning activities, lunch was served at the restaurant of the hotel for the participants. Jojit was with Bel only during the lunch. Around 1:00 pm at the plenary in the Jimbar Ballroom, the session about the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy began and consisted of a short presentation and discussion workshops. Venus Lui who worked on various roles in the Wikimedia movement including strategy coordinator in 2017 gave a presentation, which was mainly about envisioning Wikimedia movement's strategic direction by 2030. This was followed by a short talk by Kaarel Vaidla who is a member of the Wikimedia movement's strategy team as a strategy process architect and he emphasized on his presentation that strategy matters and the voices and inputs from Wikimedia communities and volunteers also matters very much. Kaarel facilitated discussion workshops after his talk. Jojit and Bel were late and missed the presentations of Venus and Kaarel. The workshops already started when they arrived. At first, Jojit and Bel took photos and observed the workshop as the attendees participate. When Kaarel saw them and asked them if they were shy to participate. They answered Kaarel and said that they were not shy and they were late. They thought that they cannot participate because the workshop groups were already settled. Jojit asked Kaarel if it is okay to participate. Kaarel said that they can participate and join a group of their choosing. Jojit took part in one of the group while Bel picked a different group. Jojit gave inputs in the discussions of his group. By the end of the workshop, everybody from each group were able to impart their inputs for the Wikimedia movement's strategy in the coming years.

The next session for the day was about ideas for ESEAP collaboration and it was also held at the Jimbar Ballroom as a plenary. The presentations for this session were delivered by Liang-chih Shang Kuan from Wikimedia Taiwan and Punchalee Montriwat of the Wikimedians in Thailand User Group. Liang discussed on the Wikimedia Exchange Initiative while Punchalee showed the existing communication channels for the ESEAP region and proposed new ones. This session also included an interactive activity where attendees were asked questions and they would reply through the Mentimeter website (menti.com).

When Liang and Punchalee ended their session, Tom Hogarth, the Secretary of Wikimedia Australia (WMAU), presented in the plenary the next host of ESEAP Conference in 2019, which will be held at Perth, Australia and organized by WMAU. The closing ceremonies which was facilitated by Idaman followed after Tom's presentation. Idaman instructed one of the participants to cut the main tarpaulin banner used for the group photo into half. After cutting, he enjoined everyone to write their thoughts about the conference on the tarpaulin at a given time. When the time is up, he then told the participants to cut again the tarpaulin into smaller pieces. All the pieces were given to each attendee. Idaman urged everybody to form a circle and then he further instructed that everyone would greet and say something to everyone by circling around within the formation. This was done so that everyone would have time to really greet and get to know their fellow conference attendee. Optionally, during the greetings, a participant may exchange his or her tarpaulin to the one he or she is talking to. Idaman served as the starting point of the circle while Spring Roll Conan as the last person to be greeted. The pieces of tarpaulin that everyone got served as their souvenirs of the conference. Jojit got the tarpaulin that was originally from Tanweer Morshed, a member of Wikimedia's Affiliations Committee. It contains portion of the writings Daniel Chong and an unknown participant.

Finally, after the closing ceremonies, Biyanto Rebin, Executive Chairperson of WMID, made his closing statement and thanked everyone for a very successful conference. Kacie gave some remarks before Biyanto declared that the conference was officially closed and everybody was free to do anything that they wish. Some participants were already preparing to leave Bali as they had flights in the evening. One of those who was leaving Bali on this day was Liang and Jojit had a chance to say goodbye to him and wished him safe voyage.

During dinner time, Jojit and Bel were with Idaman and Butch and they have some conversations about random topics. In some point during their conversation, Ravishankar joined them at their table. After dinner, Jojit and Bel went to their assigned room with Butch and they discussed Wikimedia-related stuff specifically Wikidata. Butch left their room around 11:30 pm.

For additional things happened during the second day of the conference at the perspective of Jojit, refer to the Second day section below.

May 7, 2018

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Jojit and Bel woke up late in the morning on the day after the ESEAP conference ended on the previous day. Before noontime, they checked out in the room assigned to them by the ESEAP organizers and they checked in another Swiss-Belresort room that they had personally reserved and paid for. They extended their stay in Bali and planned to tour nearby places. They inquired at the taxi service booth at the lobby of the hotel for tour packages.

They were able to get two half-day tours and personally paid for it. The first tour started around 12:30 pm in just around half an hour after they transferred to a new room. The tour included visits to various shops. Before their tour started, there were some ESEAP participants from WMID and the Wikimedians of Korea User Group at the lobby. They were waiting for their transport going to the airport as they would be going back to their homes. Jojit and Bel greeted and bid them farewell.

The first stop of their tour was the Sari Amerta Batik collection shop, which is a batik (hand weaving) factory and shop at Batubalan, Sukawati, Gianyar, Bali. Then, they went to a silversmiths' village at Celuk, Sukawati, Gianyar, Bali. Aside from the shops, they also visited the Batuan Temple at Raya Batuan Street, Batuan, Sukawati, Gianyar, Bali. After this, the tour led them to another shop, the Karya Mas Gallery, a wood carving shop and factory at Mas, Ubud, Bali.

The tour's next stop was the Ubud town proper where they visited different places there specifically the Ubud Palace and the Ubud Market place; and they ate late lunch at a warung. a small restaurant similar to the Filipino carinderia. After two hours in Ubud, they went back to the hotel. They were supposed to go to the Tegallalang Rice Terraces but since it was already pass 5:00 pm, they were not able to go there because the office at that place was already closed. Upon returning back at Swiss-Belresort, they had dinner near the hotel.

May 8, 2018

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On the early morning of the next day after Jojit and Bel toured Bali for the first time, they walked along the Sanur beach, Bali to catch the sunrise. Later in noon, they began their second tour of Bali. Their first stop for this tour was the Taman Ayun Hindu Temple at Mengwi, Badung, Bali. Then, they ate again at a warung near the temple after which, they proceeded to a shop, the Taman Ayu Sari, which is not that far from the temple. The shop primarily sells luwak coffee (known in the Tagalog areas in the Philippines as kape alamid), which is a coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

Their next stop was the Alas Kedaton Forest Temple and Monkey Habitat or simply known as Monkey Forest, where grey long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) lives here. The last stop of the tour was going to the Tanah Lot Temple at Kediri, Tabanan, Bali. Aside from visiting the temple, they also watched the sunset there. They returned back to the hotel after their second tour finished. At the lobby of the hotel, they saw Ravishankar and Kaarel who were ready to leave Bali. They wished them safe voyage on their way back home. After this, Jojit and Bel had dinner at a fast food restaurant near the hotel.

May 9, 2018

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Early in the morning of their last day in Bali, Jojit and Bel packed their bags as they prepare to leave Bali. They arrived in the Bali airport just in time but their flight was delayed for about an hour. They safely arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at around 1:20 pm. They ate lunch at NAIA and then finally after 44 minutes upon leaving the Manila airport, it was home sweet home.

Meetings

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Jojit Ballesteros have met all attendees of the conference either through simple greetings, informal talks during breaks, conversations during meals or group discussions. Topics of the meetings include but not limited to the following:

  • Wikimedia-related conversations;
  • Wikipedia and the related Wikimedia projects;
  • Life and culture of their country of origin;
  • Questions on the talks presented by Philippine delegation at the event including Jojit's talk;
  • Discussions and comments about the sessions of the event;
  • And possible collaborations with other affiliates or groups.

Some of those conversations or encounters are described in the Journal section of this report.

Lessons learned

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Attended sessions and activities

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First day

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Activity/Session attended Speaker/Facilitator Lessons learned
Opening Ceremony and Introduction Idaman Andarmosoko
  • Jojit was able to know the people behind the Wikimedia communities and affiliates in the ESEAP region.
  • He also learned the roles of each of the Wikimedians who attended the conference.
Community Outreach
Conducting a successful edit-a-thon Jojit Ballesteros
  • During Jojit's talk, some participants were able to relate to the some of the problems encountered on edit-a-thons as Jojit explained in the presentation. They also have the same problems or issues that they experinced during their own events. .
  • After the talk, there were several questions and comments that Jojit got some learnings from as follows:
    • The term "edit-a-thon" is not fully understood by some people in some areas within the ESEAP region. Alternative name such as "Wikipedia editing workshop" may be used. Bel also noted that the precursor to the edit-a-thons conducted in the Philippines as handled by Jojit and his team was the Open Web Day. That project was a collaboration project between Wikimedia Philippines and Mozilla Philppines where Jojit and his team conducted editing workshop (and even an actual edit-a-thon) under the banner of Open Web Day. That project later evolved as events that essentially called edit-a-thons. Sometimes, "forums" or simply called "talks" that introduce Wikipedia to the target audience are usually done first before conducting the edit-a-thon.
    • There are some areas also in the ESEAP region that do not have laptops or computers. Jojit mentioned that during an edit-a-thon in Pangasinan, they used mobile phones to edit Wikipedia.
    • There were also a question on how to introduce Wikipedia since some of them did not know how to do this. To give them an idea, Jojit and Bel described an outline on the typical lecture about Wikipedia before the edit-athon.
Wikimedia in Kansai - How to help new local contributors to join and write articles; Takashi Ota
  • In this talk, Jojit learned that there is event called "Wikipedia TOWN," a combined photo-walk and edit-a-thon in Japan. It was worth mentioning that librarians helped in the effective conduct of this kind of event, which is usually held in a library.
  • This presentation is relatable in the Philippine context because some of the issues encountered in Wikipedia TOWN are also encountered in the editing workshops and edit-a-thons in the Philippines. One of these issues that are the same is the few people who continue to edit after the event.
Initiating Partnership and Collaboration
Improving Wikimedia Projects Content through Collaborations - Waray Wikipedia Experience, 2014–2017 Bel Ballesteros
  • Jojit made some contributions to Bel's presentation and he is currently involved in helping the Sinirangan Bisaya Wikimedia Community (SBWC) to develop projects for the Waray Wikipedia. Through the questions and comments after the talk, Jojit learned that participants were interested in how the SBWC partners to different kinds groups and organizations. One participant even audio recorded the session. They seemed inspired to apply those partnering techniques done by the SBWC on their own communities.
  • It is also good to know that some participants were amazed that the Waray Wikipedia has thousands of readers per month and even reached millions during the first few months when school classes in the Philippines start implying that the most of the readers are students.
  • They were also able to understand that collaboration starts when authorities of the organization are approached first and then they would gather stakeholders (teachers and students if schools) after which, a project would begin to execute.
Sharing Public Information in Cooperation with South Korean Government Eun-Ae Gu
  • Jojit learned that Wikimedians of Korea User Group had done a great job on collaborating with various government agencies in South Korea. One of those collaborations was the donation of 100 pictures that went to Wikimedia Commons.
Strategic Partnership in ESEAP Region Ravishankar Ayyakkannu
  • Through this session, Jojit discovered the strategic partnership being done by the Wikimedia Foundation in the ESEAP region. One of those partnerships program is the GLOW (Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia), which encourages Wikipedia communities from underrepresented languages and countries to contribute content on their local language to address content gap.
  • Jojit asked a question to Ravishankar about "internet stipend" and he learned that it is a fund given to a recipient covering internet connection expenses.
Education Program Planning and Evaluation Nichole Saad
  • Jojit got ideas from his group mates in the workshop groupings on how to plan and evaluate an education activity. He also gave inputs on his group based on his experiences as a facilitator on Wikimedia events.
  • Jojit learned the importance of evaluating an event after it was conducted. This would help on improving future events and minimizing issues.
  • Jojit was able to understand the backward design of educational planning as part of Understanding by Design (UbD) method as developed by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. He learned the UbD techniques for education program planning as explained by Nichole during the workshop.
Ups and Downs of Organizations
Organizing a Board Structure Reke Wang
  • The speaker, Reke, who is from Wikimedia Taiwan gave a very thoughtful presentation about a board structure of a Wikimedia affiliate. It seemed that the things he said about board members are true based on the personal experiences of Jojit.
  • Jojit learned from this presentation the laws of Taiwan that affect the forming of an organization or non-profit company in Taiwan. Jojit commented on the requirements of forming a non-profit organization in the Philippines through the Securities and Exchange Commission. He learned that there are differences in laws in different countries concerning non-profit organizations.
Making Your Affiliate Sustainable Butch Bustria
  • Jojit attended this session as support for answering questions due to the content of the presentation, which is based on the experiences of Butch as a former Board member of the Wikimedia Philippines (WMPH). Jojit was also a Board member of WMPH. There were only few questions in this session and there were no questions or comments raised about WMPH. So, Jojit let Butch answered the questions. It seemed that the audience was not that interested on what transpired to WMPH. Or perhaps, the presentation was enough for them.
  • Jojit learned from one of the comments that WMAU has a system in place on their communications between board and their members. Their members come from different parts of Australia but that obstacle did not stop them from communicating effectively.
Wikipedia Asian Month Review Erick Guan
  • Jojit found out in the presentation given by Erick that the previous Wikipedia Asian Month (WAM) in 2017 has gotten 6,000 plus quality articles about Asia.
  • Postcards were sent to successful editors as token for their contributions. Jojit himself received a postcard from Wikimedia Indonesia as he participated in the previous WAM. He learned that there were postcards sent personally by Takashi Ota instead of just a postcard from a Wikimedia affiliate.
  • After the presentation, Jojit asked Erick about moving the month of WAM because he opined that November (which is the current month for WAM) is very busy month in the Philippines because many Filipinos do their Christmas preparations as early as November and many Wikipedians who celebrate Christmas might not have the time to contribute on November. Erick approached Jojit personally after this session and they discussed his concern. They have agreed to a solution for this, which is contributions of Filipinos may be written before November and then they can submit it on November.
"Kecak Dance" Performers at Uma Dewi Stage
  • Jojit learned that the "Kecak Dance" is not only a Balinese dance but also a music drama with some performances depicting the battle from Ramayana. There are dancers who portray characters from the Ramayana Hindu epic.
Post event activities Shangkuan Liang
  • Jojit got to know the participants better as Liang conducted an ice breaker entitled Human Bingo.

Second day

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Activity/Session attended Speaker/Facilitator Lessons learned
Get Together & Lightning Talks
Collaboration with GLAM institutions in Indonesia Rachmat Wahidi
  • In this lightning talk, Jojit learned about the digitizing of the letters of Ki Hadjar Dewantara, the 1st Minister of Education of Republic of Indonesia. The digitizing project was made possible through collaborations with the Dewantara Kirti Griya Museum, Yayasan Sastra Lestari, and Wikimedia Netherlands.
  • All of those 100 letters were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and indexed at Wikisource.
  • It is good to know that despite the challenge of convincing the Chair of the Museum, the project pushed through and successfully uploaded the letters for public consumption.
Bikol Wikipedia as a Local Resource Irvin Sto. Tomas
  • Jojit has been collaborating with Irvin through various projects in the past. This includes the time when Irvin was a member of WMPH and the Bikol Community, which was approved by WMPH as Philippine Wikimedia Community. His new organization, the PhilWiki Community, which majority of its members come from Bikol Community, became a Wikimedia affiliate. More recently, Jojit helped Irvin during the workshop at the 10th Bikol Wikipedia Anniversary under PhilWiki Community. Jojit is glad that they are now independent and stand on their own to create their own projects.
  • It is good to know that PhilWiki Community efforts to promote Bikol Wikipedia were recognized and fruitful despite being a small edition of WIkipedia.
Chinese Wikipedia Administration Spring Roll Conan
  • In this talk, Jojit learned the on-wiki activities and administration done in the Chinese Wikipedia specifically prioritizing the topics that would be expanded and improved.
Wikipedia in Malaysia: Early History, Growth, Tipping Point, Future? Daniel Chong Choon Yuen
  • Jojit was able to understand the history of collecting knowledge in Malaysia. It started with the Encyclopedia of Malaysia, a paper encyclopedia, and then in the age of Internet, the Malay Wikipedia was born.
  • He also learned that Butch helped Daniel and other Malaysian Wikimedians to establish a Wikimedia user group.
Wikipedia Jawa - The development of Javanese Wikipedia and its community Nur Rahmi Nailah
  • Jojit was able to relate to this presentation because just like the Javanese language, some languages in the Philippines also have language shift issues where speakers tend to use the Filipino language instead of their mother-tongue.
  • When Rahmi mentioned about the spelling mistakes when teaching Javanese, Jojit was reminded of the situation in the Philippines, in which some languages have no standard orthography.
The Challenges of Local Languages in Nusantara and Wikipedia Nur Fahmia
  • This topic is also relatable to Jojit due to the fact that the Philippines also have diverse languages and Indonesian and Philippine languages both come from the Austronesian language family. In this presentation, he was able to know that there are 652 local languages in Indonesia.
  • Some of their challenges are the same as the challenges in the Philippines such as the minimal awareness or concern of the preservation of local languages.
  • Jojit also learned that like the Philippines, most Indonesians are bilingual. They know their mother tongue and the Indonesian language, their national language. In the Philippines, most people know the Filipino language, the national language, as well as their local language.
Wikipedia Education Program in Thailand: A Three-Year Experience Athikhun Suwannakhan
  • Jojit was able to learn about the Wikipedia education programs being done in Thailand. It is good to know that their program was able to generate many contributions or articles to Wikipedia.
Grants for individuals Kacie Harold
  • Jojit has past experiences applying for Wikimedia grants either through WMPH or as an independent individual. He got updates on the Kacie's presentation about grants for individuals.
  • After this session, Kacie approached Jojit and Bel because of the concern regarding some of the grant policies. One of the concern was the air travel expenses, which is generally not approved as line item for a grant. This is one the reasons why Jojit and Bel did not apply a grant for the Wikimedia activities in Eastern Visayas promoting the Waray Wikipedia. Most of the activities there were funded by generous donors. Kacie was convincing Jojit and Bel to not be discouraged and apply for a grant; and perhaps, come up with plans that would be sustainable. Jojit and Bel would think about it and review their options. Irregardless of their decisions on grants, Jojit appreciates the support that the Wikimedia Foundation gave on his personal projects and he continuously supports the organization's mission and vision to spread knowledge to every single human being in the world.
Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Venus Lui & Kaarel Vaidla
  • It is good to know that everyone's inputs are vital for Wikimedia movement's strategy.
  • Jojit learned from the inputs given by participants, which are mostly about the status of knowledge and how can it be more open and reachable by many.
Ideas for ESEAP Collaboration
Chapter Exchange Program Shangkuan Liang
  • Jojit learned that there were initiatives in the ESEAP region for exchanging ideas and sharing experiences through face-to-face meetings.
  • Jojit also learned through the interactive discussions using Menti Meter that many support the Wikimedia Exchange Program, which also known as ESEAP Got Talents.
Communication Channel Punchalee Montriwat
  • Jojit learned the different communication channels for the ESEAP region.
Presentation of the host of the 2019 Conference Tom Hogarth
  • Jojit learned that the ESEAP Conference 2019 will be held at Perth, Australia and preparations are already on its way.
Closing Ceremony Idaman Andarmosoko
  • Due to Idaman's closing activities, Jojit got to met and greet everybody. It's good thing that the conference ended in a nice and friendly manner.
Post event activities
  • After the closing ceremony, everybody was free to do things that they wanted to do. Jojit learned a lot from his conversations with Idaman during dinner.
  • From May 7 to 8, 2018, after the conference, Jojit and Bel toured nearby places and they learned the way of life in Bali. Their drivers guided them and told stories as they drove many parts of Bali. It is interesting fact that Balinese culture is somewhat similar to Filipino culture. They were even mistaken for a Indonesian/Balinese and that is compliment for them.

Plans

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Jojit is spontaneous, flexible and free-spirited; and does not necessarily stick to a plan. That is why he likes Wikipedia because it has freedom, no firm rules, and grown naturally. Thus, any future plans that he states here are adaptable and may change based on the needs that may arise.

Here are the goals that Jojit would wish to achieve after the conference:

  1. Improvement of online Wikimedia projects:
    • Upon learning about the situations of different Wikipedias across the ESEAP region, he realized that the Tagalog Wikipedia where he is an administrator needs to be improved. One way to improve the Tagalog Wikipedia is the extensive cleanup of "one-liners" or articles with no context or information. Then, he will try to encourage users to expand important articles. The cleanup is important because the Tagalog Wikipedia is the most viewed Wikipedia among Philippine-based languages. Actually, work to improve the Tagalog Wikipedia has already been started and as of this writing, there are about 7,000 one-liners deleted.
    • Revive and reorganize the Kapihan, the on-wiki community portal and communication channel of the Tagalog Wikipedia. As of this writing, the Kapihan is just full of announcements and does not really have a actual discussions. During the early years of the Tagalog Wikipedia, the Kapihan was very useful for the coordination of the improvement of articles within the Tagalog Wikipedia. Jojit wanted to bring back the actual function of the portal.
    • Jojit will try to organize a Wikipedia Asian Month at the Tagalog Wikipedia. If he will not able to organize a Wikipedia Asian Month at the Tagalog Wikipedia, he will participate again in the Wikipedia Asian Month at the English Wikipedia.
    • From time-to-time, he will edit articles in the English Wikipedia, upload photos at Wikimedia Commons and add content in Wikivoyage. He will also try to add content in Wikidata and study the advanced Wikidata editing techniques.
    • He will talk with other active contributors of the Tagalog Wikipedia regarding their work and encourage them to more.
  2. Conducting Wikimedia outreach activities
    • Jojit will still continue to do edit-a-thons or workshops in various venues.
    • Jojit will do talks and forums to introduce Wikipedia to a variety of audiences across the Philippines.
    • Jojit will reach out to other organizations and Wikimedia communities or affiliates that need his expertise or help regarding Wikimedia or Wikipedia.
  3. Collaboration with other ESEAP affiliates or communities
    • Jojit is willing to welcome anyone from the attendees of the ESEAP Conference 2018 who are planning to go to the Philippines and learn something from his experiences.
    • Jojit may entertain requests from other ESEAP affiliates or communities for collaboration.

Commentary

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In general, the ESEAP conference went well and Jojit commends the organizers for a very successful ESEAP conference. WMID, led by Biyanto Rebin, did a great job in making the conference fruitful. For the committee coordinators and its members, Jojit saw that they worked hard to organize and put up a productive conference despite all the challenges that they faced. Jojit would also like to thank the Wikimedia Foundation for providing a grant for the very first Wikimedia conference in the ESEAP region, which is perceived as one of the most underrepresented regions within the Wikimedia community. Most of all, the attendees gave their best efforts through their very active participation that made the conference vibrant.

What worked well

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Here are the other things that worked well for the conference as Jojit thought:

  • For facilitating the event, Idaman Andarmosoko did an excellent work in keeping the conference friendly and interactive.
  • The venue was a conducive learning environment as it provided necessary tools and facilities such as projectors, sound system and food for participants.
  • It is very good thing that the venue and accommodation for the participants were on the same place making it easy access for the attendees. The Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar got comfortable lodging and served delectable dishes especially those featuring the Indonesian cuisine.
  • All the speakers of sessions that Jojit attended were very knowledgeable of their assigned topics and Jojit learned a lot from them.
  • The Kecak Dance performance at the Uma Dewi Stage was an enjoyable experience and excellent choice for an extra activity after the end of the first day of the conference.
  • Wikimedia Indonesia made an extra effort to arrange transportation from the airport and hotel and vice versa. Jojit is grateful for this.

Points of improvement

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Here are the points of improvement for the conference as Jojit thought:

  • It seemed that details about the conference were not immediately available. If Jojit is not mistaken, the surge of information (i.e. program, confirmed scholars, submissions etc.) regarding the conference were available only during the last half of April 2018, which is very close to the conference. It would have been better if information had been readily available at least two months before the conference so that the attendees would have a longer preparation.
  • Another concern is the community input before the conference. In Jojit's personal opinion, this area needs to be improved. According to the grant of the ESEAP Conference 2018, the organizers conducted a community engagement survey. As of this writing, he is not able to find the results of the said survey. It would have been better if results were revealed to the public or at least communicated properly if information is already in public. So that, the outcome of the conference can be compared to expectations of the communities.
  • Jojit was confused with the scholarship application and the session submissions. The submission form did not specify if those would submit a presentation should also apply for a scholarship. It became clear only during a discussion at village pump of the Waray Wikipedia. It would have been better if the instructions were clear to avoid confusion. Nevertheless, Biyanto and his team were always available to clarify things.

Additional suggestions

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Here are Jojit's additional suggestions for future ESEAP conferences:

  • Jojit is glad that Wikimedia Australia volunteered to host the next ESEAP conference in 2019 at Perth, Australia but Jojit thinks that Indonesia is a better choice for a venue because WMID handled the previous conference well and Indonesia provides visa-free access to most ESEAP countries. Thus, it would be convenient for most participants.
  • Let those who do not received a scholarship or do no want to apply for a scholarship attend the conference. This is echoing the style of Wikimania where everybody is welcome to attend. Some people are willing to spend their own money for the conference because they want to meet other ESEAP Wikimedians and learn from them as well as give something in return.
  • Make additional sessions about technical topics related to the Wikimedia projects. Jojit himself would like to demonstrate in the conference the step-by-step creation of the Internet-in-a-Box where offline versions of Wikipedia and other free resources can be setup using cheap single-board computers (specifically the Raspberry Pi 3). Actually, he brought a working Internet-in-a-Box during the conference but there was no chance to demonstrate it. Adding technical sessions means that the conference should be longer. Perhaps, making it three days instead of crammed two days. Having a pre-conference is a plus. Workshops in particular should be longer and not compressed to one hour. Some topics also requires at least 30 minutes of presentation.
  • The next ESEAP conference should have a session that discusses the achievement of Wikimedia movement in the ESEAP region. The session may look into the status of the ESEAP region and answering the following questions:
    • Is the ESEAP region well-represented across the Wikimedia projects and the movement as a whole?
    • Are there enough topics in Wikipedia about the ESEAP region?
    • Is the Wikimedia movement able to reach out more people in the ESEAP region especially the minority groups?
    • In what extent the Wikimedia movement identified the capacities of each ESEAP communities or affiliates?
    • How did the previous ESEAP participants collaborated to each other?
    • How far did the Wikimedia movement has achived in terms of its 2030 strategic direction?

Presentation slides

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See also

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