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WMMED/Wikimedia Conference/Berlin 2016 Report

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Wikimedia Conference Berlin 2016

Wikimedia Conference 2016, an annual meeting for Wikimedia affiliate organizations and movement partners (Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, user groups, Wikimedia Foundation, Center for Internet and Society, and Wiki Ed Foundation) was held in Berlin from from Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 21. A two day pre-conference was help at the same venue on Wednesday April 20 and 21. Wiki Project Med Foundation was represented at both by FloNight/Sydney Poore.

  • The planned priority action items for the conference were 1) to promote Wiki Project Med as a global Wikimedia affiliate who is supporting the work of Wikimedia users around the world. 2) discuss with Affiliation Committee representatives the timing and qualifications to become a thematic organization. 3) in general promote medical and science content creation as an opportunity for institutional partnerships, Wikipedian in Residence, and Affiliate projects.
  • Other planned actions items included 4) meeting with WMF Legal staff to discuss Partnership Agreements, 5) presenter for group Partnership Session at Pre-conference, 6) meetings affiliates and WMF staff to identify partnership opportunities.

Reporting on Pre-conference, Conference, and individual meetings

Pre-conference:
  • Since the WMF Program Capacity and Learning staff was planning the Pre-conference, I had the opportunity to speak with Jaime Anstee and Alex Stinson about concerns that I raised on wiki about the PC&L Department strongly preferencing cultural heritage over medical and other science topics. After my on wiki comments, they made adjustments to include more medical and science examples and not just Education and Cultural Heritage. And during the follow comments after several presentations there was good discuss about science and medical projects that are happening in the wikimedia movement. So, while I still have concerns that the on wiki environment could be uninviting for science and health topic experts if Wiki Project Med don't strongly make our presence known, I'm pleased that PC&L folks are attempting to be more inclusive by mentioning science and medical topics more often. Also other WMF departments such as Communication and Strategic Partnerships are interested in collaborating with Wiki Project Med as opportunities arise.
Wikimedia Conference
The main days of the conference had three tracks. 1. How to move forward. I attended most of these sessions which discussed the recent period of crisis and turmoil at WMF, and the plans to move forward. The format encouraged freely sharing opinions and feeling with the promise that the conversions would stay in the room. The only sessions in this track with a presentation was a sessions led by Katherine Maher about 2016 WMF Strategy & Annual Plan, and a presentation by WMF Program Capacity and Learning staff and panel with Affiliation Committee members.
2. Movement Impact. and 3 Capacity Building and Learning Time permitting I attending a few sessions in the Capacity Building track.
  • An excellent presentation about the growth of Wikimedia Ukraine.
Private meetings
  • Stephen Laporte- Discussed Partnership Memorandums of Understanding.
  • Zachary McCune - WMF Communication
  • Jorge Vargas- WMF Global Reach, Strategic Partnerships
  • María Sefidari and Montserrat Boix- Wikimujeres- Spanish language editors with strong interest in Women's Health.
Miscellaneous
  • Global Women's Health Project-Wiki Women's User Group and Wikimujeres. Follow up with Lucas Rosnau about translation aspect.
  • Citation Hunt tool, a simple tool shows you a piece of text tagged with [citation needed], then you find and add a reference for it (or skip to another entry).