Wikimania-Meetings/18 February 2005

This is a summary of the Wikimania-Programme committee meeting on 18 February, 2005.

The next meeting is 21:00 UTC Friday 25 February in #wikimania.

Relevant links: Meetings, Programme, Speakers, Call for papers, Programme meetings, Calendar.

Timing

• Planing and party: Thursday night. Is it possible to get access to the rooms before Thursday evening?
• Finish setting up: Friday morning
• Official start: Friday, 2pm (possible non-formal talks/workshops) in the morning that don't require any set-up

Rooms

• We have one 300-person room, two medium-sized rooms, and at least one other room; there are 'other' rooms available for breakout sessions.
• Need to set up a room-reservation list to indicate when each room is free.

Tracks

• There will be three unofficial tracks. These are for planning purposes only to avoid overlap of similar topics.
• Technology, community, and projects

Budget

• Currently no budget for inviting speakers (travel/accommodation)

Call for papers

• Sj sent out an initial deadline-free CfP on Monday to the list of potential speakers.
• cfp@wikimedia.org is now operational on OTRS
• Deadlines for paper abstracts is April 1, though this may be extended later

Speakers

• We are tentatively aiming at having 3-4 keynotes, 4-5 panels, 12-15 lectures, 10-15 other (brief presentations, workshops, group discussions. These will be divided into sessions of 1 to 1.5 hours (aiming for about 15 parallel sessions a day).
• List of potential speakers to be drafted on a private wiki (Sj to set this up)
  • Translators will require full papers from speakers in advance

Keynotes

• Keynotes are also meant to encompass the event as a whole
• One hour including questions
• Opening keynote by Jimmy that covers all three tracks
• Nothing else will happen during a keynote (non-parallel)
• Four keynotes in total
• Two keynotes the first day, and then one each on Saturday and Sunday

Short talks

• Time will be set aside for ad hoc talks

Panels

• A panel invitation should go out to a cluster of people; as long as 3 or 4 people accept, we can run the panel.
• We shouldn't aim for many more panels than we can have space for in case they all accept.
• Panel proposals are needed earlier than the others
• Ideas for panels are to be developed at Wikimania-Panels by next program meeting.
• A panel will have four or five "experts" from similar but different areas.

Discussion panels

• These will involve much shorter talks, with a long period for discussion and debate with the audience.
• A moderator will give an introduction to the topic and the panelists (currently unclear on how long this should be)
• Three members plus a moderator. Ten minutes discussion per panelist plus 45 minutes of discussions
• We can ask some of the speakers to also go on panels

Workshops/ Tutorials

• Workshops will generally be in smaller rooms
• How to become a MediaWiki hacker
• How to write good articles
• How to take photographs that will be useful for the projects
• How to edit and modify sound and video files

Posters

• In a room or in a lobby depending on wall space available
• A time will be set for people to answer questions about their poster
• Is wall space enough? Will people want tables for stuff?

Thursday night party

• To be arranged
• Can this take place on site? In a pub? In the uni?
• Is there a bar there?

Other events

• Awards ceremony for the competitions.
• Opening speech
• Closing presentation + input from the audience

Catering and accommodation

• Should breakfast be during the first talk?
• We need to know how this is organised. How long each meal time needs to take. Whether it takes place in the same rooms as the sessions.
• How much accommodation needs to be reserved for speakers?

Proceedings

• Might be printed
• Might be sold
• Could include advertising
• Will include basic information on speakers and schedule

Interpreters

• We have official interpreter candidates for en->fr and en->de.
• Equipment has not been arranged yet. This would cost around $5k
• Paperwork could be made (at least) trilingual