Wikimania 2022/Scholarships/Wikimania Festival in Esino Lario - Italy/Report

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Wikimania Festival in Esino Lario (EN)

Wikimania Festival a Esino Lario (IT)

Project supported by WMF (EN)

Management (EN)

Report (EN)

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The report of Wikimania Festival in Esino Lario - Italy will be ready by October 31st, 2022.

Goals

Wikimania Festival in Esino Lario is a light program of 2-days conferences, gatherings and events. The goal is to enjoy an in-person event during Wikimania, to discuss and exchange among participants and to bring back Wikimania to Esino Lario. Wikipedians and wikimedians will take advantage of the local program of events taking place during the holidays of Ferragosto and they will have the change to attend the online international conferences in a pleasant location. Furthermore some local conferences and a workshop for children will be organised in Esino Lario during the week-end.

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

We met our goals and the project went well.

As planned, Wikimania Festival in Esino Lario was a light program of 2-days conferences, gatherings and events. It reached its goal to offer an enjoyable in-person event during Wikimania, offering the possibility to discuss and exchange among participants and to bring back Wikimania to Esino Lario. Wikipedians and wikimedians took advantage of the local program of events taking place during the holidays of Ferragosto and it was possible to attend the online international conferences in a pleasant location. Furthermore two local conferences and two workshops for children and adults were organised in Esino Lario during the week-end.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
10 children will attend the Wikipedia and Vikidia workshop (9-14 years old)	15	We had 10 online registrations for kids and other 6 requests from adults. We decided to organise 2 workshops at the same time: one targeting kids (at the end with 4 participants) and one for adults (with 11 participants).
30 people volunteering for Wikimania 2022 Festival in Esino Lario	30	Beyond the 27 participants, we had the engagement of the local associations Associazione Amici del Museo delle Grigne, Pro Loco, Alpini, Soccorso Val d'Esino
20 wikipedians and wikimedians attend Wikimania 2022 Festival in Esino Lario	27	During the 2 days of events, 27 people attended the sessions (+ 15 participants at the workshops)
150 people attend the first event for families in the evening (wikipedians, wikimedians and Wikimania Esino Lario active volunteers, with a focus on children and families)	150	Around 150 people attended the first event for families in the evening
150 people attend the second event with country music and dancers in the evening (wikipedians, wikimedians and Wikimania Esino Lario active volunteers	200	Around 200 people attended the second event with country music and dancers in the evening

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

• What worked well?
  • We made two presentations in Italian and English and we recorded them; we organised two workshops which produced edits on Vikidia and OpenStreetMap; some participants started working on an upload for Wikidata; we produced a video with relevant information about the museum and the museum design dedicated to Wikimania, which can be used in the future (and we had a great contribution from 5 participants in making it)
  • It was a pleasure to meet in-person, we had some very nice last minute participants, and we had four days of nice and enjoyable weather (with some rain on Friday evening which did not create any problem)

• What did not work so well?
  • We could have had a larger participation and a richer event with a better planning. Wikimania 2022 provided information very late: the answer to the grant request, the program (with the identification of the time slots of the different days), the schedule with the detailed program and speakers, the surprise (which was really a surprise but it was better to actually know what it was about and to fully taking advantage of it)... We communicated the event of Wikimania in April to include it in the local communication, but at the time we did not know if the proposal was approved, we could not coordinate the event with the actual Wikimania program and it was not possible to make specific invitations.

Finances

Grant funds spent

The funds were spent following the the approved expenses. The only change we made was to spend 220 euro on the accommodation of two organisers (the two people managing the workshops). All receipts are accessible on a nextcloud folder of Wikimedia Italia archive https://workspace.wikimedia.it/s/MQkbGJEaE6rrgFk.

Category	Units	Invoice # (see folder)	Description	Total cost	Total per category	Total spent	Estimated	Remaining
Total						€ 2.814,16	€ 3.750,00	€ 825,84
Total Swag/merchandise for event participants					€ 736,33		€ 700,00	-€ 36,33
Swag/merchandise for event participants	10	1	Headphones	€ 45,90
	40	2	Powerbanks	€ 439,80
	1000	3	Printing postcards	€ 96,84
		4	Stickers	€ 153,79
Event / Meals					€ 951,83		€ 1.950,00	€ 998,17
Wikimania meetups and watch parties during the days of the event			Dinner Santa Maria	€ 0,00
		5	Lunch Rosa delle Alpi	€ 400,00
		6	Dinner in the square for the event	€ 110,00
		7	Lunch Locanda Montefiori	€ 275,00
			Pizzaria Oasi	€ 0,00
		9	Picnic Piazzonaga	€ 87,11
		10	Catering coffee break	€ 79,72
Contingencies / Accommodation					€ 220,00		€ 0,00	-€ 220,00
Wikimania meetups and watch parties during the days of the event		11	Accommodation co-organiser	€ 100,00
		12	Accommodation organiser	€ 120,00
		13	Country evening		€ 516,00		€ 600,00	€ 84,00
			Association country	€ 300,00
			Siae (rights for the music)	€ 147,00
			Dinner for the performers	€ 69,00
		14	Pro loco evening		€ 500,00		€ 500,00	€ 0,00
				€ 500,00
				€ 2.924,16	€ 2.924,16
				Planned	€ 3.750,00
				Remaining	€ 825,84

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

Of our original grant money of 3.750 euro, we have 825,84 euro remaining.

In March 2023 the 825,84 euro remaining were devoted to scholarships for Wikimania Singapore 2023 (please refer below for more details).

Proposal to use the remaining funds

We would like to use the remaining funds to refresh the current signalling in the front entrance of the Museum delle Grigne in Esino Lario, related to the Wikimedia projects and OpenStreetMap with QRpedia codes.

At the moment at the front gate we have some panels and temporary sign we use to indicate the itineraries (on Wikivoyage) and that the museum is open. We would like to use the remaining funds to improve this permanent and very visible signalling. If the available funds will allow us, we will also improve some QRpedia codes located in the museums and around Esino Lario.

We selected this activity for the funds because it focuses on the Wikimedia projects, it leaves a physical sign in the territory and it continue to allow Esino Lario to be well connected to the online Wikimedia projects; please also consider that the Museo delle Grigne has a permanent installation related to Wikimania 2016 Esino Lario.

We have already sent the proposal in August to Jöel Letang (cc Mikel Enwcoiz). It would be great if it can be accepted. If approved we will document the work by uploading here a series of images with the remake.

The external gate of the Museo delle Grigne

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The permanent installation in the Museo delle Grigne about Wikimania 2016 Esino Lario

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Decision about the remaining funds

In accordance with the Wikimania 2022 COT Grants and Scholarships Team (please refer to the discussion page) we devoted the remaining funds of 825,84 euro to the scholarships for Wikimania Singapore 2023. Thanks for the support from our communities :) Wikimedia Italia has supported 4 volunteers, 2 board members and 2 staff members with scholarships of 1'600 each for a total of 12'800 euro.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

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Workshop for kids about Vikidia and workshop for adults about OpenStreetMap and Geocaching

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  Plenary presentation
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  Training for kids
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  Workshop OpenStreetMap
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  Workshop OpenStreetMap

Evening - Saturday 13 August 2022

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Preparation of the session about Wikimania 2022 Festival in Esino Lario

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Session about Wikimania 2022 Festival in Esino Lario - Sunday 14 August 2022

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• Video of Museo delle Grigne

Evening - Sunday 14 August 2022 - Country music and dance

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Some more photos of the participants :)

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Thanks for the Stroopwafels!

The Stroopwafels did not arrive in Esino Lario on time for Wikimania 2022 Festival in Esino Lario, but we took advantage of them by bringing them around and by sharing them with the communities :)

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  Stroopwafels arrived in Milan :(
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  Stroopwafels transported in Esino Lario
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  Stroopwafels at the Museum delle Grigne

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  Stroopwafels shared at State of the Map in Florence
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  at State of the Map in Florence
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  Wikimania 2022 Stroopwafels at the itwikicon in Verbania :)
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  44 boxes of Stroopwafels at the itwikicon!

Feedback from the participants

• It was a great weekend with friends and new acquaintances. Despite some technical problems with PheedLoop, the meet was great, with time to edit Wikipedia, taking photos, uploading on Wikidata, talk with other participants, dance and (last but not least) enjoy great food. When do we go back to Esino Lario? --Yiyi (talk) 07:48, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
• Being back in Esino was amazing, everything there still recalls of the great Wikimania edition of 2016: signs are still on the streets, the wifi networks still works, and the habitants fondly remember the event where most of them volunteered or helped in some way. As usual, the museum staff was friendly and welcoming, and we spent a few days working together on projects, relaxing and making plans for future events in Esino! Auregann (talk) 06:11, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
• It was really splendid to be back in Esino 6 years after. Lots of beautiful memories came back, the locals still remembered the event and were happy to talk about our fond shared memories, and it was good to do some editing together with other Wikipedians after so much time (it was since October 2019 that I didn't attend an IRL Wikimedia conference...). Maybe one day a new proper conference may be organised there... :) --Sannita (talk) 10:58, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
• I think I cannot summarize everything. So let's split. --Valerio Bozzolan (talk) 15:37, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

  About Wikimania 2022 in Esino Lario:

  Having said that this was my very first Wikimania in person, and that I did not help much (except on some parts of post-production and recording), I can say that participating in this physical event was wonderful: it was really nice to meet new and already-known local Wikimedians, it was nice to detoxify in the green of Esino Lario, and it was amazing to see strange Wikimedians dancing. It's amazing to talk about ESA datasets (with people involved in space missions) in the evening and importing them in the next day, it was amazing to talk about stuff like Wikimedia enterprise with the involved people, and contribute together to Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, while having children playing on Vikidia or Minetest (Free and Open Source videogame) or people finding geocached stuff. Really pleasant, friendly, comfortable, not strenuous, with good food, and active in terms of contributions. I will keep a very beautiful memory. --Valerio Bozzolan (talk) 15:37, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

  About Wikimania 2022 online, from Esino Lario:

  First of all, I am sorry if I have a negative feedback about participation to this online Wikimania. I'm not happy in sharing negative feedback. I guess the online organizers now should rest and have some compliments, and I hope they will have these compliments before reading this.

  From my perspective, if the international goal was to allow local communities like Esino Lario to participate in a nice international online event, in my opinion this is a failed goal (and do not point the finger to local communities). I'm not comfortable in saying that at least 3 online talks in the program (ostensibly marked as "dedicated to beginners") were somehow treating participants like "I'm the experienced teacher in a kindergarten, let's go slowly and superficially so you can understand" which I don't know if it's something against the Friendly Space Policy, but I'm sure is not pleasant to beginners. The purpose should be "let's share my knowledge from scratch, to people with other knowledge". I think that talks designed "for beginners" are the most difficult ones, since we need to carefully choose people with a lot of verified experience and who are modest and know how to value diverse knowledge. Now, let's share my direct experience on another aspect: when many participants filled the main Esino Lario's hall, excited that Esino Lario would go on air (via Pheedloop), then they discovered that our meeting link was not already known ~35 minutes earlier our planned online start and that so we were testing on the fly. This is an example of a small superficial online organizational error that is able to kill a local community event. Context: we are all people who have business conferences every day with various platforms. The fact that on Pheedloop we couldn't do what we do on all the other platforms was tremendous. The event seemed amateurish and unprofessional (we then apologized to the local audio engineer for the technical problems with the online platform, since it was not possible to use his simple HD source - and same for the cameraman). Then, we found that it was possible to receive a link to Jitsi Meeting instead of the proprietary platform "callin.studio". I think that, in the Wikimedia movement, it's important to suggest Free/Open, working and well-tested software as default, instead of suggesting a proprietary bugged platform. Other info: I don't know anyone who was able to attended the initial session (maybe it was not working?) and I don't know a person who was able to hear the audio of the final session (just video OK). Also, please note that the platform was embedding Google Analytics, and note that this technical aspect is not legal in our country.

  I would like to see Wikimania like any other non-profit community I love, like FOSSDEM, LibrePlanet, State of the Map, etc. where they do online conferences since years, giving priority to volunteers (from all kind of experiences - not just beginners) and they, by the way, do conferences with 100% Libre software. I apologize for my emotionalism (I really didn't expect to feel so far removed from the Wikimedia movement) and invite you to read a technical paper about the technical issues: wikimania:2022:Present and future. --Valerio Bozzolan (talk) 15:37, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

• It's been nice to be back in Esino after six years! - Laurentius (talk) 12:09, 2 September 2022 (UTC)