2021:Announcements/nan
General announcementsAUGUST 8, 2021Tshin-ài ê Siā-khu Sîng-uân, Wikimania 2021 is around the corner, kickstarting with Hackathon this Friday, August 13, and we just can’t wait. We would like to share some reminders and important updates with you. Registration: We are nearing 2500 registrants already! That’s bigger than any in-person Wikimania. We want to ensure everyone’s safety and as such, will be closing registration on Thursday, August 12 @ 23:59 UTC. If you haven’t done so already, please register now. Registering will allow you to receive updates from the organizers, immerse in the virtual platform, and most importantly, interact with other participants and host sessions. Attendee Information: And speaking of registering, we hope to share participant information on Monday, including links to Remo, our virtual platform space, and other important information to prepare you for Wikimania 2021. Volunteers: We are still looking for volunteers for various roles. If you are interested, sign up to help. There are different roles and your help is greatly appreciated. Digital Resources: As with every Wikimania, and even more so a virtual one, we have awesome digital assets to share with you so you can use and share on yourself. Want to print a t-shirt for you and your friends? Need social media posts or cool backgrounds, we got you covered. Hackathon: We will be kickstarting Wikimania 2021 with an all-day Hackathon! Please make sure to register your session on the Hackathon schedule and join us for a day full of collaborative work around the clock and around the world! Community Village + Unconference: After the Hackathon, we have 4 full days of programming starting at different times each day. As with every Wikimania, we will also have a Community Village. There are 140 tables available where you can share information for people to see, and you don’t even have to be there. Finally, we will also be hosting an Unconference space where any attendee can host a session and gather with up to 20 other attendees. Reserve your Unconference space now. Tsiok-lí sūn-sū, AUGUST 4, 2021Dear Community Members, As promised, we have published a series of posts on Diff with key information for event participants. There you will find information about navigating your way around the virtual space Remo and the program, technical solutions, measures to make the experience more welcoming and inclusive, accessing the amazing content during (and after) the events … and so much more. Make sure to read them. Office Hours In case you have any questions, this week and next week, we will be hosting office hours - Wed. Aug 4 (3pm UTC), Fri. Aug. 6 (5pm UTC), Mon. Aug. 9 (10am UTC), Tues. Aug. 10 (8am UTC), Wed. Aug. 11 (3pm UTC). For more information, visit this link. Best Wishes, AUGUST 3, 2021Dear Community Members, We are excited to share the program for this year’s Wikimania with you! This was a huge effort as we received an unexpectedly high number of submissions and as much as possible, we wanted to include all of them. We created two whole new tracks just for this — in addition to the original two, the plenary, and the Unconference and on-demand tracks. We thank you all for your patience and understanding as we bring virtual Wikimania live. The program table is a work in progress and over the next few days, we will edit and build it out with more information. We will share a series of blog posts tomorrow on Diff with event specifics and technical solutions for this first-ever virtual edition of Wikimania. All registered participants will also receive specific guidance by email in the next few days. Upcoming Office Hours and Remo Practice Days: Starting Tuesday, August 3 at 10 AM UTC, we would also like to invite you to join us at our upcoming Office Hours and practice days to walk through our event platform Remo and answer any question you may have around the platform and how to use it. 5 other opportunities are available to hop on Remo and ask us any questions. Please check for a time and day that works for you. Best Wishes, JULY 30, 2021Dear Community Members, Wikimania is only two weeks away (Aug. 13-17) and we are very excited to welcome each of you. The program is shaping up well and we look forward to sharing that with you very soon. Registration remains open. We surpassed 1800 registrants today! Registering is the best way to enjoy the virtual experience, to take part in social activities, and to start receiving information from the organizers. I would also like to invite movement groups and affiliates to sign up for a table in the virtual Community Village space. You can learn more about the available resources and times, as well as sign-ups on the page. Each table will be equipped with a digital Miro whiteboard where you can share text, images and videos about your work and community. You do not need people to be at the tables. There are 140 tables available, so please consider sharing with a neighbor or region. The Unconference space is also open and you can sign up to host a session there. If we were not able to include your submission as part of the main programming, you are more than welcome to host it here. Unconference is a great opportunity to connect with fellow Wikimedians in a more intimate and casual setting. You can learn more on the page. Thank you very much and see you all at Wikimania. Best Wishes, JULY 21, 2021Dear Community Members, We are pleased to inform you that the first round of scholarships to facilitate attendance for this year's virtual Wikimania has been accepted and the funds are being distributed. As previously announced, the scholarships for the 2021 Wikimania are only being channeled through affiliates. This was a complex decision and something that we will build on for next year. Individuals who are not in a community with an affiliate but would wish to receive support like data, mobile top-off, and childcare can request a nearby affiliate for support. We have so far received 22 Scholarship applications. We appeal to all affiliates to be supportive of nearby regional communities that may need help and reach out to the COT should there be need for further guidance. Scholarship applications close on 31 July 2021. Digital Assets: We also invite you to work with this Wikimania’s digital assets, which include high-resolution graphics and virtual backgrounds. Access the digital assets HERE and have fun. Best Wishes, JULY 19, 2021Dear Community Members, We are pleased to announce that a hackathon will take place on the first day of Wikimania (August 13th). During the 24 hours covering all time zones, we aim to provide a space where the technical community as well as others interested, including newcomers, can gather. We also aim to onboard people who would like to get involved in Mediawiki development and the tools ecosystem. We see Hackathon as a space for experiments. With an open schedule and a light, self-organized mindset, the hackathon day is the perfect opportunity for you to try new projects, formats or to gather people and start working on a new idea. To learn more about this year’s hackathon, discover how to start a project, or book a slot in the program, please visit this page. If you have any questions, feel free to use the related talk page to contact the organizing team or join the community conversation on Telegram (see link). Session Submissions Updates A first round of acceptances for the session submissions have been sent out already and respective community members notified via email. In response to so many great submissions, we have largely expanded the available virtual space at Wikimania. However, this is quite a complex and time-consuming task. We thank you for your patience and will continue to communicate the results over the next few days. Wikimania 2021 Registration is Open. Please register HERE if you haven’t done so already. Best Wishes, JULY 8th 2021Dear Community Members The registration for Wikimania 2021 is now open and FREE! Please register HERE. Best Wishes, JULY 1st 2021Dear Community Members, We are once again pleased to share a great update on Wikimania 2021 regarding language support. With the new changes, speakers will not need to provide an English transcription for their pre-recorded sessions if they would not be in English as we had communicated in our previously announced language approach. Please Read More about our new language approach here. We are grateful to everyone that joined our COT office Hours and shared ideas that informed this new language Approach. Best Wishes, JUNE 21st 2021Dear Community Members, Thank you to everyone who submitted their session proposals for Wikimania 2021. The submission window is now closed.We closed the submissions with 71 proposals in the movement group & affiliate track and 222 in the individual/collective track. Public submissions will be updated on the Wikimania page shortly. Review Process: The review process will only take two weeks and all the shortlisted sessions will be announced between 5th July - 9th july 2021. Wikimania Registration: The registration for Wikimania will open in the first week of July. More details to come! Announcements: You can check all of the COT announcements here. Best Wishes, JUNE 17th 2021Dear Community Members, We have seen all the efforts going on in various social media platforms as the community tries to mobilize and fine-tune ideas for their session proposals for Wikimania 2021 and we are happy to announce a 2-days extension to give you some extra hours to conclude your plans. Please be informed that we have extended the deadline to the end of day Sunday 20th, June (24:00hrs Pacfific Standard Time)! The office hours we had last week also opened room for the Wikimania Core Organizing Team to engage with the community and clarify some programming questions you had and we thought it would be fair to give room for the participants to conclude their proposals. Also, some amazing news: If you are submitting a pre-recorded session in another language other than English, you are no longer required to submit a transcription in English. Public Submissions: You can also view public submissions here. Office Hours: Thank you for attending the office hours so far! We look forward to seeing you at the next one! Best Wishes, JUNE 14th 2021Hello Hello! We are pleased with the program submissions, for Wikimania 2021, that have come through so far and even the planning discussions we’ve seen going on in various groups. SUBMISSION PROPOSALS DEADLINE APPROACHING: The deadline to submit your proposals is approaching rapidly, Friday, 18th June, 12am PST and we would not like to see anyone locked out. Please make sure you submit your session proposals for the first ever virtual Wikimania. Office Hours: Thank you to everyone who has joined the Submission Office Hours we’ve had last week. We have one more this week on 15th June at 12:00 UTC. More Office Hours around Wikimania 2021 will become available soon… Stay tuned. Scholarships Program Now Open: As announced last week, the scholarship program is now open until 30th July. This year, scholarships will only be issued to Affiliates, who will then distribute to their respective community members. Read More about the Scholarship Program for Wikimania 2021. Best Wishes, JUNE 7th 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, Wikimania 2021 provides yet another first; Affiliates and User Groups have an opportunity to host their own sessions! Yes, you can submit proposals to host a session as a Movement Group, Affiliate, Individual or as a Collective of individuals here. The deadline for submission is 18th June, don’t miss out! Office Hour: We are also happy to announce that we will be hosting some office hours to answer any programming questions that you might have. Please check here. Best Wishes, MAY 31st 2021Hello-hello! This is to remind you that if you would wish to host a session during Wikimania 2021 you have until 18th June to submit your proposal. Below are some links to guide you through; We look forward to receiving your submissions and suggestions to make the first Virtual Wikimania a memorable event. Best Wishes, Winnie Kabintie, MAY 27th 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, We have been so hard at work that we are just now peeking our heads out of our computer screens! However, we have some exciting news to share with you around Wikimania 2021! Here are some updates and important information:
We look forward to receiving your submissions and suggestions. Have a great weekend and see you all soon. Best Wishes, Winnie Kabintie, MAY 21st 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, It’s finally here! The session submission guidelines for the first ever virtual Wikimania are live! You can view them here on DIFF. The Wikimania 2021 Event Wiki will also go live next week, we’ll start to host all further updates there! Session submissions will open on Monday 24th of May! On Monday we will share where you will be able to do this. Reading all of this information could leave you with questions. We therefore will be making ourselves available for office hours. More information on when and how to engage with us will be provided next week. In the meantime you can leave your questions for the Core Organizing Team here. Best Wishes, Winnie Kabintie, May 17th 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, As promised, here we are providing more updates around the development of Wikimania 2021! With only 2 months and 26 days left, we are walking steadfast into the first ever virtual development for the biggest Wikimedia community event of the year! Without further ado, here are a few updates to kick start the week:
This is all folks! We’ll be back with more news next Monday and on Friday the 21st with details around session submissions! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Best Wishes, Winnie Kabintie, MAY 11th 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, We’re so excited to share some updates with you around Wikimania 2021! We’ve been hard at work, getting things running and putting things in place and realized we have so much we’d like to share with you. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding, as we navigate through this rapidly moving ship.
We are excited about all the work and progress happening so far to make this event happen. We're looking forward to hearing about your amazing session proposals to help bring Wikimania 2021 to life. We can't wait to convene to celebrate two decades of free knowledge. Best Wishes, Winnie Kabintie, APRIL 22nd 2021Dear Wikimedia Community Members, The Core Organizing Team (COT) is excited to take on organizing our first ever virtual Wikimania! Many thanks to the Wikimania Steering Committee for entrusting us with the task of bringing our community together and celebrating the movement. This year marks Wikipedia’s 20th birthday, and the theme for the 2021 Wikimania will be centered around this fantastic milestone. We want to make this edition a celebration of all the humans that have made achieving it possible. As the COT, we find it important to keep you informed and involved throughout the process of organizing Wikimania 2021 and we would appreciate your great support. We will be reaching out to the wider community for your input on various aspects to inform some of our decisions. To begin with, we would like to ask for your opinion on a few things;
Let us know your thoughts using this LimeSurvey link. The survey will collect anonymous responses, and will remain open until the 5th of May 2021. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions, and will be sharing more with you as we move towards making a decision on these aspects for our virtual Wikimania! Thanks and speak soon! Winnie Kabintie, |
Affiliate announcementsJUNE 30th 2021Hi I'd like to invite All Affiliates to sign up to host their own table in Building 1, there are 140 tables available please consider sharing with a neighbor or region. As an example in Nigeria there are 5 Affiliates, they could have a table called Nigerian Affiliates with every community collaborating to share the space. It also could reflect a common association like Australia and New Zealand, who have always supported each other. Every table is fitted with a Miro whiteboard where links, videos, notes and a host of awesome gadgets will enable you to reach your community. The Whiteboard is your digital staff member, you dont require anyone to be stationed there during the event. We'll put out more information about using the whiteboards soon but for now you can view its capabilities at Miro. The Community Village will be in Building 1, which is also where all the plenary sessions will be hosted. Each table will be named to reflect the community. For meetups put a notice on the white board with details of when and where in the unconference space. See you all at Wikimania Regards, User:Gnangarra, JUNE 19th 2021Hi Everyone There have now been 22 applications for scholarships, [[:m:Category:Wikimania 2021/Scholarship applications|full list is here[[. There is still time to request support for your community members, and for other individuals within your region that don't have an affiliate. Regards, User:Gnangarra, JUNE 14th 2021Dear Wikimedia Affiliates, Wikimania 2021 will be hosted virtually for the first time in the event's 15-year history. Since there is no in-person host, the event is being organized by a diverse group of Wikimedia volunteers that form the Core Organizing Team for Wikimania 2021. Event Program: The program design of this Wikimania accommodates Affiliates and User Groups for them to curate a portion of the program. Wikimedia affiliates have an opportunity to host a series of their own sessions. Below are some links to guide you through; Please note that the deadline for submission is 18th June 2021. Affiliate Scholarships: Scholarships are available to all Wikimedia movement affiliates to support practical access to and participation in Wikimania 2021 in their communities. Please read more about it in the Affiliate Announcement section here Office Hour: If you are left with questions, the COT will be hosting some [[|office hours (in multiple languages), in multiple time-zones, to answer any programming questions that you might have. Regards, User:Gnangarra, JUNE 7th 2021Dear Affiliates, I am following up on the earlier email, this time with concrete information for the Scholarship Program of Wikimania 2021. As stated before, funding will be made available to all Wikimedia affiliates this year. The rationale behind this approach is to maximize the number of scholarships that can be awarded, by empowering our affiliates to distribute the funds to their communities accordingly. WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR FUNDING? Wikimania 2021 scholarship applicants must be Wikimedia movement affiliates. Contrary to an in-person event, individuals and other organizations are not eligible. WHAT IS ELIGIBLE?
We will start accepting applications starting today! Although English is the preferred language for applications, you are welcome to submit yours in any language. You can apply using this link.
This year, there is an opportunity for affiliates to curate a section of the Wikimania program in the Movement Groups & Affiliates track! The submission process is live through June 18th. Wikimedia Affiliates can apply here. Below are some links to guide you through; Session proposals are in English. This will enable all proposal reviewers to understand the essence of your proposal. You can choose to present your session in your own language. See the FAQ for more information on this.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions in the meantime. Alternatively, the COT will be hosting office hours in these next few weeks. Feel free to drop in and ask your questions. Regards, User:Gnangarra, MAY 17th 2021Dear Affiliates, It has been a very tough 20 months since the community last experienced the joy and delight of coming together at Wikimania. Wikimedia Foundation staff have been working hard since the decision was taken to cancel Wikimania in Bangkok in 2020, trying to find a way we can come together and celebrate our movement. For 2021 we are going to host a virtual Wikimania with the aim of it being by and for the community. We recently established the Core Organising Team (COT) with volunteers from across our communities. As the COT develops the event we will seek out your support and appreciate your help throughout this new, yet very exciting process.
In case you haven’t seen the latest information around this year’s virtual Wikimania, here’s a few links to inform you of the latest developments. We will be sharing Wikimania updates with the larger movement on a weekly basis. Please see the link below for the first of this weekly series. The official Wikimania Wiki is currently being developed, and we will be going live with this soon.
As you may know, every year some people are awarded a scholarship to attend Wikimania. These scholarships are through programs offered by different affiliate organizations or the Foundation. The format of those scholarships has been changed for this year as we don’t need to fund travel, accomodation, conference fees, or visas for a virtual event. We do, however, still have the resources that are usually allocated to Wikimania’s scholarship program available. We therefore want to distribute those funds to affiliate organizations interested in this opportunity. This year we can lower the individual costs of scholarships, yet aim bigger, and help more people participate in a virtual Wikimania. We know every community will have different needs that will need to be addressed to allow as many attendees as possible to join Wikimania, - this is where we need your help! You know your local community best. So we would like to empower you to make decisions as you best see fit.
With the support of the Foundation’s grants team we will be providing funding to support people attending Wikimania. What we would like to have happen is that we provide funds to your affiliate organization so that you can tailor support that will best help your community. This funding is available to all affiliates independent of any current grants like the APG.
Funding will come from the Foundation. As the Foundation teams sort out how this can be done from a Legal, Finance and Administration standpoint. This could simply mean redirecting a portion of existing grants and allocating the spend to Wikimania. We will be sharing more information on how to apply for this support in the upcoming period of time.
Below is a list of examples of where we think scholarships can help;
We ask that the affiliates organizations, take the lead with distributing scholarship assistance to your community members, as you know how best to create real impact for your community. This means that you would have the freedom to award scholarships to those in your community as you see fit.
As the COT's affiliate contact, I'm here to help you through the next few months. I hear some ask who am I? In short, I'm User:Gnangarra. I've been contributing for 15 years, I'm a member of Wikimedia Australia and spent 4 years as Vice President and 2 years as President. I'm one of the current organisers of ESEAP. I know my experience within an affiliate organization will help me to quickly help you and understand what possible barriers of entry exist. Please contact me anytime my email is gnangarra@wikimedia.org.au, I'm on this all-affiliates@lists.wikimedia.org mailing list. I'm also happy to zoom, skype, remo, googlemeet, or talk via any other platform. My COT colleague who will be supporting the affiliate organization work is User:WikiTatik Watch this space as there will be more exciting opportunities to come for affiliates to show and shine during Wikimania. Regards, User:Gnangarra |