2021:Help desk

For the archive of this help desk, see 2021:Help desk/Archive

Regarding the Wikimania 2021 Registration Form Privacy Statement

Copied from foundation:Talk:Wikimania 2021 Registration Form Privacy Statement

Under "Purpose of Registration Form" it says "to collect registration data". That is not a purpose, that is what you do. This section should answer why the data is collected. Ainali (talk) 08:56, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Just a note that the answer has been provided at the original location where the question was asked. --ELappen (WMF) (talk) 19:41, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Full name

Am I required to put in my full name? I don't really feel comfortable disclosing my name, whether it's stored confidentially or not. Berrely (talk) 12:54, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

@Berrely: The registration form has these required questions: first and last name, email (you have to put these twice: into your contact info and ticket info), where you live (no options, so you can write whatever you want), and what year you began contributing. Wiki username and other info is optional. Now, do you have to use your real name, I guess that's up to you... -kyykaarme (talk) 10:20, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

Moved from 2021 talk:Registration. Effeietsanders (talk) 15:44, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

@Berrely - see above for context, and @Effeietsanders - thank you for the ping, further to our exchange so far.

Hm, I have not been informed of any global restrictions, one can see my global account, and anyhow: I had used random data, on purpose.

I have checked these two throwaway email accounts now. The first one still has not received any follow-up, while the second attempt (the same anonymous email service, the answers: "., ., .," and a couple of "N/As") resulted in the Here's how to get ready for Wikimania 2021! confirmation mail after +24 hours. So anonymity worked, albeit on the second try, the randomized answers provided at the first attempt may have been "wrong", and additional organizers' T&Cs not disclosed here seem to be used now and then.

Anyhow, if it is all there is to the registration process and there are no further mails forthcoming (or are there?), here is the link for the folks who want to skip these Eventbrite hoops, looking things up and waiting: https://live.remo.co/e/wikimania-2021

Bows to all, Zezen (talk) 18:12, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Zezen: please note that you won't be able to log in on Remo without first registering for the conference. Effeietsanders (talk) 19:05, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Update 1: Effeietsanders: thank you for the clarification. A note to the other readers: I have logged in again to this second throwaway account now and there is some additional activity since my last post above: "The organizer will follow up with instructions on how to redeem your ticket ", so you are right: there are further mails forthcoming. I have struck out my advice above then.

~~~~ (SIG tool did not work here, so manually signing it: Zezen, again)

Update 2, on 2021-08-13, 24 hours before the Remo-hosted Day 2 part of the conference: Out of curiosity, having cleared the cookies, with UBlock Origin etc. on (hence as a new user), I have used this direct link to visit Remo now. After providing yet another throwaway email address in the Remo platform itself, and having read their anti-privacy T&Cs, this URL works in a second, as I can see this in Remo's UI: Wikimania starts in - Days 01: Hours 00: Minutes 21: Seconds 06, and [you are] Already Registered. It thus seems that Eventbrite step is not required, neither is providing (anonymized) extra profile data there, and there is no need to wait for any third-party's decision. I have restored my advice above then, e.g. for the benefit of Wikipedian latecomers, who may wish to try out this procedural shortcut just before the conference starts: it worked for me now.

Bows, Zezen.

Update 3, on 2021-08-14, this Eventbrite-less procedure works: I can see the tables, buildings, etc., still named as "." and without registration and verification. Off to participate there then. Bows, Zezen.

How to access Remo?

Hi, I registered on Eventbrite and got a few emails regarding Wikimania, that all mentioned something along the lines of "the Remo link is in an email sent to you". Looking through the available info, it looks like an email was supposed to be sent on August 9th, but I didn't get an email then (already checked my spam folder). What could be wrong here? EpicPupper (talk) 17:50, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Oop, looks like there's a Remo link above. Is it fine if I just use that? EpicPupper (talk) 17:57, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi @EpicPupper: - the Remo links are now in the program, but you can also look for an email with the subject "[Reminder] Here's how to get ready for Wikimania 2021!" - the links are in a table in the body of that email. Hope that helps. -- Phoebe (talk) 20:42, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

OAuth2-Registration

From my point of view it were great if it is possible to get into Remo with an OAuth-Authentifation without creating an further account with an password. As far as I remeber that method was used for a Wikidataevent last year and it worked good. Do you think it is possible to implement such an kind of authentification, what is needed for that and how long does it need. It were great if such an kind of authentification is set up. This is an question to all the people who read that page and it is an idea how to save privacy. Please tell me what you think about that idea. --Hogü-456 (talk) 21:20, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

hi - it's not integrated with MediaWiki OAuth (though it is with Google OAuth). I don't know if it's possible to implement, since it's a third party platform, but that's a good idea to look into for the future if we use it again. -- Phoebe (talk) 20:45, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Unable to register?

I'm signed up to host a table at the community village, but didn't get any contact about it. Since those started tomorrow I swung by again today to check things out. Now, it seems like registration is closed? As an online event, I figured we could just sign in, and wasn't aware of the need to register ahead of time - others are in the same boat. Is there anything that can be done to get an account? GreenReaper (talk) 19:19, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

for the COT et al - this is solved, hopefully :) -- Phoebe (talk) 20:38, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Trying to get into Remo..... I have the reminder email but it says I am not an invitee. Boo???? Email me via my Wikipedia account if you can help..... or am I just too early??? Regards, Ariconte (talk) 04:47, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

I was too early.... Working now. Regards, Ariconte (talk) 06:13, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Q&A from Remo

How do we get the Wikimania shirt?

print your own! We have designs but no physical tshirts this year. -- Phoebe (talk) 10:32, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
For everyone asking about the T-shirt, this is the file I used to make it you can download it and take it to your local printer ]]. Gnangarra (talk) 10:45, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Is community space (a.k.a. Building 1) always disabled during the presentations? During keynotes only? Or how could we access it all the time?

yes this happens when the there presentations its a feature of Remo that allows us to have 1000 people in a building. The table space will be open at other times. Gnangarra (talk) 10:45, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Hello Phoebe, I saw you said in the Remo Q&A that you were answering questions here. Could you help work out if live captions are possible on the YouTube channel? I know that Remo doesn't provide live captions, and requires people to provide their own captioning solution (I can't do this myself right now, so am reliant on the organisers of events providing suitable captioning). The pre-recorded bits (Jimmy's bit and the other ones) had great captioning. But the live bits don't have captions and I am struggling to follow/hear what is being said. It seems that YouTube automated captioning is fine once an item is uploaded to YouTube, but for *LIVE* captioning to be automated it needs to be a channel with over 1000 subscribers, see here. Is there any way the live captioning can be turned on for the Wikimania channels? Carcharoth (talk) 10:41, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Carcharoth: -- editing my answer to give the correct answer, sorry about that. For YouTube videos, the closed captions will be available once the session is over (but not during). It has to do with how these videos have to be streamed (through 3 platforms!) Sorry about that! Thank you! -- Phoebe (talk) 10:54, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi Phoebe. I lost my original reply in an edit conflict with you. :-( I am aware of this problem (I explained it in my original post above). This means I cannot watch the event live. Both the platforms you have provided (Remo and YouTube) don't support live captioning, unless you (the organisers) provide it or turn it on (it is most definitely NOT an artefact of streaming through three platforms). It is very disconcerting to have the bits where you and Joel are talking to have no captions, and the bits where Gnangarra and Jimmy Wales (and others) were talking to have perfect captions. Essentially, until I can sort out captioning at my end (really, I shouldn't have to do this, the organisers of an event should be providing the captioning) I have to wait and watch the events on catch-up later. I don't know how many people are affected and excluded by this setup. As an aside, in the 'On Demand' bit of Wikimania, the Swedish video with English and Swedish subtitles is an example of perfect accessibility. The Commons videos where the uploaders have not provided captions are very difficult for me to understand. This highlights the difference between a broadcaster (YouTube) and an archival service (Commons). Really, the videos that are archived on Commons need captions archiving with them as well. Carcharoth (talk) 11:09, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Just to add, I have tried to follow some of the current talks, and it is really not possible. I am missing too much of what is being said, and it is very frustrating as I would love to ask questions of the speakers but am not really understanding what they are saying. I think I need to step away for a while to try and work out what to do next. :-( There are some options described here, but I don't have Google Chrome. Is there no way at all that the Wikimania organisers can provide live captioning so that those who cannot hear can access the event? It is not acceptable for large organisations like Remo and Wikimedia to push the responsibility for organising captioning back onto the person at the other end, instead of providing it themselves. Carcharoth (talk) 11:40, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

I did have another thought. Would it not be possible for a kludgey workaround, where something like the output from otter.ai is streamed into the Remo feed? If necessary, on a separate YouTube channel? This would be similar to the way the translation into different languages is being handled. I am sure there is enough technical know-how in the Wikimedia community to come up with some sort of solution! (As an aside, people aren't being asked to provide their own live translations, so why is live captioning being treated differently?) Carcharoth (talk) 12:04, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

YouTube closed captions

After being told above that live captioning for an event was not possible [ :-( ], I have just tried to access one of the talks on YouTube after it finished, and there are no captions! See Email campaigning for onboarding new volunteers as an example. If you look there, you will see: 'Live chat replay is on. Messages that appeared when the stream was live will show up here.' I think the organisers need to press a button or something to turn on the automated captions so I can view the subtitles and watch the talk. Can this please be sorted out? Carcharoth (talk) 12:15, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

I am going to give up on this for today, it is too frustrating and not good for me. I hope things will be more accessible for me (and anyone else who needs live captions) when I try again later in the conference. Carcharoth (talk) 12:27, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

@Carcharoth: I'm so sorry. I'm sending this to the video producers to find out what is happening. -- Phoebe (talk) 12:46, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. I have encountered this before at other conferences where the livestream gets chopped into bits for upload to YouTube, and sometimes something needs doing before the "CC" button appears. The other thing I just realised is that watching the videos back can be confusng when you cannot see the chat or the Q&A that was operating at the time. There are three 'live chat' areas as far as I know. The YouTube Live Chat area, the Remo live chat area and the Remo Q&A area. To preserve the full experience of the live event, really all three areas need to be captured, but no conference I have yet attended has managed to do that, so I am used to that... :-) (that is a bit of a weary smile, but seriously, many people will be watching the videos on catch-up and they too would appreciate having the chat preserved in some way). Best practice is for the presenters to read out the questions they are answering, so that it is not confusing later. Carcharoth (talk) 12:52, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

UPDATE: This appears to be working now. Either a switch did need pressing, or there is an inbuilt delay before the automated captioning appears. Thank you also to whoever fixed the thing where there is sometimes a conflict between imported captions (provided by the speakers or their software) and the automated captioning. That is also now working. Now just have to find time to watch the hours of content being generated! :-) Carcharoth (talk) 08:44, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

@Carcharoth: - yes I just confirmed with producers. Captions are now on yesterday's videos. There's a time delay because YouTube has to generate the captions. However they are now there in English and also in other languages (click settings to change languages). Sorry about the delay! Thanks, -- Phoebe (talk) 12:29, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Quiz (Remo and YouTube)

I noticed that the Quiz is marked as "to participate, join Remo". Does this mean that it won't be available to watch on YouTube? Because of the lack of live captioning (see above) I can't participate in the quiz (hopefully that can be sorted in time), but I would still like to watch the quiz later on YouTube. Will the quiz be recorded and be made available on YouTube? Carcharoth (talk) 13:06, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

@Carcharoth: There should be a recording available! Effeietsanders (talk) 13:30, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you! Carcharoth (talk) 08:30, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Remo and multiple devices

It seems like Remo doesn't allow multiple devices with the same account. This morning I had closed my PC, then I opened Remo on my telephone and got the message "You are active in another event. Please logout from it and try again." Why? I had indeed shut down my PC. Actually we shouldn't have limited the access to Wikimania to registered users.--Ferdi2005 (talk) 18:47, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

Recordings of live translations

Are recordings of live translation of the sessions available anywhere? It would be a huge disappointment if they were only live and we lost such valuable material.--Ferdi2005 (talk) 18:52, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

I am not one of the organisers, but according to this page the live translation recordings will be archived. How this is being done in practice I don't know. Carcharoth (talk) 08:29, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Thanks @Carcharoth:. So we have only to wait! --Ferdi2005 (talk) 23:58, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Unconference space

Is there any inbuilt (native) captioning for the Unconference space? I understand it may be too late this time round if not, but with the amount of technical knowhow in the Wikimedia world, is it not possible to come up with a solution (especially if future Wikimanias may be hybrid online and in-person events)? Otter.ai seems to be the most 'available' of the captioning software out there (though if anyone is aware of the different possibilites and would like to discuss what works best for Wikimedia events, I would love to hear from them, as I suspect would the organisers). I do get the argument that people can bring their own captioning solution with them to events, but there is also a very strong argument for accessibility reasons for events themselves to provide native, inbuilt captioning, not least for capturing and archiving the text of talks and events. Many countries also have legislation requiring certain levels of access to be provided. Am not sure how that applies to Wikimania. For what it is worth, Remo's statement on accessibility is here. Carcharoth (talk) 08:54, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Besides otter, there is also webcaptioner.com. Ainali (talk) 09:29, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

"Sorry, but currently Web Captioner only works in Google Chrome on Windows, Mac OS and Chrome OS. This is because Web Captioner relies on a technology called the Web Speech API that is only supported by Google Chrome at the moment and no other browsers." Thank you for the link. I am hoping to find a solution that doesn't require me to use Chrome (which I can't at the moment). Just as an aside, I recently booked for another online event, and after an enquiry was told "all performances will be captioned, and for the Q&As on Zoom live-captioning has been enabled." Some events do make themselves accessible. Carcharoth (talk) 09:58, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't notice that, sorry. I agree with you that accessibility should be front and center (which is why I for my own talk am providing subtitles in both English and Swedish). Ainali (talk) 12:34, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Ainali, just quickly, as I don't have much time, I wanted to thank you so much for putting the subtitles on your talk, which I had noticed (I just didn't recognise the name straightaway), and I am pointing to as a model of good accessibility! It takes some time to encourage this to the point where it becomes more common, but I hope more people will do this. Maybe starting with those who gave the talks (as the people best placed to do so) helping to edit inaccuracies in the YouTube automated captions. Carcharoth (talk) 20:30, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Uncollapsing 2021:Program

Hi, can someone with write access uncollapse the sections of 2021:Program? Now that the conference is over, collapsing past days is not useful anymore, and that page is the best way to browse the video archive. Thanks! --Tgr (talk) 02:45, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

YouTube playlist option disabled

Hey, it seems all Wikimania videos on the WMF YouTube account (example) are set to 'Safe for kids'. This gives the unfortunate restriction that you're unable to save them to a playlist or 'Watch later'. I'm fine with not being able to comment, but not being able to add videos from Wikimania i'd like to watch in a playlist is pretty annoying. Husky (talk) 09:33, 24 August 2021 (UTC)