Wikimania:Future of Wikimania/2016

Etherpad notes from 2016, copied from https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Wikimania2016-discussion7b

Topic

The future of Wikimania

https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discussions/The_future_of_Wikimania

Introduction

The Discussion Room is a space for open and facilitated discussions at Wikimania. Participation of the audience in the session is critical, because there are no speakers, and there is no expert panel!

3 rules are the basis: Focus on YOU. We are interested in discussing and triggering individual action, things people can personally do and change to improve our Wikimedia projects and movement. We trust the discussion can be much more interesting if we do not focus on what others should do ("the others", Wikimedia chapters and Wikimedia Foundation). Be constructive and polite. Disagreements animate discussions and they can allow us to unfold all issues related to a topic. Let's avoid personal attacks, let's consider that we have different backgrounds and let's

aim at making everybody comfortable in sharing their legitimate point of view.

Be short and on topic. Let's create space for everyone to express his/her opinion.

Objective

As the Wikimedia community has grown and changed in the past eleven years, so has Wikimania, our annual community conference. It has grown in scale, changed in nature, experimented with different styles and tracks, and explored different pricing and scholarship models, venues and purposes; this year's conference is an example of that experimentation.L Many attendees consider it the height of their year, and the most effective way to build strong relationships with community members across the globe, make progress on tricky issues, and secure agreement and mutual understanding.

At its very largest, however, Wikimania has attracted fewer than 0.1% of the active editors of the sites. Many members cannot take on the luxury of attending a global conference, because they have commitments that make it impossible to travel, or travel that far, because they do not have the funds and cannot get a scholarship, or other reasons. How do we help as many of our community members as possible enjoy what makes Wikimania special? How do we make things better than they are? Where should our work be focused?

Purpose

As a group, we will share thoughts on what we each hope for the future of community conferences in general, and consider what changes might improve things.

Targeted participants

Community members (new and experienced) interested in community dynamics, events, engagement and culture. Especially welcome are people from communities currently ill-served by the existing provision. Previous and prospective sponsors of such events, like the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters, are also welcome to give their views.

Preparatory readings or materials

Starting questions

Number of times present at Wikimania: 1 / 2-5 / 6+ times
Wikimania is the most important tool to support exchange of best practices between Wikimedia communities
This Wikimania was awesome

Attendees

Andrew Lih User:Fuzheado
James F. User:Jdforrester
Lodewijk User:Effeietsanders
Lantus
Hadi
Douglas S. User:Discott
MIke Peel (note-taking)
[[User:Лорд Бъмбъри]
user:VladislavNedelev
Joe Sutherland (User:Foxj / User:JSutherland (WMF)
User:Slashme David Richfield
User:Telaneo
User:Quiddity
Chris Schilling User:I JethroBT (WMF) and User:I JethroBT (thanks!) (No problemo :D)
Doc James
Coren
Sj
Thelmadatter
antanana
Saehrimnir
Samwilson
jbmurray
Iolanda (Iopensa)
User:Magioladitis
Ignacio
User:Kudpung
Deryck Chan
Tobi User:toblu
Jean-Fred
Base
Anthere
Ellie Young

User:Jetam2

Add yourself above!

Notes

Andrew Lih: consultation in IdeaLab space that indicated a belief that Wikimania was no longer going to be every year, being every other year instead. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania Introduced Chris:

Chris Schilling: Community facilitator. Consultation was held by Ellie Young and Siko Bouterse in late 2015. Indication was that the bare majority of participants (~120 people) wanted to see a model of every other year, having Wikimania, then every other year having regional meetings. --> During the consultation, few concerns were expressed about an every-other-year model. Of course, few concerns were expressed about an annual model, too. --> Invitations to participate in this consultation were sent to folks who attendend or who were interested in attending Wikimania 2014 and 2015, the Wikimania (Steering) Committee, attendees to regional and thematic conferences (e.g. Iberoconf, WikiArabia, Wikimedia CEE Meeting, Wikisource Conference), and wikimedia-l, wikimania-l, and other mailing lists. We tried to cast a broad net in this consultation. --> One main criticism was that the sample is too small, compared to the usual attendance of Wikimania. Many of these could not get to Wikimania, e.g., due to visa issues, costs. Maybe Wikimania isn't really the place where they want to interact. Balanced approach between global community, and more accessible local groups. Want to clarify that as of now there is no firm plan to cut Wikimania in any meaningful way. Takeaway is that Should be doing more as a community and WMF to serve people that can't come to WIkimania, or don't have access to a conference where they can represent their needs. Can help answer any questions about that consultation. - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania (main consultation page)

- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania/Outcomes (outcomes of the consultation, including methods and data)

It's just one data point amongst other considerations (like the outcomes and learnings from Wikimania 2016).

Andrew: Does this make people feel better? Felt that this was set in stone and happy to hear it.

Round-room introductions - NOT DONE, TO SAVE TIME

James Forrester: Chair of Wikimania committee. Community-led conference. The committee is a kind of self-perpetuating committee established by the board. All volunteers, except for Ellie. Don't meet very often. Wants Wikimania to be as amazing as it has been in the last 12 years.

Others from the Wikimania community also in the room. Ellie Young, WMF employee in charge of logistics. Iolanda, who ran Wikimania this year (big round of applause)

What is the purpose of Wikimania? Nature of the conference depends on the location to an extent. Does there need to be more forward planning for what Wikimania is? What should Wikimania be doing every yer?

James Heilman: meeting people from different parts of the movement. Come to Wikimania and form collaborations with people from software development, from other topic areas (e.g. internet in a box etc.) Can do much more working together than working on ourselves. Would be a tragedy if Wikimania moved to one every two years - needs to be kept every year. Motivates for another year to keep going.

Ignacio: Some of the discussion is what do we do about people who are not here. Regional meetings: great, but if we reduce Wikimanias, there's less chance of outlying people coming. If it's every two years, it's one in EU every 2 years, one outside every 4 years. Reduces chances of attending one. About 1300 - 1400 coming this year. (Iolanda) Every two years, more people , harder to organise.

Lodewijk: echo what James says about inspiring, and connecting. Can do that in multiple events that Wikimedia organises. Wikimania uniquely qualified for connecting communities that work in different ways, all trying to do similar things (sourcing, deleting articles/things, trolls, etc.), don't need to reinvent every time - Wikimania only place that the discussion can happen.

toblu: Visibility and hightening profile. E.g Esino Lario Wouldn't be reached by regional conferences.

David: Attended a number. Highlight of my year. Not be a tragedy if every 2 years. If we had more regional, and better funded conferences More chance for people in the regions to attend conferences. To keep getting inspired. Not only place where whole community can come together - e.g. Wikimedia Affiliates Conference that may connect communities.

Coren: volunteered to organise next year's in Montreal. It's the Opportunity for different communities to meet. Local meetings closed, people already interacting with others a lot. "Mix things up" yearly. No matter how well you do it, or the other conferences work, they're not a community event. Afiliates meeting - part of the community, but not all of it. It's an internal conference which is in itself valuable, e.g. brands. Only possible to do this kind of outreach at a Wikimania. Conference itself becomes an entity that is desirable. Important to use opportunity to do outreach. It's a wonderful opportunity to showcase "Look at all of the cool things we are making! Come join us!" Has the eye of the international press. The other conferences will never have the prestige of an international conference. Momentum, outreach, connecting communities. Agrees we should also be funding local meetings too.

Hogne, Chair of WMNO: Statement from Chairs: Important we continue to have annual Wikimania.

This is the current proposal but the chairs want feedback before publishing:

   The chairs of Wikimedia chapters state that Wikimania needs to be arranged every year.

Some arguments for this are:

Wikimania is a major channel for bringing feedback from volunteers to the WMF face to face. Using only digital channels, communication often leads to misunderstandings that could be solved by people talking to each other.
The volunteers are the capital of Wikimedia, Wikimania is a resource. The chapters can empower important volunteers with a Wikimania ticket or a scholarship.
Wikimania is the main venue for Chapters to present their projects. It is important to inspire other chapters and volunteers, and to receive feedback to adjust and improve the projects.
Wikimania is the main analog global meeting place for volunteers and this inspires major contrbuters to continue and improve their work in Wikimedia.
When changes are needed in the community or policies, Wikimania is the best venue to present the changes and get feedback before the changes are performed. Wikimania is also the only major venue for presenting important organizational changes in WMF.

The chairs believe that the presentations at Wikimania should be broadcasted online, both to increase the importance and the influence of Wikimania, without increasing the costs very much.

It's important to receive feedback to request and improve their projects. wikimania is the main place to inspire global volunteers and inspire them to improve when changes are needed in community or policies, this is the best venue to present changes and get feedback before [or while] they are performed we chairs believe presentations should be broadcast online, both to increase their influence and importance. without increasing the costs very much. Should be done without increasing the costs.

Five arguments:

   - Major channel for feedback from volunteers to WMF
   - The place to inspire the volunteers
   - Main venue for chapters to present projects
   - To increase the influence of Wikimania the presentations, etc, should be broadcast/livestreamed online
   - Where changes are needed in the community, Wikimania is best venue to present this and propose changes.

(General applause)

[Maybe we can cut and paste this? That might be easiest, but let's get the key points here.]

Andrew: Video streaming, or video recording - vital as water and logic.

Lional, Belgium: general assembly of WMF? No member of WMF - WMF don't have members, although every national assembly has members.

Iolanda: Wikimania's real problem is that it *is* a regional meeting. Attendance is limited to those who can make their own way, or scholarship recipients. Have at least 2 years to plan. Should focus on international aspect of Wikimania. Move Wikimania different places, make biggest effort to involve country. event should be annual in this sense. Regional events are not necessarily cheaper or easier. Sense of pride and recognition to get a scholarship. Making sure that the event really [pre]involves the country. Making sure that it brings added value to the country

Luis B25es from Spain: disagrees. Whatever you want to call it, Want to know what all the different countries/people are doing; share experiences. Doing this in free time. Don't ask for money to do it: If you can afford to bring yourself, try to. Places like Manila or Montreal are out of limits, but do want to meet with other Wikimedians. Don't want it to be called "Wikimania" - want a meeting wherever he can reach reasonably, so don't want to ask for a grant. So need another kind of event that allows the average Western European worker to attend.

Demi, Brussels: main criticism is cost-effectiveness. Cost effectiveness? Do we spend too much on a large-scale event that doesn't do much? --> Links to costs of Wikimania in 2014, 2015: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014. Both events had a bill of just over USD 1M each. [including scholarships and travel budgets, and the budget for WMF staff] Over past 4-5 days, to do that would have required 6 international journeys so Wikimania can be very efficient if well planned/well used.

Daniel Case, WMNY: About the inherently regional nature of the conference, we could consider making a point of having a program that ties into the regions - not just the region where the conference is taking place, but other regions too. Doing this in meetups, but do it in the presentations as well? Gives a stake in the Wikimanias.

jbmurray: Wikimania does many things, but one imporant thing is its governance function, for instance (in this wikimania), the session in which ordinary editors could ask questions and provide feedback to the WMF board. This year's Discussion sessions are much better than Q&A after Mexico City. +1 Also sessions such as this one (on future of wikimania.) This is a very important contribution, and Wikimania is one of the few places where such discussions can take place face to face.

SJ: agree almost all of Iolanda. But: Would like to maximise the number of people who can benefit from travel scholarships. In some cases, that means funding a few people to visit a [regional meeting]; in others, it means funding a few people from the community to visit a distant, more global meetup. More short trips for more people often has a stronger impact than a few trips halfway around the world. Rather than trying to send more people to a single Wikimania, maybe we should have more 'manias with people travelling shorter distances. So maybe... two Wikimanias a year?? Round of applause for this idea. --> Love wild, crazy ideas. : ) -- Chris S. ---> August 2025 Chris Schilling here to note that wild and crazy ideas require wild and crazy resourcing and preparation. I'm not an event organizer, but my impression is that we (the movement as a whole, including the Wikimedia Foundation) are far from ready from being able to consider two full-on Wikimanias each year.

  [Of course other things mentioned here still apply: get good int'l press coverage; provide great streaming; have viewing parties; identify people to connect with one another, even if they can't be in one place at one time]
  [And: invest in automation and online processing, rather than perfection of the in-person experience]

What does Wikimania cost? - Currently: 200k+ of scholarships, 300k+ for venue+food+services, 50k+ on Audiovisual: ~700k.

   [WMF also spends 300k+ on its staff (travel+event coordination), some of which it might spend anyway on other meetings]
   [NB: food and some services could be split into base costs and cost per person.]

--> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015 and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016/Budget Comes down significantly if we exclude money we would have spent on other similar events. Other events that we would have spent equal amounts of money on. USD 200k on scholarships. If we had 100 million dollars, we coludn't bring all WIkimedians to one place - and the army would stop us! [repeat wikimaniacs are] 1% of the 1% of the community citation needed Iolanda: We don't see the budget of Wikimania! It should be on the table. (See link above!) Budget for scholarship, for staff and for ?? To be settled offline.

Lodewijk: fraction participating, how can we have a bigger impact and involve those that aren't here, and give them a bit of the Wikimania spirit?

??: People who go to more than one Wikimania are 1% of 1%. In a big city, more people can attend.

What should Wikimania look like going forward?

Big question is how to make the 99% that are not here, have a better Wikimania experience.

More people, more community members should attend. Whether regional or worldwide. Need more events and more scholarships.

1% of the 1% are here, but the people that are not here might have a different opinion: they're not at wikimania. So we're a special group. --though note that it's an open conference. so people from nearby can also attend. 1% of the 1% are those who attend multiple wikimanias.

antanana: Accountability is an issue. Participants of Wikimania do not normaly do good reports to their community. The reports of attendees look crap! For example the slides from WMania in London were just recently uploaded. We can't speak about impact if we don't do this job in 2 years! (Round of applause for this)

Require more from our scholarship recipients.

HJ Mitchell: Would like to see WMF and chapters to bring more of Wikimania back to the community, and feedback learnings. Plus distribute what they have to the local community, and represent their community's views to Wikimania. Should be some way for people who couldn't make it to WMania could meet those who did. For example SF had a picnic at the same time as Wikimania.

Dan Case: reiterate what was said on talk page: Imagine if you or someone you know who knew nothing about the movement were asked what kind of meeting we should have, what would they say? So if Maybe 10 years time, in Edinburgh(?), will have answered that question. [this was a joke about Brexit, by the way]

Coren: Harry said it's a responsibility to bring WIkimania back: this already happens. Yes, we're the 1% of 1%, because we use the resources of the WMF or can afford to come on our own, what happens at WMania might involve a small proportion of the community, but has big effectgs. Could do it better, but it happens. Train people how to do this better?

Isarra: regional vs. global: have other regional conferences that don't have a global scope, make both things strong: global wikimania, and have regional meetings better address topics.

E.g. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events

CScott: More than 1% of WMF employees. Less than some previous years. Was it enough? Still too many? Could you hold people accountable? This was supposed to be a WMania comunity event. Haven't heard that we're missing WMF people… Andrew: There was a cap of the number of WMF proposals that could be included in the schedule, and attendees that could come. Did this work well? Want to hear feedback.

Anthere: Wanted to point out that there is an agreement to hold it yearly, but there is an agreement that WMAnia needs 2 years to prepare. 2 years is now for the 2018 Wikimania. Are there any groups that have thought about bidding for that one? If no-one, then we might run into a problem.

Chris McKenna helped to organise WMAnia London. Been thinking that there's a knowledge vacuum about what's going to happen for 2018. Regardless of what we do beyond that. Need to start preparing now. London again? ;-) (Andrew joke)

Manuel: Last year we had the discretion about what to do in future years. Need time to figure out the bidding process. Bidding process in the past meant that teams did lots of work to succeed, but if we could determine the region first, that would help Would let other teams step back and submit proposal in a few years time instead, when it would be more relevant/likely to be accepted. Mexico: never had it in a Francophone country, had a good bid from Montréal that hadn't been chosen before, would be do-able and would give us a few years. NB there are advanced bids for the Philippines and Australia, as far as I understand it.

it seems that Australia will be too expensive. It is easier to bring editors from Australia here, than move everybody there ... Or hold it closer to Australia (e.g. with HK 2013)

Ellie Young: Have to decide this fall.

Erik Moller: liked the new ideas that came out in Wikimanias each year, which were carried forward in successive WIkimanias. E.g. community village. (that's another argument for a yearly conference) (but many during the WMF consultation noted that local / regional conferences could be used as a preparation time or responsive time to Wikimania from the previous or for the following year; an opportunity to bring global conversations to regional / thematic conference)

Cornelius, Wikimedia Conference organiser. Wanted to agree with Erik. Organising WMCon for sevveral years in a row, missing the thematic continuity at Wikimanias - each one seems to be a one-shot event. No actual shared learnings. You might correct me, but we ened to work more closely with organisers. The conferences are like puzzle pieces that belong to each other.

Manuel: regarding continuity, have had ?? (next bidding team?) meeting at Wikimanias, and important question in bidding process is how many people in the bidding team have previously attended WIkimania. Deror: Organised Haifa conference and regional conference in Switzerland. Total budget covers many things. Very against 2 years Wikimania - regional meetings don't cost less. WManie in Haifa cost 2× Hackathon in Jerusalem, so not such a massive difference. Learn the most from the people who come the furthest. --> But how much was this in actuality? Anyone who does a presentation/session at an international event, should repeat that for their local events.

    ---> Alternate model:  WordPress holds 2 major annual WordCamps, and ~300 regional WordCamps, every year.  (in additional to thousands of local meetups).  They have automated almost the entire process, from taking tickets to setting and publishing the schedule, to putting out notices to local groups, to streaming and archiving video [similar to the WLM timeline, but all coded up; with a full-time person keeping the codebase & automation up to date; that's their version of an 'event coordinator'].   These are low-budget gatherings: free venues at universities, everyone buys their own food, a majority of attendees are local (at all but the 2 biggest ones).  They make their money back off of tickets, but ticket prices are kept down to $25 per day to be very accessible.  So that limits total conf budget.  [Scholarships?  Find out...]
    ---> Alternate model: Debian (didn't catch details)

--> Yeah, I remember seeing this suggestion during the WMF consultation, I think it's a good, lightweight idea. : )

What should we do in Wikimania? Speed round:

Glam Bus
Satellite events iwth viewing parties
Editathon on a train
Build a village like Esino every 2 years
Wikimania kids (applause)
Burning man Wikipedia (laughs)
Women and kids
WIkimania streaming participation example: Debian community does this for DebConf
Engaging community through Skype calls or some kind of virtual meeting.
Standing program for continuity
Engage locals
Cruise ship
Wikimania running
Mulitple languages +1
Virtual reality editathons
Having people only eligible for scholarships every 2-3 years, not every year
Open Door where anyone can walk in off the street and learn. (already planned for Montreal)
Specific grants for young people. Beginners have trouble competing with veterans.
Video-only conference, where people record their talks in advance & can polish them
Adopt a newbie! +1
Force people to mingle.
Chat system so people can discuss while we talk.
More facilities for people with reduced mobility (applause)

// EOM

Recommendations

Have Wikimania once per year Start organising the Wikimania 2018 process asap Prioritize developing communities. More communications from Wikimania attendees back to their local communities