This blog post was written by John Cummings, Wikimania support at Wikimedia UK and Harry Mitchell, Wikimedia UK volunteer.
Wikimania 2014 is a 2000+ person conference, unconference, festival, meetup, workshop, hackathon, and party, spread over five days in August 2014, preceded and followed by fringe events. It’s the official annual event of the Wikimedia movement, where you’ll discover all kinds of projects that people are making with wikis and open content, as well as meet the community that produced the most famous wiki of all, Wikipedia!
Attending Wikimania
The main event itself is held from the 8–10 August in and around The Barbican Centre in London, UK. All are welcome, whether you’re an expert, enthusiast, beginner or just curious! Early Bird Registration is available until June 15th, Single day tickets are £30, full conference and hackday tickets are £55, click here to register.
There are also a number of fringe events that are free to attend:
- 7–8 June Free Culture Weekend (this coming weekend, places are still available)
- 21–22 June Future of Education Workshop
- 5–6 July Open Data Weekend
- 19–20 July Open Scholarship Weekend
- Hackathon: 6–10 August 2014
There are a number of local Wikipedia meetups being organised locally, a member of the Wikimedia UK Wikimania team will be available at each one to answer questions.
Volunteering opportunities
There are many opportunities to get involved in Wikimania; we will need volunteers in the run-up to the conference and to help with the smooth running of Wikimania itself. For most tasks you don’t need to be a Wikipedia editor and you don’t need any experience – just a willingness to help! We need volunteers to:
- Talk to the public about Wikipedia
- Teach people to edit Wikipedia
- Moderate sessions (making sure the sessions run smoothly)
- Tweet about the day’s events and spread the word via other social media
- Video sessions and help with any technical issues
- Direct people to and around the venue and to be on-hand in the hotels
- Meet and greet speakers
- Assist attendees as they arrive into the UK
- Talk to the media
- Staff the registration desk
- Other general tasks to help with the smooth-running of the conference.
For volunteering opportunities at Wikimania please sign up here, for questions contact hera@wikimanialondon.org
Scholarships are available
If you’re based in the UK, or you’re a British citizen living abroad, and you would like financial support to attend Wikimania, Wikimedia UK may be able to provide you with a scholarship to help with your registration fee, or with the costs of travel and/or accommodation. Scholarship applications are open until the 15th June. For more details, including how to apply, please see this section on the Wikimedia UK water cooler.
For questions about Wikimedia UK scholarships please contact katie.chan@wikimedia.org.uk
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