WikiGeocamp 2015
WikiGeocamp 2015 will be a meeting to take place in the United Kingdom in 2015. It will bring together a diverse range of parties that are interested in making geographical information freely available (primarily focused on the UK, but also with a global [or even astronomical] viewpoint). It is being organised by Joseph Seddon on behalf of Wikimedia UK. To contact the organisers, please email joseph.seddon
wikimedia.org.uk or leave a message on the talk page.
Programme
This will be a two-day meeting focused sharing the statuses of projects involving geospatial data from teams and volunteers both within the UK and internationally, implement initial ideas either as mockups or semi-working solutions or help develop plans and existing proposals into fully fledged projects. A rough program follows. A more detailed schedule to be released in due course.
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| Friday evening | Informal pre-meeting get-together |
| Saturday morning | Presentations on the current state of various projects |
| Saturday afternoon | Workshops and open discussion |
| Saturday late afternoon/evening | wrap-up, discussion on ways forward |
| Saturday evening | Continuing informal discussion in a nearby pub/restaurant |
| Sunday | Unconference and Hackathon |
We welcome offers of support to help define the program and aims of this meeting - please contact joseph.seddonwikimedia.org.uk if you can help!
Principle aims
The central questions to be discussed at this event are:
- How do we provide geographical information for every object/building/city/geographical feature/country on Earth? (and, in the case of geography, other planets?)
- How can we expand the Geograph approach of documenting entire countries (and their monuments) to encompass the world?
- How do we map the planet, providing comprehensive information about paths, roads and other transport routes on every continent?
- What information needs to be provided alongside the geographical coordinates, and how can we ensure that this is provided in a complete and consistent means on a world-wide basis?
Location
The meeting will most likely take place in London, depending on the availability and location of a suitable host (the fallback option is the WMUK offices in Old Street, London). We
We would welcome offers to host this meeting - please contact joseph.seddonwikimedia.org.uk if you can help! If no offers are received, then we'll go for a standard meeting venue somewhere in London.
Attendees
If you're interested in attending, please sign up below (click the "edit" button on the right!). We'll be opening an official registration form in the future, but expressions of interest before then are most welcome. If you're likely to require sponsorship to attend, then please let us know sooner rather than later!
- Mike Peel
- David Hawgood (davidhawgood.com) of Geograph is interested in attending Geocamp
- Carol Campbell (talk)
- Seddon (talk)
FAQ
- What does Wikimedia UK expect to gain from this meeting?
Wikimedia UK exists to support free knowledge of all kinds in the UK. We hope that organising and supporting this meeting will lead towards us achieving the following goals:
- Improving connections between WMUK and others interested in geographical information within the UK
- Developing innovative approaches to improving Wikipedia-OpenStreetMap integration (in both directions)
- Starting up new Geograph projects in other countries (particularly those with underrepresented photographic documentation), and improving the embedding of Geograph UK images and information in the Wikimedia projects
- Making historical information collected by the Ordnance Survey, and other organisations, more visible and freely available
- Encouraging new and innovative reuses of the Wikimedia geographical content in other projects
- Identifing new projects for the Wikimedia movement to financially and logistically support in the future
- Will the event focus exclusively on Wikimedia?
No - WMUK is interested in supporting all free-knowledge projects, so long as their content is available under a Creative Commons, GFDL or another free content license.
- Do I have to register to attend?
You will need to register in advance of the event. If you turn up on the day without registering, then you may or may not be admitted depending on the available capacity of the venue.
- Do I have to be a member of Wikimedia UK?
No; this event is open to all. If you support Wikimedia UK's goals, then we would encourage you to become a member and have a say in our governance: it only costs £5 per year to be a member, and you can apply online!
- Are there any age requirements?
No - we welcome everyone, of any age. If you are younger than 16, then please make sure you have your parents' or guardians' permission to attend the event.
- Are scholarships available?
If needed, then WMUK can provide some sponsorship to attend the meeting, which will cover your travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses. Details TBC
- What local accommodation is available?
Once we've established the location of the meeting, then we'll provide information about nearby accommodation.
- How can I reach the venue?
We'll provide local information about the event, as well as train and flight travel information, once the location is confirmed.
- What refreshments will be available?
We'll make sure that there's a ready supply of caffeine and biscuits available throughout the event. We'll also do our best to organise lunch (but we may need to organise trips to local sandwich shops), and we'll also arrange for evening meals in nearby restaurants. Note that it is unlikely that we will be able to pay for the evening meals; whether we can pay for lunch remains to be determined.
- Are there technical facilities available at the event?
- Do I need to bring my laptop?
Ideally, yes - we expect that most activities during this meeting will need internet access. If you don't have a laptop, or can't bring it, let us know and we'll see if we can provide a computer for you.
- Will future meetings on the same topic take place?
This fundamentally depends on the success and outcomes of this meeting; if it is successful, then WMUK will be very likely to fund future meetings and related projects in the UK however it is likely similar conferences will occur across the globe following on from this. We also hope to identify partner organisations that will be interested in organising similar meetings and projects.
- I have a question that's not already been asked
Then please ask it, either here or on the talk page, and we'll do our best to answer it. :-)
Links to existing geo information projects
- Open Street Map
- Geograph UK
- Ordnance Survey UK
- Open Knowledge Foundation
- Royal Geographic Society
- Nottingham University Centre for Geospatial Science
- Bristol Open Geodata Consortium: a shared space provided by Wikimedia UK for talking about auditing and improving open geodata in one city.
Results and documentation of the meeting
We will aim to publicly record the meeting as much as possible. We'll probably use MediaWiki and Etherpad to create text documents; paper sketchpads and notebooks will also be available (we'll digitise them after the event), and we'll also take photographs (and, if requested, audio documentation) of the meeting in progress.