Wikimania 2013 Report/Rock drum

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I'd like to begin by thanking Wikimedia UK for providing me with a scholarship to travel to Hong Kong for Wikimania.

Chapters' Village

Having a space for chapters to display films was a great idea

The chapters' village was a great idea from WMDE, and it was great to see the film I produced with some of the staff about their work and the role of volunteers in the charity played on the big screen, too. ;-)

On the whole I think having a space where volunteers and staff from chapters all over the world can congregate was great, and I'd love to see something similar in London next year. The free biscuits were certainly a draw to our stall for the delegates from all over the world, but it was also great to talk about the programmes we're running in the UK. It was fantastic to see the excitement for Wikimania next year, in London.

Sessions

I don't really feel happy reviewing individual sessions I attended but I did get to some very interesting presentations that have inspired me in the work I do within Wikimedia.

  • Andrew Lih's Wiki Makes Video presentation was really interesting. In addition to giving some useful tips for filming actuality for Wikipedia articles, it also gave a fascinating insight into the trouble that one can face in producing video for this purpose
  • The WMF comms team's session on storytelling was also a great introduction to the work they're doing. The work of video storyteller Victor was also particularly interesting, as he showed a film made in South Africa; telling stories as a way of promoting Wikimedia is a really interesting idea.
  • The VisualEditor team's presentation was really useful for me as someone who did not really know much about the infrastructure behind it. I certainly have a much greater understanding of the system, now.

Lessons learned

As someone involved in Wikimania 2014, there were, as always, lessons to be learned from the event, which I hope we can use to make sure next year's conference is even better.

  • Chairing of sessions needs to be tight. Some sessions at WM2013 ran well over time because of poor chairing.
  • Food needs to be plentiful and varied. There were many problems to do with labelling of food and vegetarian options that people have already brought up at wm2013:Feedback
  • Have enough food at parties. The lack of food at both the opening and closing parties was far from ideal.
  • Have all events in accessible locations. The closing party especially was not very good accessibility-wise.
  • Keep the whole conference in one place. Sessions were spread all around the campus (perhaps to make use of the auditoria). This did, however, mean that it was difficult to get to some sessions on time as the venues were difficult to find.
  • Have the central meeting space indoors. Ideally the central meeting space for the event should be somewhere indoors so that adverse weather conditions do not hamper events. Having the chapters village in the courtyard made it vulnerable to the weather.
  • Have announcements. Although this would have been made easier by having a central indoor space with a PA system, it would have been very helpful to have announcements at the end of breaks to tell you the next sessions were starting, so as not to miss any.