Wikimania

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Jimmy Wales speaking at Wikimania

Wikimania^[1] is a conference for users of the wiki projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. The first conference was held in Frankfurt, Germany, 2005-08-04 – 2005-08-08; the second ran 2006-08-04 – 2006-08-06 in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States. Researchers and speakers presented studies and experiments on Wikipedia and other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, on wiki culture and technology, and on the world of free knowledge.

[edit] History

[edit] Wikimania 2005

Global Voices Panel at the 2005 conference. Shown are Hossein Derakhshan, Ting Chen, Isam Bayazidi, and Milton Ainehuranga.

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Wikimania 2005

The first Wikimania conference was held in the Haus der Jugend at Frankfurt, Germany, 2005-08-04 – 2005-08-08.

The week of the conference included four "Hacking Days", from August 1–4, when some 25 developers gathered to work on code and discuss the technical aspects of MediaWiki and of running the Wikimedia projects. The main days of the conference, despite its billing as being "August 4–8", were Friday to Sunday of that week, August 5–7. Presentation sessions were scheduled all day during those three days.

Keynote speakers included Jimmy Wales, Ross Mayfield, Ward Cunningham and Richard Stallman (who spoke on "Copyright and community in the age of computer networks"). The majority of sessions and conversations were in English, although a few were in German.

Sponsors of the event included Answers.com, SocialText, Sun Microsystems, DocCheck, and Logos Group.

[edit] Wikimania 2006

Wikimania 2006 logo

Attendees break for lunch.

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Wikimania 2006

Wikimania 2006 took place from 2006-08-04 – 2006-08-06, at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States.

Speakers included Jimmy Wales, Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle, Yochai Benkler, Mitch Kapor, Ward Cunningham, and David Weinberger. Dan Gillmor held a citizen journalism unconference the day after.

Wales' plenary speech was covered by the Associated Press, and printed in numerous worldwide newspapers. He chronicled how the Foundation evolved from him "sitting in his pajamas", to the maturing corporate structure that it is now; the push for quality over quantity; Wikipedia will be included on computers distributed through One Laptop per Child; both Wikiversity and the creation of an advisory board were approved by the Foundation board; and that Wiki-WYG is in development thanks to private investment by Wikia, Inc. and Socialtext.^[2]

Answers.com was the Wikimania 2006 Patron sponsor, while Amazon.com, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Nokia, WikiHow were Benefactors-level sponsors, Wetpaint, Ask.com, Yahoo!, and Socialtext were Friends-level sponsors, and IBM, FAQ Farm, Elevation Partners, One Laptop per Child, and The Sunlight Foundation were Supporter-level sponsors of the conference.^[3]

Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Milan, Boston, and Toronto; only Toronto and Boston were passed to the second round of consideration by Wikimania organizers. Toronto would have hosted the event in the University of Toronto's Bahen Centre.

[edit] Wikimania 2007

On September 25, 2006, it was announced that Wikimania 2007 will be held in Taipei, Taiwan^[4] at the Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center.

This Wikimania will be the first to hold a volunteer training course.^[5]

[edit] Bidding process

Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Alexandria, and Torino. Official bids from Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul, and Orlando failed to make the shortlist. Bids for Geneva, Chicago, and Las Vegas were never made official.^[6]

Some members of the Wikimedia community protested Taipei's win, initially suggesting bids from outside Asia weren't given a fair chance. Angela Beesley replied, "All of the bids were considered against a range of criteria, not only location. Amongst many other factors, Taipei offered the venue and accommodation on a single site, and their organizing team had prior experience from running the Chinese Wikimania this year. It's unfair to them to suggest they only won because they're in Asia."^[7]

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ Officially, the event name is the Wikimedia International Conference. This name is rarely used.
2. ^ MP3 of Jimmy Wales' plenary speech at Wikimania 2006
3. ^ Wikimania 2006: Sponsors
4. ^ [Foundation-l] RfC: Key priorities for my work.
5. ^ http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_training/20061209
6. ^ http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2007/Bid_list
7. ^ http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/010402.html (The official and common name of "Chinese Wikimania" is "Chinese Wikimedia Conference".)

[edit] External links

Wikinews has news related to this article:

• Taipei chosen to host Wikimania 2007
• Day 1 report of Wikimania 2006
• Interview: Wikinewsie Kim Bruning discusses Wikimania
• Wikimedia Foundation's first Wikimania convention held in Germany

Wikimania 2005

• Wikimania 2005 proceedings
• "Worldwide Wikimania" Sean Dodson, The Guardian, August 11, 2005
• "Rewriting the rule books" Alan Connor, the BBC, August 15, 2005

Wikimania 2006

• Official site
• "The Many Voices of Wikipedia, Heard in One Place" Robert Levine, The New York Times, August 7, 2006
• "Anybody can edit: A weekend of Wikimania" Ian Sands and Jess McConnell, The Boston Phoenix, August 11, 2006
• "The Neutrality of this Article is Disputed" Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason, August 15, 2006

Wikimania 2007

• Official site