Suggestions

This forum is for specific suggestions for next year's planing team or general comments about this year's Wikimania. For specific feedback about this year's conference, see also: Feedback

Comments about this year's Wikimania

Do you have any comments about this year's conference? You can leave them here

First off, Great Job! this year! --Daniel Renfro (talk)
Second the "great job", but a suggestion: on most Wikipedia projects, an article on a relevant and viable topic but with problems is typically edited to deal with those problems, rather than deleted. In that spirit, we should upload the video of the infamous GodKing session, edited to ensure compliance with the Friendly Space policy. If this were done transparently and with explanation, others who did not attend the session would be able to benefit from the rest of its content. 209.226.201.250 19:25, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
good special meeting about the "un-friendly presentation", masterful facilitation. looking for an action plan for culture change. Slowking4 (talk) 03:33, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions for next year's Wikimania

Do you have any suggestions about next year's Wikimania to help the Wikimania 2013 team plan a great event? You can leave them here

Earlier lunchtimes, please.
Wifi where you don't have to log in every time it kicks you out.
Pre conference speaker academy [1]
Seconding this -- or at least a few voluntary practice sessions where speakers practice their talks with each other and helpers/critics. Sumanah (talk) 02:37, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And clear training for the in-room volunteers as well, so they all know how to moderate the sessions well, keeping them from running over time. I saw, a few times, situations where the early talks in a session went over time so the last one had to be cut short and lacked Q&A time; preventing that more often would be great. Sumanah (talk) 02:37, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not a bad idea, but it should be voluntary. CT Cooper · talk 11:22, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I met a number of very new wikipedians, who expressed a need for some basic/introductory talks. Maybe something along the lines of "What are the 5 pillars?", or "How to effectively curate/copyedit articles." --Daniel Renfro (talk)
Marking the introductory talks more clearly in the schedule would be great. Sumanah (talk) 02:37, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that there is a lot of scope for education at Wikimania, and a dedicated track for this, particular earlier in the conference, would work. CT Cooper · talk 11:22, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
longer conference, fewer simultaneous sessions - especially Saturday, would love to have been able to see more than 12.5% of sessions -- Chuq (talk) 16:02, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I think Wikimania is now big enough to have four days of sessions rather than three (excluding the hackathon), although the conference days are already settled for 2013, so such a change will probably have to wait until 2014 at the earliest. The number of tracks will probably reduce itself next year as there was an exceptional number of participants this year due to the conference being in the US. CT Cooper · talk 11:22, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I totally agree. There were so many interesting presentations happening at the same time. I couldn't attend not even half of what I would like to participate. Marcio De Assis (talk) 00:45, 20 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Have geographical signs for people to congregate around and meet people in their area.
For example: West-coast, East-coast, Midwest, South, India, Germany, France, Sweden, etc.

--Daniel Renfro (talk)
I disagree - this leads to cliques etc. Much better to mix it up!
This could be arranged for one of the breaks, as a suggestion but not a requirement :) There could be themes for several of the breaks, actually. Another could have signs for other projects, or for specific interests, etc. -Pete F. (talk) 02:52, 17 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I am sceptical as one of the best things I got out of Wikimania was the breakdown of cliques by meeting people you could never meet the rest of the time. The idea of non-location based themes however does have merit. CT Cooper · talk 11:22, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
have diversity training. this serious problem requires a culture change. Slowking4 (talk) 03:25, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]
More information would need to be posted for a fair assessment of this idea, but I, along with a good number of other editors I have talked to, will oppose anything that will risk turning Wikimania into a bland scripted political party conference style event. CT Cooper · talk 11:22, 18 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Board panel

Would have preferred interactive Q&A (maybe accepting some questions from IRC/Twitter) to index cards. Engaging with an audience directly allows a question asker to clarify his or her question, and enables follow-up if appropriate. It also makes a session feel more alive.--Eloquence (talk) 22:00, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]