Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Wikimania 2008
The announcement went out Tuesday: Wikimania 2008 will held at Alexandria, Egypt. But, instead of the possibility of meeting at the site of perhaps the most famous library in the world -- or at least the possibility of taking a tour amongst the ruins of the ancient civilization best known in the West -- the most excitement appears to be over the fact that the state of Egypt is oppressive towards Gays, Lesbians and Transgendered people.
I could make an acerbic comment about how this relates to the reality outside of the hothouse of Europe, and North America, but outside of generating a lot of hate email I'm not sure what it would accomplish.
Jimbo said the right thing: he planned to make this into an opportunity into confronting the problem, to point out not everyone has the same rights as in the West. This is along the lines of the most positive possibilities of Wikipedia. And there is more than simply a lot of pleasant words and good intentions here: there are some opportunites that could make a positive difference in the world.
For one thing, a convention in Egypt does offer a meeting place between the West and the less developed parts of the world, those parts wherein the future lies. I've written a little here about AboutUs.org, who have been developing Wiki technology; they happen to have a branch in Lahore, Pakistan. Let's say that management decides to fly a some of their Pakistani employees to Wikimania next year; this is not an unreasonable idea, seeing how they are hired from one of Pakistan's finest technical universities. A quick query on Expedia shows that (with one exception) it costs half as much for them to travel to Alexandria than to Frankfurt-am-Main Germany; it is twice as likely for them to attend a conference in Alexandria as it would be for them to attend one in Frankfurt (where the first Wikimania was held). We have a chance to engage not only Egyptians, but these intelligent and motivated people as well. Then there is India, with its growing numbers of technology-savvy people, is only a little further away; Israel, with another large technology-savvy population, is much closer.
We have a choice of being politically correct, and refusing to have anything with a country that is repressive -- although far from being as repressive as many -- or being pragmatic and reaching out to not only to the people in this country, but to other non-Western countries, and encouraging them to work towards a less repressive society.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Alexandria, Egypt, Gay and Lesbian, Wikimania, Wikipedia,
I could make an acerbic comment about how this relates to the reality outside of the hothouse of Europe, and North America, but outside of generating a lot of hate email I'm not sure what it would accomplish.
Jimbo said the right thing: he planned to make this into an opportunity into confronting the problem, to point out not everyone has the same rights as in the West. This is along the lines of the most positive possibilities of Wikipedia. And there is more than simply a lot of pleasant words and good intentions here: there are some opportunites that could make a positive difference in the world.
For one thing, a convention in Egypt does offer a meeting place between the West and the less developed parts of the world, those parts wherein the future lies. I've written a little here about AboutUs.org, who have been developing Wiki technology; they happen to have a branch in Lahore, Pakistan. Let's say that management decides to fly a some of their Pakistani employees to Wikimania next year; this is not an unreasonable idea, seeing how they are hired from one of Pakistan's finest technical universities. A quick query on Expedia shows that (with one exception) it costs half as much for them to travel to Alexandria than to Frankfurt-am-Main Germany; it is twice as likely for them to attend a conference in Alexandria as it would be for them to attend one in Frankfurt (where the first Wikimania was held). We have a chance to engage not only Egyptians, but these intelligent and motivated people as well. Then there is India, with its growing numbers of technology-savvy people, is only a little further away; Israel, with another large technology-savvy population, is much closer.
We have a choice of being politically correct, and refusing to have anything with a country that is repressive -- although far from being as repressive as many -- or being pragmatic and reaching out to not only to the people in this country, but to other non-Western countries, and encouraging them to work towards a less repressive society.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Alexandria, Egypt, Gay and Lesbian, Wikimania, Wikipedia,
Monday, August 06, 2007
More Wikimania transcripts
From a site that should be on more radars: AboutUs.org. Their series of essays on The Wiki Way are also worth reading.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania 2007, Wikimania, Wikipedia
- Seth Anthony's "Analysis of Content Generators" - http://www.aboutus.org/Analysis_of_Wikipedia_content_creators
- Erik Moeller's "Sharing information between Wikis" - http://www.aboutus.org/ways_of_sharing_information_between_wikis
- Jimmy Wales and Gil Penchina Discuss Wikia
- Discussion on the Future of Wikis - http://www.aboutus.org/Notes_from_the_future_of_wikis_discussion_at_Wikimania_2007
- Evan Prodromou on "Social networking tools" - http://www.aboutus.org/Notes_from_Evan%27s_talk_on_Social_Networking_Tools_at_WikiMania_2007
- Brion Vibber on Single Unified Logon (I couldn't match this to a presentation -- was this from the recap of the Open Hacking session?)
- Brian Behlendorf's "Open Source compared with more traditional corporate development projects" - http://www.aboutus.org/WM2007_-_Brian_Behlendorf_on_OpenSource
- Jo Ito's Plenary, "On the Sharing Economy"
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania 2007, Wikimania, Wikipedia
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Considering some Wikimania sessions
Seth Anthony's Wikimania presentation "Where Have All The Writers Gone: The Diversion, Distraction and Departure of Wiki "Content Creators." has been used by some to argue that the core members of Wikipedia (well okay, the English Wikipedia) contribute very little substantial material to the content, and are more interested in arguing policy. While there is some truth to this accusation, I believe the causes for this odd indicator are far more complex than these results of Anthony's studies indicate. Keep in mind that one goal of every committed Wikipedian is the desire to recruit more knowledgable and productive members. I believe that lot of the apparently minor edits Admins make are to further this goal.
But after that presentation, the report of what was shared at this year's conference dries up. Only after clicking at random on one link did I discover a rough draft of a transcript to the panel discussion "The shifting nature of the English Wikipedia community". One could say that this is a continuation of Andrew Lih's post, "Unwanted: New articles in Wikipedia", but there is more to consider here. One point is that this is a fascinating example of how fast the Wikipedia community can move: Andrew posted his comments on the tenth of last month, and it has become a central issue at Wikimania. However, a more important one is one damning comment this transcript records on the state of the English Wikipedia (I have cleaned it up for readability reasons):
I wonder how many transcripts of various sessions, even in such a rough state, await discovery in the Wikimania website.
One example of a session I would like to know more about is Jon Philip's "Wikibiblio: A Community-based Bibliographic System." I like the idea of creating a standardized system to cite sources on Wikipedia, but long experience has taught me that what sounds good in a summary may not be a practical, functioning thing; I wanted to know more about it. The "Discuss" icon linked to "Wikimania:Forum/Technical Infrastructure", which had only a few cryptic notes about the subject. Philip's personal website failed to mention anything about "WikiBiblio". Frustrated, I resorted to Google to find something about this -- but found nothing clearly relevant to the topic. Although it led me to this intreguing proof of a concept created back in July, 2005. I have no idea if this is what Philip intended to discuss.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania2007, Wikimania, wikipedia
But after that presentation, the report of what was shared at this year's conference dries up. Only after clicking at random on one link did I discover a rough draft of a transcript to the panel discussion "The shifting nature of the English Wikipedia community". One could say that this is a continuation of Andrew Lih's post, "Unwanted: New articles in Wikipedia", but there is more to consider here. One point is that this is a fascinating example of how fast the Wikipedia community can move: Andrew posted his comments on the tenth of last month, and it has become a central issue at Wikimania. However, a more important one is one damning comment this transcript records on the state of the English Wikipedia (I have cleaned it up for readability reasons):
from the Hebrew Wikipedia, we have the benefit of learning from some of en's mistakes. Right now on the Hebrew Wikipedia it is considered unfashionable to say 'look, en:wp has this nice process and they have CSD G11...' When someone says that, it usually means he's about to be blocked. From our perspective... there are bigger Wikipedias we can learn from, the German Wikipedia seems to be better; they understand each other better and have less bureaucracy.
I wonder how many transcripts of various sessions, even in such a rough state, await discovery in the Wikimania website.
One example of a session I would like to know more about is Jon Philip's "Wikibiblio: A Community-based Bibliographic System." I like the idea of creating a standardized system to cite sources on Wikipedia, but long experience has taught me that what sounds good in a summary may not be a practical, functioning thing; I wanted to know more about it. The "Discuss" icon linked to "Wikimania:Forum/Technical Infrastructure", which had only a few cryptic notes about the subject. Philip's personal website failed to mention anything about "WikiBiblio". Frustrated, I resorted to Google to find something about this -- but found nothing clearly relevant to the topic. Although it led me to this intreguing proof of a concept created back in July, 2005. I have no idea if this is what Philip intended to discuss.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania2007, Wikimania, wikipedia
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A delayed WikiWednesday in Portland
I made it to this month's WikiWednesday in Portland, delayed a week due to the holidays, over at the interim offices of AboutUs corporate world headquaters, overlooking the Willamette River. Unfortunately, the office we met in faced the less scenic parking lot.
In attendence were Mark Dilley, Ted Ernst, Brandon Sanders, and a couple of other AboutUs employees whose names I did not catch. Kristin Thompson, whom I met at Recent Changes Camp earlier this year, was supposed to be there but she didn't show before Mark and I closed the offices down.
I heard a lot of Wiki-related news that I'll try to remember to share when I have the time. The most important bit to share is that we've scheduled meetings for the next three months. The August meeting will be centered around a remote link with Wikimania in Taipei, hopefully taking advantage of the Wikimania Lounge. At least that's the plan at the moment; so far, since the rest of the attendees will be in Taipei, I'm the only person who promised to show. Where ever I decide to have it.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania, Wikipedia, WikiWednesdays
In attendence were Mark Dilley, Ted Ernst, Brandon Sanders, and a couple of other AboutUs employees whose names I did not catch. Kristin Thompson, whom I met at Recent Changes Camp earlier this year, was supposed to be there but she didn't show before Mark and I closed the offices down.
I heard a lot of Wiki-related news that I'll try to remember to share when I have the time. The most important bit to share is that we've scheduled meetings for the next three months. The August meeting will be centered around a remote link with Wikimania in Taipei, hopefully taking advantage of the Wikimania Lounge. At least that's the plan at the moment; so far, since the rest of the attendees will be in Taipei, I'm the only person who promised to show. Where ever I decide to have it.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: Wikimania, Wikipedia, WikiWednesdays
Labels: portland tech, wikimania, wikipedia
Friday, June 29, 2007
A proposed venue for the 2008 Wikimania
If Cippalusi is selected to host the 2008 Wikimania Conference, I could continue a proud family tradition: the first time my Dad visited Italy, people shot at him; going to Cippalusi, people would shoot at me. However, he caught hepatitis drinking from a contaminated water source, and that is one tradition I do not want to continue.
(In case you're wondering, my Dad went to Italy in the 1940s as an employee of the US government, so to speak; after Italy he was scheduled to travel to Japan and work there also, but the government ended the project early and sent him home to Oregon. Which was a good thing, because the working conditions in Japan were not expected to be as good as they were in Italy.)
Geoff
Technocrati tags: humor, italy, sicily, wikipedia
(In case you're wondering, my Dad went to Italy in the 1940s as an employee of the US government, so to speak; after Italy he was scheduled to travel to Japan and work there also, but the government ended the project early and sent him home to Oregon. Which was a good thing, because the working conditions in Japan were not expected to be as good as they were in Italy.)
Geoff
Technocrati tags: humor, italy, sicily, wikipedia
Labels: wikimania
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wikimania is on for 2007
I enjoyed Wikimania 2006 in Boston very much, and had a faint hope that I might be able to make this year's conference, but three things are keeping me from attending: lack of money (I'm too old to ask for a scholarship), my passport expired in January, and Yvette said no.
I'm hoping that the Wikimania Lounge proposed by Andrew Lih/Fuzheado and Daveydweeb comes to fruition. That would be a good thing not only for yours truly, but for the rest of us Wikipedians who can't afford to visit Taiwan.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: taiwan, wikipedia
I'm hoping that the Wikimania Lounge proposed by Andrew Lih/Fuzheado and Daveydweeb comes to fruition. That would be a good thing not only for yours truly, but for the rest of us Wikipedians who can't afford to visit Taiwan.
Geoff
Technocrati tags: taiwan, wikipedia
