On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 6:29 AM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: I've been working from a non-x86 system the past couple of days. Even if I wanted to install the proprietary flash software I couldn't. The time delayed uploaded files worked pretty well last year, and I was able to watch all the presentations I was interested in. This year I wasn't able to watch a single one. This isn't merely ideology. But even if it were, ideology doesn't mean "without practical value", ideology can often mean preferring a strategy believe to be practically superior over the long term in preference to some short term expedience. I presume you pursue long-term winning strategies over the best immediate gain constantly through your life and don't consider these decisions to be "ideological", much less nitpicking. I suppose it is valuable information to know that you have so little respect for my opinions, though I would have preferred to learn of this someplace other than on a public mailing list.

2010/7/11 Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell(a)gmail.com>om>: Since it's perfectly possible to set up streams that don't rely on Flash and can be viewed with open source media players like VLC, I do believe we should aim to do that next year. Last year's system of encoding the videos to OGG overnight and uploading them to Commons the next afternoon was pretty awesome; unfortunately we won't be doing that this year, but the organization have told me (on wikimania-l) that they will obtain the OGGs from the video company on DVD(s), and I have asked them to mail that/those DVD(s) to our datacenter so I can import all videos to Commons when they arrive. Roan Kattouw (Catrope)

On 07/11/2010 02:25 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote: One impression from this Wikimania is that we are too weak. We need to be a stronger, richer, more generous team. Many people try their best at some projects, and what they get back is complaints about missing details. We're not generous enough to offer support and appreciation. The film "Truth in numbers" was finally released, but questions from the audience afterwards were not full of amazement that the film was completed. Instead they contained rather negative comments about it. It's as if there were a dozen movies about Wikipedia to chose from and you didn't like this particular one. At another session, the WMF five year strategy was discussed, and the decision to help India forward was criticized because the decision didn't document why Indonesia was less important! It's all very similar to how some newcomers to Wikipedia have their first article deleted. The message is that help is unwanted, so most volunteers give up and leave. In a normal workplace they might put up with the abuse, knowing that at least they get a salary. But Wikipedia volunteers don't get any salary, so they don't have that reason to stay. They leave. Yes, the Polish organizing team was too weak. They should have been more people and should have started out earlier. When Manuel Schneider (of Switzerland) volunteered in May 2010 to do the video streaming, he should have been told that this was of course already taken care of. Instead he was told that he also needed to take care of Wi-Fi. (It's good he wasn't blamed for the failing air conditioning as well.) The processes for evaluating the bids for organizing Wikimania should be stronger, to detect such weakness earlier. This could lead to a rotation among fewer locations, e.g. Berlin and Buenos Aires and some place in Asia on a 3 year rotation. Yes, it will be boring to go back to the same places, but at least there will be some routine in the organization. It would also mean that Andrew Keen is right, at least in part, when he says you can't let amateurs run the show. -- Lars Aronsson (lars(a)aronsson.se) Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se

On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: Yes, I would like to express a huge thank you to all those involved with the streaming. I was particularly impressed that most talks had multiple camera set-ups and live cutting to keep it more visually engaging. It really made me feel a part of the conference and it's been an inspiring couple of days listening to people from all over the world that share one vision. "Last year's system of encoding the videos to OGG overnight and uploading them to Commons the next afternoon was pretty awesome; unfortunately we won't be doing that this year, but the organization have told me (on wikimania-l) that they will obtain the OGGs from the video company on DVD(s), and I have asked them to mail that/those DVD(s) to our datacenter so I can import all videos to Commons when they arrive." - Roan Kattouw Does this mean there will not be uploads of the talks for 2010? I watched all the streaming I could, but obviously one can only watch one stream at a time. My dream scenario is that every talk is uploaded and linked to from the schedule page [1] Also, a minor query but it's bugging me; the schedule for each day shows, in blue, "spotlight on posters" and "posters" are listed at the bottom of the schedule in yellow. I can't figure out why the term "posters" is used? [1] http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule en.User:Bodnotbod