[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2007 - get ready for the third edition.

Thu Aug 17 04:07:25 UTC 2006

On 8/17/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Good point. Kelly is right as well that we should be planning ahead.

/me nods. A int'l conference I know, which usually gather 1,000 people
or so, is scheduled 3 years before. And honestly I doubt we can say it
is steadily growing ... (who cares for aesthetics in this world? Heh,
but it is another problem). For your information, the conf. is
regurarly trilingual. English, French or German. The local language
isn't included as its official language. Some tracks are provided
English a/o local language translation.

I also attended a US based convention, formerly held in Milwaukee
then, but now seemed to move to Indianapolice. I am aware of danger to
present myself geeky for now, it could be another good reference... As
an US based event, it is monolingual, but its coordinations in several
spheres is awasome. Over 10 hotels were occupied by participants, 2
hotels and public convention halls in city serves the convention.
Registration begins in the fall before one year (so organizers have a
pool of money beforehand), printed program is sent before one month of
convention, etc.  See http://gencon.org

> Just after Wikimania, a discussion took place to identify the good sides
> and the bad sides of Wikimania 2006.

Sorry interception, but I prefer to say "have taken", "have been
taking" or just "is ongoing" ... because I have now many things to
discuss about its linguistic aspects ... I am now strongly hesitant to
call it an intenational event in its full meaning. I know most of
"int'l" computer related conf. are monolingual but Wikimania is not
only a specific-computer science-related-topic- oriented conference
but also aiming to a community event? And as a humanist who studies
philosophy, an int'l conf or session I have attended and first imagine
is at least bilingual. So, you won't be realized the monolinguality of
Wikimania beaten me heavily. It was really a shock when I learned not
only the ongoing conference at Boston but also Frankfurterkonferenz
had been also monolingual (de facto English), since I have read
possible interpretation and translation were discussed by mailinglist
.....

Besides my personal impression, as English speaker as
a foreign language, I found many "it would be much greater if ..."
like sorts at conference. Like transription providing for at least
keynotes (planeries). Due to the current workload, currently I have no
enough time to summarize my proposal for universal access to Wikimedia
things for "ESAFL/ESASL", so I expect you as those to input your
opinion frankly, and also expect the next year conf. is greatly
progressing at this point.

-- 
Kizu Naoko
  Wikiquote: http://wikiquote.org
  * vivemus, mea Lesbia, amemus *