[Foundation-l] The Wikimania of my dreams

Wed Aug 20 09:54:16 UTC 2008

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 6:27 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> * you really don't need much for this sort of event: a comfortable,
> open venue, wireless, some chairs/couches/mats, coffee/tea, snacks,
> and a big piece of paper on the wall for writing session ideas down
> on. (see: how to organize a barcamp:
> http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/OrganizeALocalBarCamp). Everything else is
> just a bonus. Obviously, if there was going to be streaming, also a
> monitor/projector/etc.

This is a very good point! In other words, even Wikimania at Buenos
Aires may be prepared in such manner. If Wikimedians from different
places are willing to prepare small Wikimanias, it is the right time
to start with thinking about that from both sides.

> ** this has had technical difficulties in the past but I have faith
> we'll get it together.

A couple of technical advices related to "streaming":
* Don't do stream [from both sides], do VoIP (SIP, H323 or Skype).
Streaming will have problems in all cases: Streaming software is
trying to transmit all data, which makes delays.
* ~200kbps is enough for not so bad quality video conference. So,
there should be clean ~200kbps per channel. Maybe it is reasonable to
install a central VoIP router at Florida because of the best Internet
infrastructure and combinations of VoIP (for conferencing) and
streaming (just for emitting signal from different places).
* IP routing hardware has to be able to transmit a lot of small
packages. Note that ordinary wireless connections are not able to do
that.