Grants:TPS/SuperHamster/Wikimania/2017/Report

Participant

SuperHamster (Kevin Payravi)

English Wikipedia

Outcome

Option 3: New Creation: What was one useful outcome that was created at the event for the Wikimedia movement?

On Saturday, I attended the Edit-a-thon for Bassel, in honor of the late Bassel Khartabil. While I could only stay for a couple hours, I edited Copyright law of Syria on the English Wikipedia, expanding it and adding sources. This was also a great opportunity to meet, talk, and network with Wikipedians from all around the world who were passionate about the movement and Bassel's work.

Connections

One of my favorite parts of Wikimania was meeting Wikimedians from all around the world. This was my first Wikimania, and so it was my first time really getting to interact with international Wikimedians all in the same room. Everyone had an interesting story and background to tell, and it was great to put faces behind people I've interacted with online.

Particularly fruitful connections I've made were with other United States Wikimedians; it's nice to have connections for future U.S. initiatives and projects, with the U.S. community being a bit fragmented. I also get to meet with other "Wiki Loves" organizers, who had plenty of great ideas and resources - useful as I help organize Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States.

Anything else

A tour at McGill University for WikiConference North America 2017's Culture Crawl.

Group photo at the end of Day 2 of WikiConference North America 2017.

I was one of the main organizers for Wiki Conference North America 2017, which served as a Wikimania pre-conference.

Thursday, August 9, was the conference's Wiki Culture Crawl, where we worked with McGill University and the BAnQ Vieux-Montreal to provide tours and edit-a-thons for conference goers. The Culture Crawl allowed conference goers to experience some of the culture, history, and sight-seeing of Montreal before the start of the more formal Wikimania conference. Throughout the Crawl, we promoted participants uploading their photos to the Commons - whether these photos were of archived books at McGill University or of the street between two venues.

Friday, August 10, was the conference's programming day, with over a dozen sessions ranging from Wikidata training to discussions on bias, education, harassment, technology in practice, and more. One track also served as an Unconference Session for most of the day, followed by lightning talks. Several of these presenters were from people who submitted a proposal to Wikimania but were not accepted - WikiConference North America allowed them to still present their exciting topics and activities to a group. A full schedule of programming can be seen here.

I did make a presentation at WikiConference North America: Wikipedia Organizations on Campus: Case Study and Guide. The presentation, given by me and a fellow friend and organizer, covered the history of Wikipedia-related student organizations in the higher education setting, followed by the history of Wikipedia Connection, a student organization at the Ohio State University that was created in Spring of 2015. The student-run organization, with the support of library faculty, has hosted edit-a-thons, weekly workshops, a photo event, and more on-campus.

Wikimania itself was a fantastic experience, full of amazing people, thoughts, and projects from all around the world. Looking forward to attending future ones!