Wikimania 2021/Call for volunteers

Apply to be a part of the core team for this year's virtual Wikimania or indicate if you want to help with other roles.

As there’s no physical location for this year's Wikimania, there are no geographically based hosts. Instead, the Wikimania Steering Committee and the Core Organizing Team will serve as an international team of community organizers for Wikimania 2021. The Foundation will be providing infrastructure, logistics and organizational support.

We invite you to join us and help produce this event for the community, by the community.

How to get involved

For supporting the organization of Wikimania, we will need help from community members around the world to form an organizing team from within our community. We have identified some roles that would be a part of the Core Organizing Team of 2021 Wikimania.

We are inviting nominations and self-nominations for the Core Organizing Team for Wikimania 2021. This team will help lead the development and production of the overall event, focused on the conference program, and will be supported by technical and project staff at the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimania steering committee. Volunteers will need to commit time each week between now and August to make the event a success.

If you have organized past events in person or online, or are interested in hosting international Wikimedia events in the future, we need you! Planning Wikimania is an amazing way to meet and collaborate with other Wikimedians from all over the world. This group will need people who are strong collaborators, communicators, and solution-oriented and who are able to be consistently involved through the conference.

If you want to help with Wikimania but don't want to be a part of the core team, there will be additional calls for volunteers in other roles in the coming months as well. These will include helping with communications, program, mentorship and more. If you want to help out let us know by filling out the application form.

If you have ideas or questions, please add them to the talk page.

How big will the group be?

The core organizing team will be a small group responsible for the leadership of the event. The total number of people we are looking for the COT is:

Organizing members: minimum of 2, maximum 3 community representatives
Programming members: minimum of 2, maximum 3 community representatives
1-2 steering committee liaisons (rotating representative)
WMF: Lead, Project Manager, and Virtual Event Producer

As noted above, additional volunteers to help with other aspects of the conference are also very welcome and there will be additional calls in the coming months.

Roles and responsibilities

What are the responsibilities of Organizing Members? (min 2 / max 3):

Help choose the right format for a virtual Wikimania - using prior design work to set the length and outline of the event
Help shape/decide the outcome of the recommendations of the Scholarship Feasibility Report
Updating and managing the Wikimania wiki
Keep our international community up to date and involved throughout planning phase
Coordinate communications, including event communications, program submissions, and program acceptance

What are the responsibilities of Programming Members? (min 2 / max 3):

Create and manage the call for program contributions
Manage programming
Establish programming framework
Coordinate and execute community submission/acceptance process
Assist with programming logistics

What does the commitment look like?

Starting in March, through September, 60-90 mins active weekly participation (possibly more or less in some weeks depending on tasks). Times and dates will be chosen by Core Organizing Team members, and will be inclusive of all timezones.

Is there an incentive for volunteering my time?

For active core team members, a full scholarship (travel, lodging, registration fees) to the next in-person Wikimania will be awarded

What kind of qualifications are we looking for?

For organizing members: event organization experience of virtual, in-person or hybrid events; previous organizers of events such as regional events, thematic events, meetups or Wikimanias
For programming members: experience with the programming of international community events; experience as previous program chairs, program committee members
Past or future Wikimania organizers are welcome
Collaborative approach as a principle
In good standing with the community and the Foundation
Members from anywhere in the world are welcome; the working language of the committee will be English

How to apply and deadline

Send your application to the WMSC using the form below
You can use the application form for the Core Organizing Team
You can also use the form to provide your availability for smaller roles
Apply by March 1st 2021; members will be announced by March 18th 2021

NOTES on the application:

Please indicate if you'd like to be on the core team, or in a different role.
Core team members will need to spend at least an hour a week, and possibly more time, planning the conference. There are two questions about time: if you are on the core team if you can commit that much time, and if you'd like to be in a different volunteer role, how much time can you commit.

~~Apply~~ ― proudly with Free Software (info)

The call expired. Thank you for the great participation! Further news soon!