Talk:EduWiki Conference 2013

Great to see this taking shape - well done all. Jon Davies WMUK (talk) 14:40, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Thank you, Jon. I'm pretty sure that the collaborative effort of all involved will make this a worthy follow-up to last year's EduWiki conference. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 15:57, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Date

The date doesn't seem right.. I think the 1 November is a Friday, not Saturday. Mark M (talk) 13:28, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

You're absolutely right! It's should be Friday 1 and Saturday 2 November 2013. Well spotted! Thank you very much. I'll fix it right away. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 18:22, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Audience attendance

Hi all. One of the big challenges for a conference like this is bringing together the two different audiences - those that work in education, and those that work on the Wikimedia projects - and helping them have a joint discussion about the common goals that they are working towards, and the issues that are faced along the way. Those two audiences have rather different working hours, though - one audience works primarily during the week between 9am-5pm, the other works primarily over the weekend and evenings. So this conference needs to ask both groups to spend some time outside of their normal working hours in order to interact fully - by asking wikimedians to spend a workday at the conference, and asking educators to spend a weekend day at the conference. I hope that the conference attendees will be willing to make this sacrifice.

On that basis, I would recommend that there is a single registration fee for the whole conference, rather than having day rates, which would hopefully help bring the two audiences together. It might also be worth thinking about bundling overnight accommodation into the registration fee to help facilitate this. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:53, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Venue

Cardiff Bay

• Cardiff Bay has been proposed as an ideal location for this conference.
• Venues we considered include:

• Future Inns in Cardiff Bay [1]
• Canolfan yr Urdd in Cardiff Bay [2]
• The Beaufort Raglan in the Welsh village of Raglan [3]
• Newport: http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=conferencefacilities.homepage

Other venues considered

The Education committee has discussed other possible venues, which have been considered, but it was agreed to proceed with the proposed general area of South Wales.

Below is a list of venues in the chosen area, which have been contacted but are not available on 1-2 Nov 2013, and are therefore struck off the list of considerations:

• The "new" University of South Wales [4]
• Newport Conference Centre [5]
• Best Western - Parkway Hotel, Newport [6]
• Mercure Cardiff Holland House Hotel and Spa [7]

The venue has now been booked/confirmed and the appropriate details appear on the information page. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 11:56, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Aspects of an education program

Hi! I would love to see a bit about various aspects of an education program and what ways there are to conduct it. Such as in Macedonia & Uruguay where they are working directly with the government, in Argentina where they signed an agreement with the city council of Buenos Aires, or in Sweden where we have a Wikipedian in Academy etc. In essence, to be able to see a variety and to be inspired by the many ways to include active contribution to Wikipedia in education. --SOsterberg (WMF) (talk) 12:18, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi Sophie -

Thanks for your comment...and congratulations on your recent WMF appointment!

I hope we can find a way to attract an appropriate international presence at this conference. Not exactly sure what's the most effective way to do this just yet. What would you suggest? An open call for proposals? (this is what I'm working on right now) Or perhaps a more concerted effort through support from WMF and chapters? --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 12:46, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi Toni & thank you! Spontaneously I would say both. Could there be an organised half day with workshop&presentations and half a day with an unconference where people may sign up for whatever they may be interested in listening to/sharing/learning about? Another idea is to have a time for pecha kucha where people may deliver short ideas/projects/updates. How does that sound? SOsterberg (WMF) (talk) 09:51, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Format

This topic was moved from the planning page to remove clutter. Comments about it are still welcome, of course.

• Option 1: A series of plenaries based on a programme encompassing all sessions/interests

Pros - everyone gets to see/hear everything + easier to organise

Cons - not everything appeals to everyone

• Option 2: A limited number of plenaries with parallel session for topics/activities

Pros - more content can be included in a shorter period of time

Cons - more to organize + not everyone gets to see/hear everything

We could possibly run two streams, if we go with option 2:

1. Hands-on workshops/demonstrations
2. Lecture-style presentations and round table discussions

--Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 15:10, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Background

That bright yellow background is very difficult for me to read with my poor eyesight... could we change it to something a little more pastel-coloured? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 15:21, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

I find pastel colours nauseating! :-) So we need to find a compromise. This is a wiki, so please feel free to propose something that's less offensive to you. I could probably live with #ffffcc if I really had to. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 15:23, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Pale yellow looks like mould has set in, how about the light blue I just used? Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 16:28, 2 August 2013 (UTC)