Iopensa
Iolanda Pensa, on meta. Thanks for the Wikimedia Foundation scholarship! Here is the report for the Wikimedia Foundation, here some notes in Italian for Wikimedia Italia and here it is my personal report.
iopensa's report Wikimania Montreal 2017
Active participation
I have submitted two proposals which have been selected. I also actively participated at the Learning Days by contributing to a session and presenting two Lightning Talks (I actually prepared two and made one). I used my time in Montreal also to meet and discuss with the Wikimania Committee and with the new association Wiki in Africa.
Presentations
- Pensa, Iolanda. It is not a matter of visibility: GLAMs contribute to fill the knowledge gap. New metrics for GLAMs and GLAM-Wiki cooperation. Presentation at Wikimania Montreal 2017. The details of the presentation (slides and notes) are on its page. A video should be available.
- Pensa, Iolanda. Methods to enhance the production of Wikipedia articles on specific topics. A presentation of the methodologies tested in the production of articles related to the South African primary school curriculum. Presentation at Wikimania Montreal 2017. The details of the presentation (slides and notes) are on its page.
- Pensa, Iolanda. Transforming GLAMs, Slides on commons, https://www.slideshare.net/iopensa/wikimania-2017-transforming-glams. Lightning Talk at Wikimania Montreal 2017.
- Pensa, Iolanda. Decision making is not a problem, Slides on commons, https://www.slideshare.net/iopensa/wikimania-2017-decision-making-is-not-a-problem. Lightning Talk at Wikimania Montreal 2017.
Other sessions Case study Wikimania Esino Lario 2016, Session Designing Wikimedia Programs and Events at Learning Days for Wikimania Montreal
Participation in the session Future of Wikimania and to two meetings related to the Wikimania Committee.
During Wikimania I also collected some greetings to Esino Lario and distributed the few copies of Wikimania Esino book I brought with me. It is great the message Katherine Maher made and thanks Stefano Dal Bo for making the translations in Italian for the subtitles. You find Wikimania Esino Lario book here in full resolution.
Feedback
- I loved not having to organize Wikimania! I really enjoyed my time and I perfectly remembered why I liked Wikimania so much. It is really a great conference, with amazing people and an incredible active and engaging atmosphere. It is my favorite conference!
- The beds in the Sheraton were extremely comfortable. It is really nice to have such a huge room and I felt a little sorry for those in Esino Lario who received a full scholarship and a much smaller bed :(
- I was so happy to share my room with Isla Haddow-Fllod and spending some time with her. She is one of the many people who I have talked to and who I have truly enjoyed spending time with.
- It is always great to hang out with people from your country. I do believe Wikimania has a key role in reinforcing local communities and in my experience people who attended Wikimania together got really closed and started collaborating back home. It is a key event in triggering participation at a national level and boosting teams.
- I spend quite a lot of time thinking about volunteer work in our communities. I think we underestimate the role of recognition (and the necessity of recognition) in the offline activities. The fact volunteers promote so many events appears to me correlated to the necessity of "curating" and "signing" an activity.
- This was the first Wikimania made by the Wikimedia Foundation. It was not a volunteer-driven event because of the difficulties faced by the team in Canada. Somehow this was not really explained and I am looking forward to read the report about this event; how it was organized and how much it cost. I think it is a convenient model but not the way to go.