Benutzerin:Llydia/Entwurf/Udolpho

Wikimania 2024

Without the scholarship from Wikimedia Deutschland I couldn't have attended (thank you so much).

I chose to write my report in english, to give everyone who does not speak german a chance to take a glance at it and/ or see where and how I mentioned them.

Some things I learned about wikipedians (in offline mode)

everybody will talk to you, if you start a conversation
due to our involvement in the same project, there's common ground with everyone
many of us are proud to be nerds and most are enthusiastic when it comes to explaining their realm of expertise
it doesn't matter how long you've been part of the Wikipedia community, or where you are from
offline openness, respect and patience are a lot more abundant then in online discussions
a large number of community members love statistics (a preference both opening and closing ceremony catered to)

International Congress Centre in Katowice

"WikiWomen Summit"

Some of the people I met (and what impressed me about them)

We had stickers wit the Wikilove-Icon, which were freely passed around to everybody's apprechiation

In this section I only want to name the international attendees I met, which does not mean that I didn't enjoy spending part of my time with the group from Germany, as well as with other community members from Germany. All people are mentioned in the order, in which I met them and have been individually contacted beforeh and remain anonymous if they didn't reply or agree to be present with their names and/or usernames.

For the meals I took at the conference, I actually made a decision to sit down with new people every time. It's rather eesy in this atmosphere and really worked well for me!

I enjoyed starting my days with Alvina Saho from India, who also reminded me which aspects of our life I took for granted.

Pa. [1] easily gets the enthusiasm across with wich she fuels Wikisfera in Spain. I introduced her to Leserättin and they already exchanged ideas about possible future projects.

Camelia Boban from Italy is active within the WikiWomen and talking about her being banned from WPItaly illustrated how difficult engagement can become.

When I first met Masana Mulaudzi, as she also gave one of the lighning talks during the WikiWomen Summit, I thought she was another volunteer. In another conversation I realized that she was with the WPFoundation and was honestly impressed to see she was no less serious about this then any of the volunteers.

Ka. is from Ukraine and attended the conference with a scolarship. We started to talk when we were participating in the same workshop and I was impressed with both the wit and the grace wich seem to be part of her natural character.

S. from India didn't know the Wikipepedia Library yet, I gave her a quick introduction and she showed me how to handle the commoms with more ease. I only realzied she was with our group after I'd met her at the conference :-)

Alice is a librairian in her home country Uganda and we had a long conversation about the importance of husbands backing us up to have enough time for our work as volunteers. She is part of the organzing team for the next Wikimania, however I only found that out when I saw her on the stage.

Bartozs Czarnotta from Poland 15 found me when I was overwhelmed by the amout of people at the closing party. He just struck up a conversiation and I was glad to exchange thoughts on the different perspetives we all have as human beings.

One session I really enjoyed

The full name of the about mistakes was: „Dromaderros: why making mistakes is crucial in learning“ and was held by the schoolteacher Marta Puciłowska from Poland as a „Key Partner Session“. I had not noticed this session in the program, but the pile of funny looking stuffed camels attracted my attention. When I found out that there was a practical part I decided to stay. Martha asked each of the roughly 20 participants to write down single words, we associated with mistakes, which we attached to the wall. There are two opposite ways to perceive mistakes, either as something negative, we should avoid and be ashamed of or as an invitation to try again, to improve, to do better and to not give up until the result (more or less) aligns with the expectation. One member even added the wikipedian view, by saying he was grateful when others corrected his mistakes. If children manage to develop a positive attitude towards mistakes this can be vital for developing a certain resilience. On the other hand, it can be negative for the mental health of a person to be afraid of making mistakes.

After a condensed introduction to design thinking we each got a slip of paper and then formed groups around the five camels, which had the names the unsuccessful, the unfinished, the imperfect, the unnecessary and the awesome. I was happy to recognize K. from WWC in my group and together with a teacher from Switzerland and a woman from Japan we collected material and prepared our presentation about our experiences with being unsuccessful. The findings we presented to the group in a nutshell:

expectation is a prison, especially if you expect perfection
who is seen as unsuccessful depends on the point of view and the culture
in Germany and Switzerland, the failure of a professional career is defined as unsuccessful
in Japan and Ukraine, women are still expected to marry and have a family – if they don’t that is seen as unsuccessful
we can not change our surrounding environment but our attitude towards expectations of others

The session was recorded, and is available [2]

Did I pass anything on?

I openly admit that this mandatory question is challenging, as I have problems judging my own impact and prefer to leave this to others. However I did connect a few people, who are in charge of various projects adressing the gender gap. To my surprise, some people I met had never heard about the Wikipedia Librairy, so I gave two short introductions. Since I assumed that it would interest them, I dragged people to the poster introducing the ISA Tool at the poster session. Besides that my ability to identify who might be happy to be introduced to whom or what profits from this kind of event, so I plan to do more networking (not just for my own ends).

Things I missed

The poster of the Mesopotamian barbel

I only heard about the birdwatching session with local ornithologists, after it had taken place.
The deserts were wonderful, however talking to fellow wikimedians led to me seeing no more than the imprints of cakes which were gone.
I would have loved to meet the creator of the poster dedicated to the Mesopotamian barbel, a fish thought to be extinct, that turned up in the Commons (but I was too absorbed in conversation and forgot the time).
Singing or at least watching the Karaoke was my plan, however the room was so crowded, that it made me nervous and I preferred not to enter.