Benutzerin:Llydia/Wikimania 2024

This is a report about the 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)

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

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

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. I individually contacted people to make sure, it was ok to mention them, however I did not receive feedback from everybody, so this is one of the reasons for publishing my report so late - and for not adding direct links to profiles.

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

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

Patricia from Spain easily gets the enthusiasm across with which 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 gave me some insight of how difficult engagement can become (especially once you start discussions).

When I first met Masana Mulaudzi (from South-Africa), as she also gave one of the lightning 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 than any of the volunteers.

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

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

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

With Amal I was in touch a bit after the conference, where we had a conversation before the closing party. It was very sweet of her to send me the picture I regretted not to have taken, of her fabulous outfit - which said: "Do what makes you happy" (on the back).

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

Last but not least I had not been aware that Jimmy Wales would be there in person to share the moment and speak to us.

One session I really enjoyed

The full name of the about mistakes was: „Dromaderros: why making mistakes is crucial in learning“. It 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, each of us associated with mistakes. When we attached them to the wall, we noticed that there were different ways to perceive mistakes. They are either seen 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 making 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 with the name of a camel. We then formed groups around the five camels, which were called: the unsuccessful, the unfinished, the imperfect, the unnecessary and the awesome. I was happy to recognize Kathie from the WikiWomen Summit 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 as well as on individual factors, such as gender or political views
in Germany and Switzerland, the failure of a professional career is often seen as an equivalent of being unsuccessful
in Japan and Ukraine, women are still expected to marry and have a family – if they don’t that can be seen as personal failure
we can not change our surrounding environment but our attitude towards expectations of others

The session was recorded, and is available [1].

Did I pass anything on?

I openly admit that this mandatory question was 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 encouraged people to follow me 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 anxious and I preferred not to enter.
If I had known about the table with the international sweets and snacks I would have contributed somesthing!

Deutsches Fazit

Wenn die Wikimania als internationales Forum zum Austausch zwischen den einzelnen Communities und den Menschen, die sie gestalten, gedacht ist, dann war es aus meiner Sicht eine wirklich gelungene Veranstaltung. Es haben sich überraschend leicht Gespräche mit den anderen Teilnehmenden aus aller Welt ergeben und auch innerhalb der Gruppe aus Deutschland war es einfach sich näher kennenzulernen. Mir gefiel dabei die Möglichkeit, sich über inhaltliche Schnittmengen eine Gesprächsgrundlage mit sehr unterschiedlichen Menschen zu schaffen. Dabei ist der Umgangston insgesamt deutlich freundlicher, als das mitunter bei online geführten Diskussionen der Fall ist.

Die von mir im Bericht ausgewählte Veranstaltung, war ein Workshop zur Wahrnehmung eigener (und fremder) Fehler, sowie den Umgang damit. Dabei fiel mir auf, dass es neben der normalen Sicht auf die Welt auch eine weitere, von Wikipedia geprägte Sicht gibt. Selbst bei Fehlern ist es möglich, diese nicht nur als etwas zu betrachten, was entweder vermieden werden sollte oder, woraus man lernen kann. Ein Teilnehmer sagte "Danke, an alle anderen, die mithelfen meine Fehler richtigstellen."

Die Rahmenbedingungen für unsere Gruppe waren noch dazu optimal, da sich Sandro und Mandy bereits im Vorfeld um die Unterkunft und die Planung des ersten Abends gekümmert hatten und auch zusätzliche Fragen mit einer Engelsgeduld beantworteten. Natürlich gab es bei der Anreise zwar wieder Probleme mit der Bahn, aber das hat ja gewissermaßen schon Tradition.

Jedenfalls kann ich mir, nach dieser positiven, ersten Erfahrung sehr gut vorstellen wieder eine Wikimania zu besuchen, wenn sich die Möglichkeit dazu ergibt.