Proposal: 2012 Languages conference

{{proposal|status=approved|member1=[[user:John Vandenberg|John Vandenberg]]|member2=[[user:Tony1|Tony1]]}}

This proposal is for Wikimedia Australia to run a languages conference held at University of Indonesia on 6-7 December 2012.

See http://langcamp.org/ for current information.

== Background ==

In May, the Wikimedia Australia committee looked at the issues relating to assisting languages which do not yet have a presence within Wikimedia.
We had been specifically asked to look at funding the development of free fonts for one writing system of Indonesia, however we were conscious that many writing systems and languages are missing from the Wikimedia community.  We first needed a global strategy, and then the Wikimedia Foundation and chapters need to select which languages they will champion.

In May, Wikimedia Australia also resolved to commission an expert to assist the [[meta:Language committee|Language committee]] (LangCom) develop a strategy document for languages and writing systems, and the Language Committee held its first face-to-face meeting in Berlin.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee/May_2011_meeting#Projects_and_plans

Since May, LangCom member Millosh has created the Missing Wikipedians documentation, which will form part of the languages strategy document that is needed.  Millosh presented this at [[meta:Wikimania 2011]].

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Missing_Wikipedias

http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Missing_Wikipedias

Videos of the session are available on youtube[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-August/067656.html]

To continue the development of a strategy of creating Missing Wikipedias, and move towards implementing that strategy, we need to bring together people from the Language Committee, language experts and native speakers, to address issues relating to languages and writing systems that are preventing these Wikipedias from forming.

The best way to achieve this is to hold conferences.  For cultural and accessibility reasons, these conferences should be held in the regions where the native speakers are, rather than in Europe and North America. As there are many missing languages in the Oceania region, we should hold a conference in this region that will be a model for other regions to follow.

John met with Siska in Canberra in May 2011 to discuss running the language conference for languages in our region, especially assisting understand feasibility and estimate the budget needed.  This proposal was submitted to the members at the [[Meeting:2011 AGM]] where it was approved with a budget of $10,000 for WMID expenses to project manage the project, $10,000 for conference expenses, and $40,000 for travel expenses.

In the [[Meeting:Committee_(2012-04-15)#2012_Languages_conference|April 2012 meeting]], the committee revised down the budget for this conference, limiting it to $10,000 for conference expenses and $20,000 for travel expenses.  John met with staff of the University of Indonesia who provided a [[:File:Proposal 2012 IICC-WMAU Language Workshop.pdf|quote]] to run this conference alongside their own [http://indoicc.org/ 2012 IICC (Indonesia International Conference on Communication)] for USD $9400.

In October the committee approved the first batch of 10 Australian attendees.

== Scope ==
The scope of the conference will be [[w:Austronesian languages|Austronesian languages]].

The conference will include two streams
# [[/existing projects|existing projects]] - languages with a Wikipedia, focusing on issues with community building,
# other languages without a Wikipedia that are:
#* viable [[/incubator projects|incubator projects]] according to activity for two months prior to the paper being submitted, or
#* [[/official languages|official languages]] of a country or self-governing region

== See also ==
* [[:File:Proposal 2012 IICC-WMAU Language Workshop.pdf]]
* [[wikiversity:LangCamp 2012]]