Proposal: 2012 Languages conference

(now at langcamp.org)
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== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[:File:Proposal 2012 IICC-WMAU Language Workshop.pdf]]
* [[:File:Proposal 2012 IICC-WMAU Language Workshop.pdf]]
* [[wikiversity:LangCamp 2012]]

Revision as of 06:17, 7 July 2013

This page is a proposal approved by the committee.  The proposal was moved by John Vandenberg and seconded by Tony1. If you are not a member of the organisation, you may request an account on this wiki using special:RequestAccount, and discuss this proposal on the discussion page.


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 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[1]

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 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 quote to run this conference alongside their own 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 Austronesian languages.

The conference will include two streams

  1. existing projects - languages with a Wikipedia, focusing on issues with community building,
  2. other languages without a Wikipedia that are:

See also

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