What to see at Wikimania 2023

{{blog post
| date = 2023-08-08
| image =Wikimania2023 Attendee T-Shirt Graphic.svg
| hide_banner =
| author = James Gaunt
| mode = <!-- draft, featured, or hidden -->
| keywords = <!-- comma-separated list -->
| description = Presentations from the Australian community
}}__NOTOC__

Wikimania brings together people from all over the world to celebrate free knowledge projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and the many project contributors.

The 2023 annual Wikimania conference is running from 16–19 August in Singapore.

If you aren't able to attend in-person a ticket for the online stream is free and [https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2023:Registration you can register here].

===Program highlights===
The Wikimania 2023 program is massive! [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/schedule/ Find the complete program here], but we've highlighted some sessions featuring members of the Australian community below. Those marked panel include multiple speakers.

'''Alex Lum - Duplicating Everywhere All at Once'''

Five years ago, bots created millions of articles on several Wikipedia language editions and corresponding Wikidata items, resulting in thousands of duplicated Wikidata items for geographic places. This session will cover how this happened, use data visualisation to show the scope of the issues, and suggest some novel ways of cleaning up Wikidata, Wikipedia and the original data sources. 

Saturday August 19, 12pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/XKBU7Z/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Amanda Lawrence - Passion and Perspectives: Policy Challenges and Opportunities for the Wikimedia Communities in the ESEAP (panel)'''

Public policy, as "politics as a vocation", takes both passion and perspective. Wikimedia communities in the East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific (ESEAP) region have different experiences and institutional capacity to navigate the changing waters of public policy, especially on those that may not be aligned or opposite to the mission and interests of the Wikimedia movement. The diverse legal, social, and political landscape of the region proved to be a unique challenge and opportunity at the same time. We invite you to join us in this roundtable conversation to discuss the challenges, explore the opportunities together, and learn from each other.

Thursday August 17, 4:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/AZGHH3/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Belinda Spry - Community Initiatives in the East, South East Asia and the Pacific region (panel)'''

The East, South East Asia and the Pacific region is a vast and diverse geographical area that encompasses many cultures, languages, and histories. It is also a region that faces many challenges and opportunities in the digital age. How can Wikimedia projects contribute to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Asia-Pacific knowledge and heritage? How can Wikimedia communities collaborate with various partners and stakeholders to enhance the quality and quantity of Asia-Pacific content on Wikimedia platforms? How can Wikimedia address the gaps and biases that affect the representation and participation of Asia-Pacific communities in the Wikimedia movement? These are some of the questions that this panel aims to explore and discuss. 

Saturday August 19, 2pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/BAHAVN/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Gnangarra and Mike Dickison - Wikimedia Commons Basics Workshop'''

Wikimedia Commons is a free, collaborative, multilingual, online media repository that anyone can upload and use. Wikimedia Commons contains over 90 million media files—photos, audio, and video—on various topics, concepts, and objects, which can be accessed and improved by anyone in the world. In this workshop, you will learn what Wikimedia Commons is, how it works, and how you can contribute to it. You will also learn how to use Wikimedia Commons as a resource for learning and teaching. 

Wednesday August 16, 4:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/7MP8ML/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Heather Ford - What I learned from studying Wikipedia bias for 18 years'''

In this session, I'll talk about my experience first working to advocate for Wikipedia in South Africa from around 2005 until I started researching Wikipedia bias as a Master's and then PhD student from 2009. I'll cover what I learned about the shape and source of Wikipedia's biases and why bias may not be the best frame for thinking about Wikipedia's ultimate goals and challenges. 

Thursday August 17, 4:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/3RESHM/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''James Gaunt - Learn and discuss with member of the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network (panel)'''

This roundtable will share the experiences of various Wikimedians in Residence (WiR) in both professional and share best practices and tools they have used in their work with Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and other projects. Discussion with the wider Wikimedia community is encouraged, even expected, in order to share best practices related to new developments and how does the work of WIRs advance the Wikimedia goals, and finds way in the 2030 strategy implementations. Wikimedians from around the world will be represented. 

Friday August 18, 2:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/WDZBPN/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''JarrahTree - Detailed dimensions of History''' 

Detailed dimensions of history is an examination of how the mixture of materials on commons, wikidata, and english wikipedia provide an in depth and dynamic understanding of local history 'outside' of single 'snapshots' of places and events. 

Friday August 18, 12pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/NA7H3P/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''JarrahTree - Local Wikipedia Groups - history, context and place'''

WikiClubWest has met over ten years and more - as basically a social meetup group, it has also been involved in a range of activities which develop a range of experiences in editing wikipedia in possibly the largest sub national 'state' in the world. The discussion is an overview of the issues arising from the long term experience of an editing community, and the challenges that are involved in sustaining involvement and interest. 

Friday August 18, 4:55pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/CQSRSE/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Kelly Tall - Visualising the Revolution: a visual response to Heather Ford's book'''

On reading Heather Ford's "Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age" I was gripped by the process Ford describes to create the Wikipedia page for the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. As I read Ford's words describing the steps people all around the world were taking in recording the event, I wondered what a visualisation would look like of edits and deletions over time, against the framework Ford describes. 

Thursday August 17, 8:06pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/KNPBHG/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Margaret Donald - Wikidata for Korean Qitems'''

On labelling Korean Qitems in a language with a roman text. This session will be prerecorded. 

Friday August 18, 5:30pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/GB7WNF/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Pru Mitchell - Connecting National Library Board Metadata (panel)'''

In this workshop, we will demonstrate and discuss the current status of National Library Board (NLB) metadata in Wikidata, the free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by humans and machines. We will show how NLB metadata is linked to Wikidata through the National Library Board Singapore ID property (P3988), which allows for the identification and reconciliation of entities across different data sources. We will also explore some challenges and opportunities in connecting NLB metadata to Wikidata, such as data quality, coverage, alignment, and enrichment. 

Sunday August 20, 4:30pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/YXXSFW/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Sam Wilson - Workshop on Simple Digitization, Uploading and Indexing Public Domain text in Wikisource (panel)'''

Throughout history, so many texts have deteriorated and broken due to time and natural disasters. One of the ways to avoid the loss of this text is by digitization to make the text's content still available, though the book will be broken beyond repair This workshop will guide people on how to do simple digitization the text that they want to share and upload it into wikimedia commons and index it into Wikisource. 

Wednesday August 16, 1:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/89SJGX/ Add this event tour calendar here].

'''Sam Wilson - The Future of the Wishlist Survey (panel)'''

A forum to discuss the future of the Wishlist via the lens of challenges and lessons learned over the years. Dive deep into the Community Wishlist Survey via the lens of metrics, lessons learned, and oral history about how the Wishlist came to be. Help us understand what the movement needs for decision making input into technical resources and how they get spent on needed improvements to the platforms. 

Saturday August 19, 1:15pm AEST. [https://pretalx.com/wm2023/talk/AACGKJ/ Add this event tour calendar here].