2019 Wikimedia Australia Community Conference

Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney by Jason Tong (CC-BY-2.0)

2019 Wikimedia Australia Community Conference
   Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney by Jason Tong (CC-BY-2.0)


Saturday 15 June 2019

What was the Community Conference?

The inaugural Community Conference was organised by Wikimedia Australia and successfully held on Saturday 15 June 2019.

Goals

The goals of the community conference were:

  • to showcase some of the exciting work that has been happening across Australia
  • to give our community the opportunity to contribute to the next stage of planning Wikimedia Australia's future directions
  • to discuss our priorities for future collaborations
  • to discuss how we can better engage with each other, our region: ESEAP (the East, Southeast Asia, and Pacific), and the wider Wikimedia movement

Timeline

The conference was an all-day event held on Saturday 15 June in Sydney, with a committee workshop the following day.

Target participants

The venue accommodated 25 community members. As scholarships were limited, we recognised that most participants would be those attending the University of Sydney conference Worlds of Wikimedia conference and community members from Sydney.

Promotion

The conference registration opened a month before the conference. Promotion was via email to Wikimedia Australia members, posting on the Australian project page, an event and page on the Wikimedia Australia website, and social media channels. The conference was livestreamed and this was also promoted in advance and via social media on the day. We received 24 registrations via Eventbrite.

Outcomes

Community members were encouraged to suggest areas of interest and volunteer to present. Five lightning talks were presented, and three workshops.

The full programme with linked presentations is available at Community Conference Schedule

The Conference was live streamed and can be viewed on the Wikimedia Australia channel.

The Conference used the Twitter hashtag #WoW2019

Invited speaker

Our special guest speaker, Ingrid Cumming, is a Nyungar yorga who was part of the research team that developed Noongarpedia including the nys.wikipedia. Ingrid is now the Indigenous project co-ordinator for the City of Canning, Western Australia. From her experience in working with Wikimedia Australia she invited WMAU to collaborate with the City of Canning on a digital heritage project. She will share her insights on these projects and how to engage and share in a respectful way with Indigenous knowledge.

Wikimedia Australia acknowledges the generous support of the City of Canning for Ingrid's attendance at the Community Conference.

Following Ingrid's presentations in Sydney, there was a request for her to present on the Noongarpedia project and on the challenges faced with the inclusion of Australian Indigenous knowledge at Wikimania. Her yarn is scheduled to be held in the Menchú room at Wikimania from 14:00 on Sunday 18th August.

Venue

The University of Sydney, Old Teachers College building (opposite the 1993 Education Building), Room 329.

Room 329, building opposite the Education Building, The University of Sydney, Manning Rd, Camperdown NSW

The University of Sydney kindly provided us with a space, and the necessary facilities to host the event.

Attendees

Conference participants

There were 24 registrations for the conference received via Eventbrite registration.

  • Home Wikimedia: Wikipedia (14); Wikidata (3); Commons (2); Wikisource (1); No account (1)
  • Age: 21-30 (2); 31-40 (11); 41-50 (2); 51-60 (3); 61-70 (4); 71- (2)
  • Gender: Female (10); Male (14)
  • State: ACT (1); NSW (9); NT (1); QLD (2); VIC (4); WA (5); International (2)
  • Background: GLAM (6); Education (3); Other (15)

Community members were encouraged to suggest areas of interest and volunteer to present. At registration nine attendees expressed interest in presenting a lightning talk at the conference. Five lightning talks were presented, and three workshops.

This was an extremely worthwhile and positive event. Many connections were made across the movement in Australia. Two new committee members were recruited.

Feedback: We have not yet surveyed participants formally about the conference.

Retrospective: We should have had thank you cards and messages of thanks drafted to acknowledge those who presented at the conference, the sponsors of the venue and the keynote speaker, and the key organisers.

Contact

For further information on this or future community conferences contact us at contact-at-wikimedia.org.au

See also

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