Wikimania

Wikimania 2005, the first Wikimania conference, was held from 4 to 8 August 2005 at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt, Germany, attracting about 380 attendees.[1]

The week of the conference included four "Hacking Days", from 1 to 4 August, when some 25 developers gathered to work on code and discuss the technical aspects of MediaWiki and of running the Wikimedia projects. The main days of the conference, despite its billing as being "August 4–8", were Friday to Sunday of that week, from 5 to 7 August. Presentation sessions were scheduled all day during those three days.

Keynote speakers included Jimmy Wales, Ross Mayfield, Ward Cunningham, and Richard Stallman (who spoke on "Copyright and community in the age of computer networks"). The majority of sessions and conversations were in English, although a few were in German.

Sponsors of the event included Answers.com, SocialText, Sun Microsystems, DocCheck,[17] and Logos Group.

Attendees break for lunch, 2006

Wikimania 2006, the second Wikimania conference, was held from 6 to 8 August 2006 at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge in Massachusetts, United States, with about 400[2]–500[18] attendees.

Speakers included Jimmy Wales, Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle, Yochai Benkler, Mitch Kapor, Ward Cunningham, and David Weinberger. Dan Gillmor held a citizen journalism unconference the day after.

Wales' plenary speech was covered by the Associated Press, and printed in numerous worldwide newspapers. He chronicled how the Foundation evolved from him "sitting in his pajamas" to the maturing corporate structure that it is now; the frequent push for quality over quantity; Wikipedia will be included on computers distributed through One Laptop per Child; both Wikiversity and the creation of an advisory board were approved by the Foundation board; and that Wiki-WYG is in development thanks to private investment by Wikia, Inc. and Socialtext.[19]

Answers.com was the Wikimania 2006 patron sponsor, while Amazon.com, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Nokia, WikiHow were Benefactors-level sponsors, Wetpaint, Ask.com, Yahoo!, and Socialtext were Friends-level sponsors, and IBM, FAQ Farm, Elevation Partners, One Laptop per Child, and the Sunlight Foundation were Supporter-level sponsors of the conference.[20]

Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Milan, Boston, and Toronto; only Toronto and Boston were passed to the second round of consideration by Wikimania organizers. In Toronto's case the event would have been hosted in the University of Toronto's Bahen Centre.

Chunghwa Telecom press conference, sponsor of Wikimania 2007

As announced on 25 September 2006, Wikimania 2007,[21] the third Wikimania conference, was held from 3 to 5 August 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. It was the first Wikimania event to hold a volunteer training course.[22]

Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Alexandria, and Turin. Bids for Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul, and Orlando failed to make the shortlist.[23] The winner was announced on 25 September 2006.[21]

On 3 August 2007, New York Times reporter Noam Cohen reported: "The conference has attracted about 440 attendees, a little more than half from Taiwan, who want to immerse themselves for three days in the ideas and issues that come up making an entirely volunteer-written encyclopedia.[3] The workshops cover practical topics like how to collaborate peacefully; what importance to give 'expertise' in a project that is celebrated for allowing anyone to contribute, including anonymous editors".[3]

Group photo after the 2008 closing ceremony

Wikimania 2008, the fourth Wikimania conference, was held from 17 to 19 July 2008 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, with 650 attendees from 45 countries.[4] Alexandria was the location of the ancient Library of Alexandria.[24]

Three proposed cities were in the running at the end, the other two being Atlanta and Cape Town. Proposals for Karlsruhe, London and Toronto were also submitted, but later withdrew. There was a controversy about the conference, and even a call to boycott Wikimania 2008 because of Egypt's alleged censorship and imprisoning of bloggers during Mubarak's era.[25][26] Mohamed Ibrahim, a graduate of Alexandria University who worked to bring the conference to Alexandria, told the BBC "I think we have the right to develop and to make freedom of expression on a larger scale."[27] One of his goals was to help grow Arabic Wikipedia which he contributes to since early 2005. An Egyptian cabinet minister spoke at the opening ceremonies on Mubarak's behalf.[24]

2009 group photo

Wikimania 2009, the fifth Wikimania conference, was held from 26 to 28 August 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 559 attendees.[28] The final selection was made between Buenos Aires, Toronto, Brisbane and Karlsruhe, with the final selection coming down to Buenos Aires and Toronto.

Jimmy Wales gives the keynote address at Gdańsk

Wikimania 2010,[29] the sixth Wikimania conference, was held from 9 to 11 July at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk, Poland. The starting day on July 9 overlapped with the end of the WikiSym academic conference. Bids for Amsterdam and Oxford for Wikimania 2010 lost by a small margin.[6]

It was the first conference which included a big focus on the cultural aspects of the hosting nation, particularly a concert of a philharmonic orchestra, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the death of the most important contemporary Polish composer Władysław Szpilman and the premiere of the film Truth in Numbers?. At the conference, Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that the foundation's aim was to grow the number of visitors to Wikimedia sites from 371 million to 680 million a month, over the next five years.

Wikimania 2011, the seventh Wikimania conference, was held from 4 to 7 August 2011 in Haifa, Israel.[30] The conference venue was the Haifa Auditorium and adjoining Beit Hecht cultural center on Mount Carmel. Keynote speakers at the conference included Yochai Benkler, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and Joseph M. Reagle Jr. of MIT, author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia.[31] Head of the Science and Technology Committee at the Knesset, Meir Sheetrit, also spoke at the conference, as did Yonah Yahav, the Mayor of Haifa.[32] One of the sponsors of the event was Haifa University.[33] The conference featured 125 sessions in five simultaneous tracks and was attended by 720 Wikimedians[30] from 56 different countries,[32] including some that have no diplomatic relations with Israel.[34]

Opening session of Wikimania 2011

In an interview with Haaretz, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales noted that there had been boycott calls against the conference in Israel, as there had been against having it in Egypt in 2008. He said that despite conflicts among editors on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and efforts by a pro-Israel group to recruit more Wikipedia editors, he believes Wikipedia articles largely remained neutral on the topic; he stated "NPOV is non-negotiable."[35]

Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner spoke to the conference about the Western, male-dominated mind-set characterizing Wikipedia.[36] At the end of the August 7 closing ceremony, Jimmy Wales was presented with the first day cover of the first-ever Wikimedia-related postal stamp,[30] issued by the Israeli postal service in honor of the event.[37] Among new projects discussed was collaboration with cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums.[38]

After the conference, participants were offered a free tour of Haifa, Jerusalem, Nazareth or Acre. Shay Yakir, outgoing chairman of Wikimedia Israel, said that for Israel, holding the conference in Haifa was like hosting the Olympic Games.[39]

2012 group photo

Wikimania 2012, the eighth Wikimania conference, was held from 12 to 15 July 2012 at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, United States, with over 1400 attendees from 87 countries.[40] In addition, the U.S. Department of State, in conjunction with Wikimania 2012, hosted a conference labeled Tech@State:Wiki.Gov which focused on "Collaborative knowledge and the use of wikis in the public sector".[41]

Prominent conference themes were the need to update the old and "dowdy" interface[42] with new Wikimedia tools in order to attract and retain more editors and to make Wikimedia sites more inviting and friendly to users, including especially women.[43] The Atlantic featured charts displayed at the conference which showed how the number of new administrators has dropped precipitously over the last few years.[44]

During the opening plenary founder Jimmy Wales commented on Wikipedia Blackout of January 2012, stating "When I go and visit government officials now, they’re a little bit afraid." However he reiterated Wikimedia's commitment to political neutrality except regarding "the most serious things that directly impact our work."[45][46] Wales agreed with keynote speaker Mary Gardiner, co-founder of the Ada Initiative, that Wikimedia had to do more to increase the number of women editors. She stated: "As a project of social change, even if it's not an activist project, the Wikipedia community has a responsibility both to its mission and to the people out there in the world to always be on a journey toward diversity — to increase the size of the umbrella of the world."[47][48]

Wikimania 2013, the ninth Wikimania conference, was held from 7 to 11 August 2013 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with 700 attendees from 88 countries. Candidate cities were London (UK), Bristol (UK), Naples (Italy) and Surakarta (Indonesia).

One of the parties for the event was held at the tallest building in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre. A closing party was held at Shek O Beach. Topics discussed included Wikipedia's gender disparity[49] and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales' proposal for Wikipedia to begin using Secure Socket Layer to encrypt its pages.[50]

Wikimania 2014 attendees

Wikimania 2014, the tenth Wikimania conference, was held from 8 to 10 August 2014[51] at the Barbican Centre in London, England, United Kingdom. Bidding officially opened in December 2012. London was chosen in May 2013 as the host city[52] with the only other bid coming from Arusha (Tanzania).[53][54] The keynote address was given by Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.[55] The event was also the first Wikimania addressed by the Wikimedia Foundation's new Executive Director, Lila Tretikov.[55] The event was preceded by a two-day hackathon, and a series of fringe events.[55]

The conference had five tracks, alongside the annual 'State of the Wiki' round up. These were: Social Machines, The future of Education, Democratic Media, Open Scholarship, and Open Data. The conference was documented by the television program 60 Minutes in a program titled 'Wikimania'.[56]

Wikimania 2015, the eleventh Wikimania conference, was held from 15 to 19 July 2015[57] at the Hotel Hilton Mexico City Reforma in Mexico City, Mexico. Bidding officially opened in December 2013.

Other candidate cities were: Arusha, northern Tanzania; Bali, a province in Indonesia; Cape Town, in South Africa; Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania; Esino Lario, province of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy, and Monastir, in Tunisia.[58][59] Shortlisted were Mexico City, Cape Town and Monastir.[60] Mexico City was selected in April 2014.[58][59]

The main venue was the Hilton Mexico City Reforma hotel.[59][61] The organising entity was Wikimedia México, A.C., the Mexican local chapter representing the interests and goals of the Wikimedia Foundation.[62]

Wikimania 2016, the twelfth Wikimania conference, took place from 24 to 26 June 2016, with peripheral events from 21–28 June, in the mountain village of Esino Lario, Italy.[63] Esino Lario had bid unsuccessfully for the 2015 Wikimania.

The other candidate city who bid for the 2016 hosting was Manila, Philippines.

The venue is the first that is not a major city and plenary sessions are in the outdoor venue. During the event, it was announced that the Wikimedia Foundation's interim Executive Director, Katherine Maher, was appointed permanently.

Wikimania 2017 Closing Ceremony Group Photo

Wikimania 2017, the thirteenth Wikimania conference, was held at Le Centre Sheraton Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 9 to 13 August 2017.[64][65] The event was held in Canada during its sesquicentennial anniversary and in Montreal during its 375th anniversary.[66]

The first two days included WikiConference North America. The final attendance of this event tallied was 915. 144 of which were sponsored through full and partial scholarships. Katherine Maher, WMF Executive Director and Christophe Henner, WMF Chairman of the Board of Trustees presented the strategic direction of the Wikimedia movement named #Wikimedia2030. Esra'a Al Shafei, a Bahraini human rights activist, made a keynote on the challenges of free speech in the Middle East. Due to the nature of Al Shafei's work, the audience were reminded not to take photos, video or streaming online which may endanger her safety in her home country.

This is the first Wikimania where the bid system was not implemented and was replaced by the WMF steering committee selection process.

Wikimania 2018 Group Photo

Wikimania 2018, the fourteenth Wikimania conference, was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 18 to 22 July 2018 at the Cape Sun Southern Sun Hotel. It was the first time the event had a theme. The theme was "Bridging Knowledge gaps: the Ubuntu way forward"[67] with the aim of focusing discussion on building shared strategies to bridge the collective knowledge gaps.

It was the second time the event was held in the Southern Hemisphere, second in Africa and first in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The event featured a panel that discussed the challenges and possibilities of the Wikipedia language editions in the African continent. Nicole Ebber, International Relations Adviser of Wikimedia Deutschland and Kaarel Vaidla, WMF Process Architect for Wikimedia Movement Strategy presented the second phase of the Wikimedia Movement Strategy Process. The second phase focused on nine key thematic areas: Roles & Responsibilities, Revenue Streams, Resource Allocation, Capacity Building, Partnerships, Advocacy, Diversity, Community Health, and Product & Technology.

Wikimania 2019 Group Photo

Wikimania 2019, the fifteenth Wikimedia conference, was held in Stockholm, Sweden from 14 to 18 August 2019, at the Stockholm University, with an attendance of over 800.[16][68] The scholarship recipients and WMF staff were billeted at the Clarion Hotel Amaranten, a short travel from the conference venue. Clarion Hotel Amaranten was also the venue for the organized meetups.

The event centered around the theme Stronger Together: Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals. As part of the movement's sustainability initiative, Wikimedia Sverige and the Wikimedia Foundation decided to pay half of the carbon offsetting cost. Terrapass, sponsored the other half of the offsetting for the conference.

Emna Mizouni was named the Wikimedian of the year.[69]

The event also featured the first Coolest Tool Award, recognizing the best technical tools used in various Wikimedia projects. Categories include: Experience, Tiny, Impact, Reusable, Editor, Developer, Mobile, Newcomer, and Outreach.

Wikimania 2020, the sixteenth Wikimedia conference, was scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 5 to 9 August, 2020,[70] coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the event. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been postponed until a date to be determined, in 2021.[71] It will be hosted by Wikimedia ESEAP (East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific), a first time for a regional collaborative. It will be the third time it will be held in Asia and first for Southeast Asia.