Hey Lane, I think the meeting spaces idea was done actually at various Wikimania's (At least I'm pretty confident about a few who did it in a structured way) and after a while it was moved to the break times (which is why we have such long breaks usually), but still in rooms on-site. I recall at least one such meeting in Washington where we both were present. Such meetings were also possible in Esino Lario.
I know there were some serious experiments about this (definitely in Boston/Taiwan) on having open spaces that could be used in unconference style. If you want to experiment with that again, it's probably good to dig a bit into that, and gather lessons from the previous years for an optimal experience. Best, Lodewijk 2016-07-07 14:27 GMT+02:00 Lane Rasberry <[email protected]>: > Hello, > > On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Marc-Andre <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hey Pine, >> >> On 2016-07-06 01:44 AM, Pine W wrote: >> >>> Those of us in the US have expressed a hope that WikiConference North >>> America 2017 can be united with Wikimania 2017 in Montreal. >>> >> >> Like many others on the list, I'm not entirely clear on what you'd like >> to achieve? >> >> The intent of having a North America meetup would be developing regional > connections in least expensive, most attractive place to bring local people > together. The problem to address is that very active Wikimedia members in > North America mostly have not met each other, and consequently, the social > networks which ought to be developing over time have not yet been > established. > > Backing up - one way to improve Wikimania to meet this and other demands > is to > 1. Have extra spaces for small meetups > 2. Put those spaces on a public schedule which can be edited by the > community > > There has never been a Wikimania to attempt this yet. Having 2-3 open > rooms which can be reserved by groups without organizer review for > semi-private meetups would be a big help. There might be demand for more > space - I do not know, but that should be a minimum. > > In retrospect, many Wikimanias are in venues with extra space, and anyone > could have set up on-wiki schedules for events in those spaces. But in > practice, if the open spaces and schedule is not set up online in advance, > then it becomes very difficult to set up group meetings in a set location > close to or during the conference. Organizing at Wikimanias is sensitive > and the conference planners need a schedule under their control, and there > should be some open schedule space, and both should be very easy to find > and as close together as possible. > > yours, > > >> Certainly, any topics that would have been welcome and appropriate at a >> the WikiConference would be welcome at Wikimania, with no need of distinct >> tracks? >> >> Certainly, some meetings will have discussion topic that would be >> generally less interesting to an international audience; but then remain >> suitable for meetups. (Speaking of which, there will be a lot of available >> space and time for both organized and impromptu meetings in Montreal that >> are self-organized by the participants; both BoF sessions that are >> organized in advance with scheduled time and places as well as space set >> aside for unconferency impromptu meetings). >> >> That said, if you feel the need to avoid division of audience, we do have >> two full days of preconference during which it may be possible to make >> additional meeting space avaliable for a more "distinct" WikiConference? >> >> -- Coren / Marc >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> > > > > -- > Lane Rasberry > user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia > 206.801.0814 > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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