2015/Unconference

Lightning talks
Add your 5-minute lightning talk topic you can personally present during the Sunday October 11 Unconference, about wiki topics or anything Free Culture-related. (actual schedule for lightning talks will be determined the day of). Last-minute entries always accepted!

For inspiration, see the range of ideas in last year's lightning talks.

Sign up for 5-minute lightning talks
Please sign up here, and include your lightning talk topic.
 * 1) The power of provinicialism and local community.--Pharos (talk) 08:42, 9 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 2) Crowdfunding and Wikipedia! --BillyC840
 * 3) Talk page WikiProject class and importance templates--DavidT8 (talk) 09:00, 10 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 4) Law and Sausage - and Wikipedia! Montanabw (talk) 10:34, 10 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 5) WikiConnect Intro & Update - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConnect AbhiSuryawanshi (talk) 11:30, 10 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 6) Add your topic here!

Beyond the edit-a-thon

 * Idea in one sentence: What are new models of meetups that go beyond the edit-a-thons that are our current mainstay?
 * Proposed by: Fuzheado (talk), User:Kosboot, others
 * Format: brainstorming, design thinking, two hours
 * Resources requested: projector, sticky notes, whiteboard, tables


 * Description
 * How might we engage like-minded institutions besides our traditional GLAM partners like museums and libraries?
 * Go to academic or professional conferences with booths/clinics?
 * How might we create a meetup that is branded better than "edit-a-thon"?
 * Edit-a-thon terminology. The more you think about the term "edit-a-thon" the more you realize it's actually problematic for outreach. What are do people associate with the term "thon?" A marathon is for an elite runner, where you need lots of endurance and training to participate. No novice would ever consider signing up for a marathon. Is that problematic in recruiting novice editors to come to a Wikipedia "edit-a-thon?" As for walk-a-thons, they are typically ways to raise money and makes an "ask" of ordinary folks to pledge money for each mile walked. Are Wikipedia "edit-a-thons," then, fundraisers? No they're not. My fear is that we as Wikipedians are so accustomed and close to the term edit-a-thon that we are blind to how it comes off for public outreach. I don't have a solution in mind, but I'd like to open the conversation about how we might do it better.
 * WikiClinic - allow people to come in for face-to-face "office hours" and experienced Wikipedians can give advice on BLP or articles with problems? Do this in partnership with professional organizations or academic conferences?
 * Add your ideas here
 * Interested parties
 * DocTree (talk) 21:19, 3 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Sign here

Dead links and Verifiability

 * Idea in one sentence: How can we work with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to automatically fix dead link/link rot problems on Wikipedia and what other Verifiability issues need solutions?
 * Proposed by: Fuzheado (talk), User:Sadads, Jake Johnson (Internet Archive)
 * Format: Collaborative generative conversation
 * Resources requested: tables, small room, Internet, power


 * Description: Link rot is one of the biggest problems in Wikipedia. Starting in 2015, the Internet Archive is watching the recent changes feed of Wikipedia to automatically archive the external links added to Wikipedia articles. We also have the beginning of a technical solution to this issue, through CyberPower's new bots. But how can we make the archival versions available for users and editors in a seamless and pleasing way? What kind of developer or community support do we need for this? What other issues, both technical and social, prevent effective longevity of citations and of our ability to verify the content in Wikipedias?
 * Interested parties
 * James Hare (talk) 02:00, 6 October 2015 (EDT)

Wikidata edit-a-thon

 * Idea in one sentence: Hands-on editing of Wikidata.
 * Proposed by: Aude
 * Format: 2-3 hours?
 * Resources requested: projector, tables


 * Description
 * Help improve Wikidata, learn how to use some of the tools available like Magnus' autolist and find tasks to work on.
 * Add your ideas here
 * Interested parties
 * Sign here
 * 1) I would find learning more about some of the tools for editing Wikidata useful. Reguyla (talk) 15:52, 21 September 2015 (EDT)
 * 2) Sounds fun and complementary to an hour-long Wikidata tutorial scheduled early Saturday.  Count me in! Emw (talk) 19:20, 3 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 3) Ditto what Emw said! -- Gaurav (talk) 00:22, 5 October 2015 (EDT)
 * 4) Rhododendrites (talk) 15:28, 7 October 2015 (EDT)

World's Toughest Wikipedia Pub Quiz

 * Idea in one sentence: A pub quiz about Wikipedia's community and quirks, in the style of the original 2004 London meetup quiz created by Angela Beesley
 * Proposed by: User:Fuzheado
 * Format: Tables and small room
 * Resources requested: Anything from simple microphone and paper, or projector if convenient
 * Description: The first ever meetup of Wikipedians in London in 2004 featured a detailed paper quiz created by User:Angela that has been lost to time. It featured questions about notorious vandals, sock puppets, edit wars and articles in Wikipedia that even User:Jimmy Wales found tough to answer correctly. In that same style, we could have a simple quiz with teams over lunch or as an independent session during the Unconference day.
 * Interested parties
 * Pub quiz! Yaasss!! Tokyogirl79 (talk) 10:17, 7 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Rhododendrites (talk) 15:29, 7 October 2015 (EDT)
 * --Guerillero (talk) 21:15, 7 October 2015 (EDT)

Think Tank with Wiki Ed Board

 * Idea in one sentence: Think Tank with the Wiki Education Foundation board!
 * Proposed by: Pharos
 * Format: brainstorming, mini-proposals
 * Resources requested: projector, sticky notes, whiteboard
 * Description: Think Tank with Wiki Ed Board: Exploring how a community-driven partnership with academia on content policy can possibly expand the scope and types of knowledge represented in the encyclopedia.
 * Interested parties
 * Sign up and learn more: Think Tank with Wiki Ed Board

Roundtable discussion about English Wikipedia culture, civility and friendliness

 * Idea in one sentence: Roundtable discussion about Wikipedia culture, and how to balance our values of free expression with the values of hospitality, civility and friendliness
 * Proposed by: --Pine (talk) 15:23, 28 September 2015 (EDT)
 * Format: Tables, Internet, sticky notes, white board, power, and projector. Probably a 2 hour block to allow for brainstorming, a SWOT analysis of English Wikipedia culture, goal setting for our culture, and how we can collectively make progress toward our goals.
 * Resources requested: See above under "format". Not sure how many people to expect, but estimate 30.
 * Description: Roundtable discussion and SWOT analysis of English Wikipedia culture, followed by goal setting about our culture and how to make progress toward our goals.
 * Interested parties
 * --Pine (talk) 15:23, 28 September 2015 (EDT)
 * Frank Schulenburg
 * Bluerasberry
 * EpochFail (talk) 21:01, 28 September 2015 (EDT)
 * Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 11:26, 7 October 2015 (EDT)

Planning WikiConference 2016

 * Idea in one sentence: Start the planning for WikiConference 2016. Identify the interested parties, talk among ourselves, & hand-off from 2015 to 2016.
 * Proposed by: &mdash; Peaceray (talk)
 * Format: Introductions & discussion
 * Resources requested: tables, WiFi, power, sticky notes, whiteboard
 * Description: Currently, the main group that has expressed interest is the Cascadia Wikimedians User Group. Are there other regions / parties interested? Will Wiki Ed be on board?


 * Possible collaboration with OpenStreetMap (OSM)
 * Some Cascadia Wikimedians & OpenStreetMap-Seattle, which is planning a bid to bring State of the Map US to Seattle, have discussed collaborating. Possibilities include:
 * Mutual support for including sessions or tracks about one's project in the other's conference
 * Timing the conferences over successive weekends to facilitate attendance at both conferences
 * Holding side-by-side conferences, possibly co-located, allowing for a joint track/sessions
 * Although some of us have discussed holding a joint conference, the general feeling is that the differences in conference & organization style would probably be too daunting a task to justify pursuing this option.
 * Possible topics for a OSM State of the Map US / WikiConference USA 2016 collaboration include
 * How can OSM & Wikimedia projects (Wikidata, Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Commons) better enable sharing & inclusion of data between the two organizations?
 * How can WikiMedians generate usable maps from OSM?
 * A presentation about Creative Commons licenses & other free content licenses (see also Commons:Licensing).
 * A discussion about editing approaches and philosophies: for instance, OSM & Wikivoyage operate from an "contribute what you know" philosophy, whereas verifiability is a Wikipedia principle supported by the citing sources guideline.


 * Interested parties
 * Peaceray (talk) 17:52, 6 October 2015 (EDT)
 * having these around the same time and location would greatly increase my likelihood of attending :) Aude (talk) 07:58, 8 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Add your name here

Video working group

 * Idea in one sentence: Work on getting more video in Wikimedia projects, both content-wise and technology-wise
 * Proposed by: Andrew Lih, Brion Vibber
 * Format: Hackathon, half day or all day
 * Resources requested: Internet, power, tables
 * Description: Join Brion Vibber, Michael Nolan (Mozilla), Internet Archive and others on hacking Mozilla Popcorn Maker/Editor to work with Wikimedia Commons to help realize a fully collaborative video editing system.
 * Interested parties
 * Sign here

Dashboard Meetup, Education Program and Beyond

 * Idea in one sentence: Adapting the Wiki Ed Dashboard beyond the US and Canada university program
 * Proposed by: TFlanagan-WMF (talk) 13:07, 7 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Format: Meetup (1 hour? depending on interest and others' availability) Noting that early Sunday works best for some interested parties
 * Resources requested: tables, chairs, Internet, power, small room or corner
 * Description: Discuss the use cases for dashboards beyond the Wiki Ed context. A roadmap was put together at Wikimania 2015 to internationalize the code for other languages/projects. There are also non-education specific use cases (GLAM, editathons, workshops) for tracking cohorts of users and quickly gathering/reporting metrics. Also discuss possible ways forward (like mentoring an Outreachy intern, coordinating affiliates with technical capacity and interest, etc.). Re-cap the work that has been done so far on the WMF forked version, and blockers for moving forward.
 * Interested parties
 * TFlanagan-WMF (talk) 13:07, 7 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Ragesoss (talk) 13:26, 7 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Abittaker (WMF) (talk)

Open Q & A session with Arb Com

 * Proposed by: DGG (talk) 09:56, 8 October 2015 (EDT) (per ArbCom discussion)
 * Format: small room with tables, 1/2 hour +, to be scheduled for Sunday morning/early PM
 * Resources requested: Please schedule immediately after the session on civility if possible
 * Description: open session for question''
 * Interested parties
 * --Guerillero (talk) 23:55, 8 October 2015 (EDT)

Let's discuss Redirects for Discussion!

 * Idea in one sentence: A quick primer to RfD, followed by some hands-on discussion; it's the live XfD session you never knew you badly wanted.
 * Proposed by: BDD (talk) 11:47, 10 October 2015 (EDT)
 * Format: Basically any room, variable duration
 * Resources requested: projector
 * Description: I would like to shamelessly promote Redirects for Discussion, and ideally have a sort of mini-editathon focused on redirects. We can participate in or close active discussions and even go looking for trouble by starting new discussions!
 * Interested parties
 * BDD (talk) 11:47, 10 October 2015 (EDT)

Add your idea here!

 * Idea in one sentence: add here
 * Proposed by: sign here
 * Format: describe here
 * Resources requested: describe here
 * Description: add here
 * Interested parties
 * Sign here