2016/Unconference

Lightning talks
Add your 5-minute lightning talk topic you can personally present as part of the 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 examples, see the range of ideas in 2014's lightning talks. The schedule of the conference is still being organized and we will try to facilitate as many of these suggestions as possible.

Sign up for 5-minute talks
Please sign up here, and include your lightning talk topic.
 * 1) Covering the Hay Festival in Wales as an accredited Wikipedian -- Fuzheado (talk) 17:30, 23 July 2016 (EDT)
 * 2) Science and Technology Photo Upload Campaign and Edit-a-thon, bringing MIT students, staff, faculty, and Wikipedians together Rtbhive (talk) 17:05, 25 August 2016 (EDT)
 * 3) Free Culture and Sutton SignWriting -Slevinski (talk) 12:48, 29 August 2016 (EDT)
 * 4) How to create a local WikiSalon, why it is relevant and some tips to pull it off - Checkingfax (talk) 17:16, 29 August 2016 (EDT)
 * 5) I will recount how a painting looted by the Nazis from the National Museum collection in Warsaw during World War II was returned to Poland in 2012 with the help of Wikipedia Alextheblade (talk) 13:31, 30 August 2016 (EDT)alextheblade
 * 6) "The Women in Red virtual editathon model -or- How to attract dozens of editors and generate hundreds of articles on a budget of US$0" - User:Rosiestep
 * 7) "All Together Now": Levee Stories revealed thru Wiki [Support towards congressional appropriation for the Flood Control Project in Orick, California]. Levee Stories (talk) 01:59, 22 September 2016 (EDT)
 * 8) Neutrality, Bias, and Wikipedia. With editathons being hosted by political groups such as the National Liberal Club, and a Liberal Democrat party organization, we are inviting politically active individuals to edit Wikipedia. However, how does conflict of interest play into these edits? How does this impact the neutrality of articles that these persons edit? The arena of politics often bring Edit Wars, incivility, and bans. How can we invite persons with significant passions to steer their energy to creating neutral content within the world of Wikipedia? Due to the pre-existing biases in commonly used reliable sources, and within academia, how does that impact the neutrality of Wikipedia? How does the effort to shutter WikiProject Conservatism speak to the neutrality of the Wikipedia community itself?--RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 23:31, 22 September 2016 (EDT)

Session ideas

 * WikiThree: a project to have GLAM institutions nominate three articles to improve. How might we get the community of editors engaged to help improve articles identified by this effort? -- Fuzheado
 * The plural of volunteers is not always a community. How can we transform a group of enthusiastic volunteers with little knowledge on Wikimedia and the FOSS movement into a true community? -- Andycyca
 * Yes, please! --BDavis (WMF) (talk)
 * Engagement in large countries. North America is the set of the 2nd, 4th and 13th largest countries in the world (by area). What kind of troubles arise with such distances? How can we address them? -- Andycyca
 * What is the right pay for Wikipedians in Residence? Are we pricing according to the value they bring to organizations, and does it even make sense to come up with a set of standard pay scales? -- Fuzheado (talk) 10:05, 25 August 2016 (EDT)
 * Animating the ASL Wikipedia for Deaf Education by Jason Nesmith in ASL with English interpreters. A presentation that will also be available during the Sunday morning SignWriting meetup. - Slevinski (talk) 16:10, 21 September 2016 (EDT)

Thematic meetups
These are planned for either Sunday morning or evenings, after the formal schedule has concluded.


 * Video, multimedia and photospheres - for those who are interested in contributing and learning more about advanced multimedia in Wikimedia -- Fuzheado (talk)
 * Librarians & Wikipedia! -- Phoebe (talk) 15:35, 25 August 2016 (EDT)
 * WikiWomen/WikiMujeres User Groups -- Rosiestep (talk) 13:17, 8 September 2016 (EDT)
 * Sign language projects and Sutton SignWriting - Sunday morning at the library for discussions and work groups. -- Slevinski (talk) 16:04, 16 September 2016 (EDT)
 * WikiProject California & WikiProject San Diego meetup. --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 23:03, 22 September 2016 (EDT)