WikiConference North America 2018 – Columbus

Save the date! Join Wikipedia and Wikimedia enthusiasts October 18-21 for the annual continental conference.

WikiConference North America is the annual conference of Wikimedia enthusiasts and volunteers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The 2018 conference will take place in Columbus, Ohio on October 18-21.

Our main hosts are the Ohio State University Libraries and the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
This year's theme is possibility/posibilidad/possibilité.
Participation in conference activities includes compliance with our friendly space policy.
Resources: We've created a travel and lodging guide. If you find additional resources during your own research, feel free to contribute as well.
Social media: #WikiConferenceNA
Want to get involved? Reach out to us:

Where & when

Thompson Library

Columbus Metropolitan Library

Primary Venues

Thompson Library, Ohio State University

Address: 1858 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: (614) 292-6785

Columbus Metropolitan Library

Address: 96 S Grant Ave, Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: (614) 645-2275

Check-in desk / Badge pick-up

Registration is required for all attendees, and will remain open until we run out of allocated space. Register soon! All registered attendees need to wear their badge while at the conference. You can pick up your badge at the check-in desk:

Thursday, October 18

from 8:00 AM: Ohio State University, Thompson Library, Ground Floor (Hackathon)

Friday, October 19

from 9:15 AM: Columbus Metropolitan Library, Main Branch, Auditorium (Culture Crawl home base)
from 5:00 PM: Thompson Library, Room 260, Buckeye Reading Room (reception)

Saturday, October 20

from 8:00 AM: Thompson Library, Sullivant Hall
from 10:00 AM: Thompson Library, Ground Floor

Sunday, October 21

from 9:00 AM: Thompson Library, Ground Floor

Programs & activities

October 18-19: The first two days, Thursday and Friday, will include our pre-conference activities. This year, we are offering a hackathon, tech demos, and our annual Culture Crawl, a day-long event where we collaborate with local museums, libraries, cultural, and metropolitan institutions to host free backstage tours, edit-a-thons, and more. These crawls are a fantastic opportunity for conference attendees to experience the local culture, as well as collaborate with local institutions to improve Wikipedia's coverage of local topics, and to upload new images to Commons.

October 20-21: Saturday and Sunday will be our main conference, which includes keynotes, community presentations, round-table discussions, panels, and lightning talk sessions. The main session themes include:

Academia
Editor Recruitment & Retention
Harassment, Civility, & Safety
Inclusion & Diversity
Relationship Building & Support
Sister projects (WikiCite, WikiCommons, WikiData, WikiSource)
Tech & Tools

Keynotes

Nicole Ebber, Manager, 2030 strategic plan / movement strategy
Mark Graham, Director of the Wayback Machine at Internet Archive
McKensie Mack, Director of Art + Feminism

History

Our previous events had unique themes and were located in different cities: New York City (2014), Washington D.C. (2015), San Diego (2016), and Montreal (2017).

WikiConference North America User Group was formed in 2016 after that year's conference. It is a recognized Affiliate by the Wikimedia Foundation. The purpose of the User Group is to assure that the experiences gained at one conference are shared with future year conference organizers. The mission of the User Group includes coordinating the planning and hosting of events under our purview. Additionally, the User Group documents best practices and shares lessons learned with other Wikimedia communities planning and hosting conferences and similar events.