From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wikimedia International Conference, commonly referred to as Wikimania, is a conference for users of the wiki projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. The first conference was held in Frankfurt, Germany, August 4–8, 2005; the second ran August 4–6, 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; and the third conference was held August 3–8, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. Researchers and speakers presented studies and experiments on Wikipedia and other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, on wiki culture and technology.

Contents 1 Wikimania 2005 2 Wikimania 2006 3 Wikimania 2007 4 Wikimania 2008 5 Notes and references 6 External links

The first Wikimania conference was held in the Haus der Jugend at Frankfurt, Germany, 2005-08-04 – 2005-08-08.

The week of the conference included four "Hacking Days", from August 1–4, 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, August 5–7. 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, and Logos Group.

Wikimania 2006 took place from 2006-08-04 – 2006-08-06, at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States. It had about 400[1]-500[2] 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 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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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. Toronto would have hosted the event in the University of Toronto's Bahen Centre.

As announced on September 25, 2006, Wikimania 2007 was held in Taipei, Taiwan from 2007-08-03 to 2007-08-05. It was the first to hold a volunteer training course.^[3]

Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Alexandria, and Turin. Official bids from Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul, and Orlando failed to make the shortlist. Bids for Geneva, Chicago, and Las Vegas were never made official.^[4]

On August 3, 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. 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."^[5]

Wikimania 2008 will be held in Alexandria, Egypt. There were three cities in the running at the end, the other two being Atlanta and Cape Town. Karlsruhe, London and Toronto submitted official bids, but later withdrew.

Wikimania 2005

• Wikimania 2005 proceedings
• "Worldwide Wikimania" Sean Dodson, The Guardian, August 11, 2005
• "Rewriting the rule books" Alan Connor, the BBC, August 15, 2005

Wikimania 2006

• Official site
• "The Many Voices of Wikipedia, Heard in One Place" Robert Levine, The New York Times, August 7, 2006
• "Anybody can edit: A weekend of Wikimania" Ian Sands and Jess McConnell, The Boston Phoenix, August 11, 2006
• "The Neutrality of this Article is Disputed" Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason, August 15, 2006

Wikimania 2007

• Official site
• The China Post - "Wikipedia founder rewards volunteers" Monday, August 06, 2007 - By Dimitri Bruyas

Wikimania 2008

• Official site

Wikimentary Project

• Home page - a documentary covering Wikimania that users can create and edit themselves

v • d • e History of Wikipedia
Main articles	Bomis · Nupedia · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Foundation · Wikimania · MediaWiki
People	Jimmy Wales · Larry Sanger · Tim Shell · Florence Devouard · Angela Beesley
Events and individuals	Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China · Congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia · Essjay controversy · Seigenthaler controversy · WikiScanner  · Chris Benoit controversy  · Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story
Wikimedia projects	Wikibooks · Wikimedia Commons · Wiktionary · Wikisource · Wikiquote · Wikinews · Wikiversity
Related projects and forks	Citizendium · Enciclopedia Libre · Interpedia · Veropedia · WikiZnanie · Wikinfo · Wikiweise · Wikia · WikiWikiWeb