Follow the events of the conference on twitter and identi.ca, and keep an eye on the Wikipedia Weekly podcasts.  Hopefully we’ll have time to blog about events as they unfold at Wikimania.

We also want to thank all of our sponsors this year.  Without them we couldn’t pull events like this together: Telefonica, Terra, Speedy, The Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Answers.com, Kaltura, Wikimedia Deutschland, The Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Open Society Institute, wikiHow, Wikia, and Banco Credicoop.  Thank you!

More as the event unfolds…

Jay Walsh, Communications

Wikimania is an annual event devoted to Wikimedia projects around the globe. The conference is a community gathering, giving the editors and users an opportunity to meet each other, exchange ideas, and collaborate on the future of the Wikimedia projects. The conference is open to the public
and is a chance for educators, researchers, programmers, and free culture activists who are interested in the Foundation’s projects to learn more and share ideas about the Wikimedia projects.

This year’s conference will be held from August 26-28 in Buenos Aires, Argentina at San Martín Cultural Center.

We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels, posters, open space discussions, and artistic works related to the Wikimedia projects or free content topics in general. Without submissions from people like you, Wikimania wouldn’t be nearly as fun!

Submissions are due April 15, see the Call for Participation for more information.

For further information on Wikimania, please visit the official Wikimania 2009 site at wikimania2009.wikimedia.org.

I am very much looking forward to seeing your presentation at Wikimania! :-)

Cary Bass, VOLCO

<

What a week it’s been in Alexandria.  Yesterday Wikimania 2008 officially wrapped up after 84 speaking events, as well as lightening talks and poster sessions.  The organizers handled up to 650 registered participants (with an excellent presence from the local Egyptian community), as well as a broad range of local and international media.

You can find pictures from the event on WIkimedia Commons and on the Wikimania site – though expect more to appear as participants complete their travel and get the real uploading underway.

This year Wikinews also released some stories on-the-spot , and as in previous years the Wikipedia Weekly crew were live podcasting from the depths of the conference center (see the Wikimania 2008 main page for the recent list).

But that’s not all.  The webcast team from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has uploaded (and offered for live webstream) select videos from the conference, including the opening and closing ceremonies.

I’ll post more as we find it – but for now here’s your chance to get a glimpse of the event if you weren’t able to make it to Alexandria.

Jay Walsh, Head of Communications<

And on that note, next week we hope to be blogging fairly regularly about activities taking place in this beautiful Egyptian city.  Many of the Foundation staff will be working at the conference on the ground, joining the hundreds of volunteers and enthusiasts at the New Library.

Jay Walsh
Head of Communications<

They’re inviting project volunteers and enthusiasts (whether attending or not) to try their hand at collaborative video uploading/editing/improving.  Share your video from your travel to Egypt – or if you can’t make it, why not edit in your comments or questions for participants?

Invitation from Lisa Bennet, Director of Public Relations and Marketing, Kaltura

—

Hi Everyone,

As Wikimania is right around the corner, we’ve added a new great way to share information about the event. I would like to invite you to the Wikimania Video Site where you can create collaborative videos. The site already has some videos where people can add their expectations for the event or share why they can’t join us this year, and there will be computer stations at Wikimania for attendees to add videos and pictures in real-time from Alexandria. Hopefully, it will be a great resource for people that could not be there in person to see the highlights, and for the attendees to document the event.

Check it out at: http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki/index.php/Wikimania_Video_Site

The site is hosted on the Kaltura devwiki and uses the collaborative video technology from Kaltura, which the Foundation partnered with late last year to explore adding videos to Wikipedia and other projects.

You’re invited to share your experiences from Wikimania, play with the technology, and provide your feedback.<

The Wikimania 2008 program committee is proud to announce the program for Wikimania 2008. Wikimania 2008 includes over 80 sessions from the Wikimedia community, the Free culture movement and other related subjects from all over the world. During the three-day program many Wikimedia and Free Culture related subjects will be covered by a wide range of speakers. Numerous ideas and topics will be discussed. Wikimania is a great place to share thoughts and have discussions on the Wikimedia projects and values and issues that are important for Wikimedia.

These presentations, discussions and workshops are presented by experts (by profession or by experience) on their topic. The program committee would like to share some of the highlights of the Wikimania 2008 program, presented by high profile speakers with both technical and free/open culture backgrounds. Some of this year’s speakers:

- Florence Devouard, Chair of the Wikimedia Board of Trustees, speaking on the topic of communications between projects, stakeholders, and a global audience

* Eliane Metni, director of the International Education Association on The Global Educators’ Open Course, how teachers from all over the world work together on better educational material.

* Jimmy Wales – Founder of Wikipedia and Board member of the Wikimedia Foundation – will talk about freedom of speech, human rights and free culture. Jimmy Wales brings a long history of involvement in free and open culture projects created by large collaborative communities.

* Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, will speak about the future in his talk “new paradigms for new tomorrows”

* Tim Spalding – Creator of LibraryThing, a prominent social cataloguing web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogues and book lists will talk about his project.

* Multiple sessions from various Wikimedia Foundation staff and advisory board members including: Erik Möller and Sue Gardner – Deputy and Executive Director – with a forecast for the Wikimedia Foundations upcoming year; Brion Vibber – Chief Technology Officer – discussing the current state of the MediaWiki software; and advisory board members Angela Beesley speaking about how wiki’s can be used to write more then an encyclopedia and Benjamin Mako Hill speaking on the topic
of Free Network Services.

* Schuyler Erle and Mikel Maron from Open Street Map – The free editable map of the whole world, created by volunteers, will speak about their successes and methods.

The program committee is thrilled to present such an extensive program with excellent speakers, and look forward to a successful conference.<