Chapters Village/Programme

Meet-ups

Let's put the port in reporting

Time and date: tba

Reporting is a unique tool in project management. If only the word didn't sound so terribly bureaucratic and dull. But try this for kicks: think of the Wikimedia movement as a sea of information. Picture a wide and beautiful ocean and imagine this to be the sum of all our mailing lists, talk pages, wikis, chat hours, blogs, journals and so on and so forth. Also, can you spot ships that sail the Wikimedia oceans? We call them chapters, and as far as the analogy goes, there wouldn't be ships without the water. In other words: no chapters without the volunteer movement.

At times, our chapter ships may lose direction in stormy communication weather. At times they may be trapped in a calm, unable to get anywhere. What they need in either case is a port, ...and good reporting is the best port any chapter can seek to find, because it is indeed a service to stakeholders, but more importantly a self-service to those who report. Interestingly, the latter function is rarely appreciated in the communication world at large. It's a simple question of perspective: Imagine a ship close to a port, with people crowding the docks. Ready?

Did you consider the ship might just as well be leaving the port, instead of heading for it? If you did, congratulations! If you didn't, join me in the Chapters' village to explore the power of storytelling in reporting and its frequently underestimated potential for self-evaluation.

The impact of gender gap on the quality of Wikipedia. Collaborative mind-mapping (BYOD)

Name: Ilona Buchem (Beuth) & Cornelia Trefflich (WMDE)

Time and date: Saturday, 10 August, part I 13:30 - 14:00 & part II 15:30 - 16:00

The session aims at collaborative mind mapping of the impact of the gender gap on the quality of Wikipedia in terms of processes (e.g. working together) and products (e.g. Wikiedia acticles). Everyone will be invited to collaboratively edit a digital mind map, which will be created with the software Mind Meister, adding and structuring the different impacts. The session will start with a short (5 minutes) input based on the impacts of the gender gap which we researched in the the “Wikipedia Diversity” project, which is a collaboration of Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.. The focus of the workshop is to map possible consequences and the evidence of the gender gap in Wikipedia in relation to the quality of Wikipedia.

We invite everyone interested in the topic to share personal experiences, observations and accounts on how the gender gap influences the quality of Wikipedia. We encouragage Wikipedia editors and users from around the world to participate in this workshop and bring in their specific perspectives.

The session will initiate a cross-national collaborative roadmapping of the impacts/consequences of the gender gap in Wikipedia, which will enhance transparency and improve communication across different communities. We will do this by using different approaches, different starting points and different dimensions, providing a multidimensional view of the problem. Through this session we wish to connect to different individuals and communities and engage them in creating, dynamically updating and sharing their insights, observations, research and evidence of the gender gap, to raise awareness among the Wikipedians and the general public. Our goal is to create more transparency as we believe this can help to better discern and interpret the current situation and to ignite innovative developments that can be adopted more rapidly.

Equipment needed: This is a Bring Your Own Device Session (BYOD). Bring your laptop, notebook, smartphone or tablet with an installed Mind Meister app which is free of cost and cross-plattform.

Speed Geeking

The 4 ears experiment

Name: Michael Jahn WMDE

Date: tba

Every message we'd like other people to understand is actually four different messages. That's the bottom line of the 4 ears model, a communication theory classic. Is it possible to introduce people to such a theory in less than 5 minutes? Sure. But just by telling an anecdote? No materials allowed? No references?

Why not, sure.

Ok, how about trying to make every listener remember this input so well that they'll be able to recall the theory in detail even after Wikimania? By not doing anything besides telling the anecdote once? No looking things up or cheating allowed! This is a storytelling and attention span test. Exams to be taken via post-Wikimania email! Be bold and volunteer!