Press room/Wikimania 2007

Wikimania 2007

Mark your Calendar: Wikimania 2007 The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, will be hosting their annual conference, Wikimania, in Tapei, Taiwan, from August 3-5, 2007. Event: Wikimania Dates: August 3-5, 2007 Location: Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center, Taipei, Taiwan Wikimania is the Wikimedia Foundation's annual conference. The event brings together international users from various Wikimedia projects, as well as individuals interested in learning about Wiki technology, free content and free knowledge, and educational and social trends in the internet culture. Both a scientific conference and community event, Wikimania provides attendees with the opportunity to exchange ideas, build relationships, and report on various research efforts in the Open Source community. Learn About Wikipedia, and our other Open-Content Project Work Brewster Kahle, internet entrepreneur and founder of both the Internet Archive and Alexa Internet, addresses participants during Wikimania 2006 Several seminars and workshops will be held that explore the different facets of the Wikimedia Foundation's open-source projects, including the ever popular Wikipedia. Presentations explore the projects' cultural, social, and technical dynamics, and future goals. This year, Wikimania Taiwan will host an interactive laboratory, geared at training both conference participants and online users on how the various Wikimedia projects work. Individuals will have the opportunity to acquire numerous wiki skills, as well as interact with users worldwide. The laboratory will be housed in the Wikimania Lounge, which will be staffed by advanced users from various projects. Additionally, the lounge will be equipped with video conferencing capabilities, thus allowing conference participants and online users the ability to interact and share information. In order to ensure that online users also benefit from Wikimania, daily podcasts of the conference will be made available, and several Town Hall meetings will be conducted online. Register For more information or to register, please visit the official Wikimania 2007 website. For questions, please email Sandra Ordonez directly at sordonez@wikimedia.org.

Meet Jimmy Wales and Florence Devouard Florence Devouard, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Florence Devouard, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, will be available to answer questions regarding the future of the Wikimedia Foundation, and the current state of the Foundation's nine open source projects. Wiki & Open Source Leaders Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia Wikimania is considered a premiere event in the open source community. As a result, the event draws such notable technology leaders as Ward Cunningham, inventor of the Wiki, and Mitch Kapor, founder of the Mozilla Foundation and Lotus Development. Citizen Journalism Unconference This year, Wikimania will host an “unconference” geared at bringing together individuals with the purpose of brainstorming and discussing key aspects of citizen journalism, including principles, techniques, tools, business models, and more. It follows an “unconference” format, in that the audience are the experts. * Please note: This event will take place on August 2, a day before the official conference kick-off date.