With less than three months to go until the fourth annual
Wikimania
conference, registration has finally opened and will remain
so until
the 15th of June. This year Wikimania starts with the a
promise to
"Change the Shape of Wisdom" as it is hosted by
Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, the reincarnation of the ancient Library of
Alexandria,
one of pillars of this Earth when Philosophy and Wisdom are
bought
into question. In Alexandria, from the 17th to the 19th of
July, ideas
will be shared and discussed between people from all over
the globe,
once again igniting the golden cosmopolitan age of the
city.
As always, the conference will take place over 4 different
tracks,
with a variety of speakers: Keynote, invited, and other.
The
conference tracks this year are:
* Wikimedia Communities - Interesting projects and
particularities
within the communities; policy creation within individual
projects;
conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and
identity;
multilingualism, languages and cultures; social studies.
* Free Knowledge - Open access to information; ways to
gather and
distribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia projects
in
education, journalism, research; ways to improve content
quality and
usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that
interfere with
Wikimedia projects. Free Content in Middle-East/Africa
countries.
* Technical infrastructure - Issues related to MediaWiki
development
and extensions; Wikimedia hardware layout; new ideas for
development
(including usable case studies from other wikis or similar
projects).
* Scientific track - Papers submitted to the scientific
track were
peer reviewed by scientific standards and accepted or
rejected based
on these reviews. The papers will be published in
proceedings
afterwards. Based on the number and the quality of the
submission, a
journal special issue may be pursued
This year the conference is taking an interesting direction
that hopes
to enlighten third world and Middle Eastern countries about
the new
digital realm that is continuously expanding and evolving;
as such,
along with many well reputed figures, an emphasis has been
put on
bringing in Arab speakers. Speakers include Ahmed N.
Tantawy, the
Technical Director of IBM in the Middle East; Eliane Metni,
the
founding director of the International Education
Association; Tim
Spalding, the founder and lead developer of LibraryThing;
Eric M.
Johnson, the team leader for the Knowledge Management
Action Team at
the U.S. Department of State; and Usama Fayyad, Yahoo!'s
executive
vice president of Research & Strategic Data Solutions.
Take part on one of the most important IT events of the
year. Check
the registration prices online.
<http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration>
While these prices do not include accommodation, the local
team has
taken the effort to make all sorts of housing opportunities
available,
starting from dorms up to luxury hotel rooms. Check these
when your
registering. You will also be pleased to know that
transportation is
available to and from Cairo International Airport in the 2
days before
and after the conference.
And what is a gathering without fun? Tours and parties are
being
planned out for the participants of the event. After all
Alexandria is
cultural city that brims with hospitality and the main idea
of the
event is to provide a gathering place.
Hope to see you there!
The Wikimania Local Team
----
Please forward this message along to whomever you think
will be
interested! (Sorry if you've already this e-mail more than
once!)
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists.
Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists.
Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
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