My Wikitinerary: Day 2 at Wikimania DC

Wikimania Day 1 is on the books, and it was a busy one. Mary Gardiner's keynote delivered on the mostly-male Wikimedia community's promise that they care about female participation (and as many noted, the female presence at Wikimania is very strong) while Jimmy Wales fulfilled his role as the conference touchstone, while adding a dose of levity, or two.

Although, did anyone else notice he was credited as "Founder" of Wikipedia and not "Co-founder"? Well, I did.

My coverage of the first day of the conference was doled out in 140-characters-or-fewer bursts on Twitter as @thewikipedian, and so it will be on subsequent days.

As to the first subsequent day ahead: as much as I'd like to give my full day over to Wikimania, regular readers will know that I live here, and Friday I'm still basically on the clock. So I may not get to all the sessions I would like. But here is what I'm hoping to attend:

♦     ♦     ♦

9:00 - 10:20

Time will tell if I make it to the first of the breakout sessions. If I do, it will probably be:

Title: Ask the Operators Speaker: Leslie Carr, Ben Hartshorne, Jeff Green, Ryan Lane, Rob Halsell Category: Technology and Infrastructure Description: Just what it sounds like, a chance to ask the people who keep Wikipedia up and running about how it works, their jobs, and apparently... unicorns? I doubt this session will actually be dominated by bronies, but if it is, then I concede I have been sufficiently warned.

I may also attend:

Title: Giving readers a voice: Lessons from article feedback v5 Speaker: Fabrice Florin Category: WikiCulture and Community Description: I missed his presentation on new tools yesterday, and I'm intrigued by this as well. Good feedback is hard to come by, as a Wikipedia editor, and I'm curious to find out how those most involved think the current feedback tool is working. When I wrote about it last year, I was skeptically optimistic.

10:50 - 12:10

If you're keeping score at home, it seems that I am most interested in the "WikiCulture and Community" sessions, and why shouldn't I be? The Wikipedian tries to be about making Wikipedia's goings-on understandable to the non-editor, so this track is a natural fit.

Title: Wikipedia in the Twitter age Speaker: Panel moderated by Andrew Lih Category: WikiCulture and Community Description: How does Wikipedia handle the fast pace of information in the Twitter age? Can Twitter be a reliable source? (I think the correct answer is: generally, no.) The role Twitter played with Wikipedia in the 2011 Egyptian revolution and other breaking news events will be discussed here. And I'm always a fan of Andrew Lih's take on Wikipedia.

13:10 - 14:30

One of the panels I wanted to see yesterday was rescheduled last-minute for this time period, and I very well may still try to check that out. But I'm also fascinated by this one:

Title: Eternal December: How awful arguments are killing the Wiki, and why not to make them Speaker: Oliver Keyes Category: WikiCulture and Community Description: For good or ill, Wikipedia is a place that many people go to argue about all kinds of things—some very important, and others not so much. This talk will cover the resistance and curmudgeonliness of "Power Editors" and how they prevent the implementation of new developments on Wikipedia and discourage newbies from contributing. There are other good panels in this time slot, so room-hopping again is a thing I would like to try, although on day one I found it a challenge. If I manage, I like:

Title: Hey, its trending! Let's update that Wikipedia article! Speaker: Arkaitz Zubiaga, Taylor Cassidy, Heng Ji Category: Research, Analysis and Education Description: This one is a discussion of a possible system that suggests revisions for Wikipedia based on Twitter activity; much Wikipedia editing activity is driven by the news, and Twitter often breaks news before the media has had a chance to write a full story. The panelists will outline goals, details of the system and progress of this research project.

Title: Bots and Wikipedia: It's OK to be lazy! Speaker: Gaëtan Landry Category: Technology and Infrastructure Description: Although I lack the technical skills to write a real software program myself, I love me some bots. I.e. automated programs that wander around Wikipedia making changes based on an algorithm—fixing common misspellings, reverting obvious vandalism, and the like. The submission says it won't be highly technical, which is probably good for yours truly.

15:10 - 16:30

I said above that Friday will have to be a working day for me, and it's very possible that I'll cut out in the afternoon to wrap some things up for the week. But if I'm still around, I think I may visit:

Title: Refighting the War of 1812 on Wikipedia Speaker: Richard Jensen Category: WikiCulture and Community Description: From the description: "This year is the bicentennial of the War of 1812, and my presentation will examine how Canadian and American editors have handled the war in the main article. Sometimes they re-fought the war, as they balanced scholarship/RS and patriotism in a quest to tell the world what really happened." I can go in for that.

♦     ♦     ♦

One last shameless plug: and if you're not following me as @thewikipedian on Twitter, then you're missing out on a lot of interesting tweets, including some very smart people that I am dedicating, and some things that I hope other people are smart.

I'll see you there in a few hours!