Boston to host Wikimania 2006, after close contest
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On Saturday, Boston was
chosen by an 11-person jury to be the host city for next summer’s Wikimedia
conference (aka Wikimania
2006). The week-long event on global
collaboration and free knowledge is being sponsored primarily by HLS’s
Berkman Center for
Internet & Society. Over 50
speakers and 600 attendees from around the planet are expected to
attend – an energetic mix of Wikimedia contributors;
wiki maintainers and developers; academic researchers in law,
technology, and sociology; and librarians, educators, and
entrepreneurs.
You can see part of last year’s program and
schedule on the old Wikimania
website. This year will be even more amazing; to help out, sign up on our volunteer page.
The decision followed a month-long bid
process that culminated in a deadlocked jury and a week of
overtime
deliberation.
The two finalist bids, for Boston
and Toronto,
were both so strong that a jury vote earlier this month was
inconclusive. After asking for more information from both
bids and from
the global Wikimedia community, a second vote this past weekend was
5–4 in favor of Boston,
with 2 abstentions.
The Toronto bid
included a generous offer of from the University of Toronto’s
Knowledge Media Design
Institute, including free use of their new Boston bid is
supported by its own local team; by the Berkman
Center (offering space, funding
and enthusiasm); by the MIT Media
Lab’s electronic
publishing group (offering to host part of the event); and by
many smaller local
groups of the Boston event in various ways.
Tosin Otitoju
October 25, 2005 @ 3:08 am
Congratulations!
From your friend
Lisa Williams
October 26, 2005 @ 12:30 am
Hi, Sam –
.
I looked at the volunteer page, but I wasn’t sure where to offer this kind of help: I’d like to help with transportation (I have a station wagon and would be happy to make a number of trips to the airport, or to pick up large bulky things). I also have a guest room that I would be delighted to fill with a Wikipedian. I probably wouldn’t be good at organizing or scheduling things, but I’m fantastic at saying yes to random requests at the last minute