Survey/CommentsQ9

From Wikimania

If there was one thing you could change about Wikimania 2009, what would it be?

Considero que la gente del capítulo local estuvo muy ocupada en la organización del evento en términos generales y de algún modo esto impactó en el tiempo que pudieron dedicar a establecer contactos con quienes se acercaron por primera vez de modo presencial al proyecto.
Ver Post Mortem de Wikimedia Argentina
have all the board there for their session
Mayor espacio para proyectos educativos, dentro de los diferentes niveles
Unfortunatly more security.
It would have been great if the communications about the dinner at the 0th night would have been better... All speeches in English. Especially announcements! Now there was an English keynote, so nobody brought earphones, and then the announcements are in spanish. So most of the people dont understand anything.
I would have liked to stay longer in Argentina
Friendlier, more helpful volunteers - I think Alexandria set the high mark for this.
Check laptops at door from beginning, urge all attendees to take precautions from the beginning.
the security
More detailed information about talks
The food
Not hearing Richard Stalman, he should at least have mentioned the license change
Two days are not sufficient
bathrooms of the venue
Less laptops stolen
Add another day.
Availability of open space/unconference sessions.
WI FI connection
I think the event should engage local community in a extensive way, specially educators.
La duración, creo que tendría que haberse extendido un poco más y haber dejado espacio para mantener más relaciones sociales.
Inform better about the talks and the target of the whole Wikimania.
4 days
a keynote which set spirits and motivations to every partcipant
I would have changed the weather! It was too warm and humid, especially for winter. Otherwise...it was all good =)
Having the party in a dark venue with excessively loud music was not a good idea. I think that most Wikimedians are hard-core party type people. At minimum, they need a party environment that\'s quiet enough that people can have conversations. Being so dark and loud was not good for eating anything there. I couldn\'t easily know what they were serving, ask what it was and if it had meat, etc. I am vegetarian and tried something that I thought (and was told) that had no meat, but it had meat and I ate some and then didn\'t eat anything else at the party. :( Also, the heavy smoking at the party, including outside areas, bothered me and made me feel ill with difficulty breathing. Also, I think the party should start earlier and have transportation back to the hotel at an earlier hour. In Alexandria, the party was outdoors, with more space and quieter (although there was plenty of good music). If people smoked, it wasn\'t so much of an issue for me there.
i had the best time it was simply the greatest social networking experience in my life. i have never met warmer, more altruistic and gracious people
Control sobre el acceso a WM de personas, \"prensa\" (mostrar credencial del medio al que responden) o personas que no son wikipedistas. / La foto final tendría que haber sido en un horario que \"todos pudieran estar\".
Venue not easily negotiated
More organized parallel session
Fodder that, though it\'s rather complicated to glide, of creating the possibility of taking part in a major number of conversations due to the fact that, in my particular opinion, I wanted to come to two conferences in that I was interested but the schedules were coinciding.
- Lo malo de la sede es que los ascensores no andaban bien (no daban feedback de si se están moviendo, tardaban muchísimo en llegar al piso a donde uno estaba) y había que andar subiendo y bajando escaleras, para alguien con movilidad reducida hubiera sido prácticamente imposible, o muy tedioso. - Las remeras y bolsos eran de calidad bastante pobre. Un norteamericano con el que hablé tenía un agujero al costado de la remera (no estaba cosida). No la cambió (yo creo que por vergüenza). Al bolso de un amigo le falta la parte para apoyar el hombro, el mío tenía descosida una parte, y en TODOS se desliza fácilmente la cinta del gancho para hacer traba, que no tiene tope y se puede perder. - En una de las salas la luz no era buena, en otra ocasión el proyector estaba algo fuera de foco. - Si no lo pedía explícitamente al entrar no me daban el bolso y la remera. - Demasiados cambios de programa.
I Would choose more interesting panels for the general public.
I would like once a day a general conference were can asist all the attendees
La distribución de las conferencias.
Hold it closer to more people, not at the bottom of South America
Food
Given Indian food for one or two meals. :)
better wifi and keynotes
Nothing, was really amazing...
Practically there was no poster session!
Transparency and organization of the review process
Level of involvement from attendees, it should be more active, not mostly just listening to proceedings.
Improve the website, especially well before the conference - at the time when people are booking flights, hotels, etc.
Make the conference venue a more secure place to leave a laptop, or provide some lockers/guarded luggage rooms so that people don\'t have to carry their whole bags around all day.
to make the lightening talks more prominent (and not place them at the end of the day parallel to jimmy\'s panel).lightening talks is wiki style!!!
Accept more scientific contributions arround wikipedia
Being my first Wikimania, although I\'ve been a supporter for years, I felt a little bit like an outsider at first. It seemed that everybody knew everybody. I think it would be great to have a special track for \"first timers\", to take advantage of the fact that the core community is phisically together to have a better outreach.
The hotel was okay however I was unaware I\'d be sharing a room with a strange person! Also communication with the organizers was difficult before the conference. I would have appreciated more happy hour events away from the conference.
The check in should be better organized
All conferences should be in the same location.
there would also be Open Space (unconference time).
Una correcta verificación del estado físico de las sedes elegidas.
Use a handicap-friendly facility
I would like to see more organization of the event before the event occurs. Programs and event information should have been available at least three months in advance. Events like the closing party and hacking day should also have been organized with all details released months before the conference occurred. There were too many outstanding questions and details which were not answered until a week or less before the conference. This makes it difficult for participants to be involved as connectivity while attending the conference was spotty.
Though security was tightened after the first day we did have at least two thefts before and two during wikimania. Secondly there is a disconnect between the currently active wikipedians on the English wikipedia and the wikimania. I don\'t think I met anyone at Wikimania who I regularly see at RFA or FAC. Thirdly the WiFi got overloaded quite often.
Less dough and cheese in the food.
Extensión de los paneles
Security.
Communications before and during the conference, especially registration procedures, desk, schedule changes.
more involvement in planning from the international side; communication could\'ve been better a few months ago
Friendly space for hanging out, available all day & evening (for early risers and late-night events). Large enough to be used for open space, with quiet corners for impromptu chats.
Too many interesting sessions at the same time
more bathrooms plates during lunch (it was not convenient to eat without a plate or to move away from the table) label the vegan food possibility to reuse one\'s glass for the rest of the day (the staff was over-friendly and efficient in not letting one keep the glass)
Add the chillout room at the final party :) Seriously, better wireless network
The catering did not undersud that vegetarian people dont eat meat or fish and they mixed the plates with no clear identification. All the rest was excelent!
Controlar la calidad de las exposiciones, elevando el nivel de las mismas.
It should be a little more geekless, so that people from other backgrounds might come and learn what is it that we do, I think it`should definetly be free of charge to those who are not wikipedians. On the other hand wikipedians should contribute :D
Less thieves. ;-)
Laptops not being stolen!
More outreach to non-Wikimedians
Better labeling of the rooms (some where difficult to find)
Better internet connectivity.
I was really upset that the security guards decided to deal with the laptop thefts by randomly searching conference goers for stolen laptops. I felt bad for the people whose computers were stolen, but random bag checks at a professional conference were incredibly inappropriate.
More advance awareness of the program and schedule.
I\'d be more careful about the selection of volunteers.
Nada. estuvo muy bien.
Discuss the scheduling with speakers
In this wikimania the 90 percent of the conferences that I had attended were more like a \"technical support\" rather than conferences about knowledge and the many things that a enciclopedia comprehend (especially with the Wikipedia, which is a new phenomenon and of course, something quite new). There was only one conference (presented by Leonardo Molida and Enrique Chaparro) about knowledge and in fact, that conference was the one I liked most.
RMS\' keynote...
The other projects (other than wikipedia) could be more represented
nothing
A bit more on editing e.g. looking at featured or good articles
the hotel was bad...
I didn\'t like Stallman talk and I didn\'t like the over-representation of men.
no laptops stolen. Oh, and the sessions which ended up on teh upper floors, got much less attendance because there was now flow in to the rooms. that was bad for those presenters
less stairs
Less thieving
me hubiese gustado que hubiera talleres de encuentro informales donde se pudiera dar el dialogo mas extenso de lo que se pudo ver en las ponencias
For some, especially this year, this was the only chance to meet face-to-face with people that have been part of their online communities for a long time.
please, put files of all presentations to the site of Wikimania.
i heard that the registration fee was too high for locals. it\'s a great loss if that were true. the bathrooms were either limited in number or hard to find. and i would prefer not having have to fill up the survey for a second time.
It would be good if local media could inform more society on wikimania in interaction with its millions users.
comunicaciones respecto del contenido de la conferencia antes y después
No cambiaría nada en Wikimanía 2009, me pareció todo excelente.
more languages like french and german + english and spanish. it is all posible with live translations. we have seen it this time, we could see that again.
More political issues. We could discusso about \"free culture\", freedom of expression, network neutrality, etc.
Organization of the first dinner. Some people were rejected to go.
The welcoming of participants which could have been warmer on the first day.
1- Mayor cantidad de becas para la población local.
Security issue in the conference venue.
More healthy food choices for the snacks (that is, more fruits and vegetables)
Have everyone (staff and other participants) in one Hotel. Ideally, even have conference and lodging at the same venue.
Shorter days, more socializing activities.
I wish Richard Stallman hadn\'t been a keynote. Richard is great and I admire him, but I don\'t think his keynote was very good. I would rather see us have keynote talks from people who are brilliant and a little challenging to our worldview, rather that old, close friends like Richard.
Consistently working wireless network :)
More delegation of organizers.