Survey

< Post-mortem

In order to get a better idea of how Wikimania was perceived by the attendees, and to learn what to change or keep the same in the future, a survey was created.

General Survey

Summary:

An overwhelming number of respondents (81%) rated Wikimania 2008 positively and thought the event was either designed for them or enjoyed it. This is amazing feedback considering the size of the event which was mostly organized by committed volunteers. The venue and programs were rated positively by the majority of respondents, although the survey revealed wishes for less-densely laid programs, casual ambiance, support for impromptu gatherings and birds of a feather gatherings. The majority of respondents found communications and transportation was good, however high 'no response' rate for conference-supplied transportation question could mean that attendees were either unaware of such an arrangement or the arrangement simply did not match the schedules of their arrival and departure. Ratings for availability of food and drinks were split, which can be interpreted as different expectations among attendees, lack of information, or accessibility differences within the conference facility. Lastly, it is important to note that the majority of attendees supported the idea of “out reach” as one of core goals of Wikimania.

Background

Wikimania 2008 Alexandria was attended by 625 people from around the world. The survey invitations were sent to 303 Wikimedians, who were reachable via email, for their feedback. 97 responses were collected from the survey as of September 24, 2008. Organizers were invited to participate in the survey, however media contacts are excluded. 10 respondents (10%) were speakers.

Survey Results

Overall rating for WM08:

81% of respondents found Wikimania 2008 was either 'very good' or 'good'. ('very good'=27%, 'good'=54%) There were 7 respondents (7%) who rated the event either 'bad' or 'very bad'.
64% of respondents found WM08 was designed for them and 20% of respondents enjoyed the event.
74% of respondents felt Wikimania can be a little more loose and casual. 13% responded otherwise.

Demographics

34% of respondents were active participants of Wikimedia projects. (more than three years, spend an hour a day or more) 18% of respondents were active participants in the past, but shifted to organizational activities. 19% of attendees were observers or supporters.
67% of respondents were NOT from Egypt.
Respondents were mostly contributors of time, supporters of free culture and open source, the right to knowledge, and Wikimedia.
52% of respondents attended Wikimania for the first time.
52% of respondents are part of core Wikimedia Community and attended Wikimania 2008 in order to stay connected. 19% of respondents attended to learn more about the projects.
Reason for attending Wikimania, ranked by numbers.

Social - meet up with other Wikimedians (37)
Learn -learn about Wikimedia/Wikipedia (33)
Share - share my experiences/knowledge with others (27)
Research - scientific/academic/professional/research purposes (21)

Logistics

66% of respondents found that communications before the conference was either 'very good' or 'good'. (website, registration process, availability of information in general)
45% of respondents gave no answer to the question regarding conference-supplied transportation. Non-conference-supplied transportation was rated positively by 56% of respondents.
60% of respondents rated the lodging positively. (comfort, cleanliness, overall convenience.)
70% of respondents thought the communications during the conference was either 'very good' or 'good'.
49% of respondents found that communications after the conference was either 'very good' or 'good'. 24% did not answer to this question.

Venue and Programs

85% of respondents rated the conference venue positively. ('very good'=60%, 'good'=25%)
81% of respondents rated the conference program positively. ('very good'=35%, 'good'=46%)
70% of respondents rated the quality of keynote talks positively. ('very good'=26%, 'good'=44%)
80% of respondents rated the quality of the workshops and presentations positively. ('very good'=30%, 'good'=50%)
76% of respondents thought the workshop sessions to be longer.
64% of respondents felt the schedule at Wikimania is too densely packed and wished more time set aside for casual socializing.
69% of respondents did NOT think Wikimania too often take place in “exotic” locations.
62% of respondents thought Wikimania should be four days long instead of three.
42% of respondents did not answer to the question of the quality of the lighting talks and poster sessions. At the same time 43% of respondents gave positive ratings. ('very good' 19%, 'good' 24%)
48% rated availability, quality and convenience of food and drinks positively. 38% rated negatively.
72% of respondents would like to see longer and more detailed descriptions of the sessions in the schedule.

Outreach

64% of respondents support out reach as one of its core goals of Wikimania. 18% of respondents thought it should focus on the core Wikimedia community.

Socializing

44% of respondents thought the party should be on the last night. 34% of respondents thought otherwise.
45% of respondents found that support for impromptu socializing was either 'very good' or 'good'. 40% respondents found it either 'bad' or 'very bad'.
65% of respondents found that organized social activities during the conference was either 'very good' or 'good'.

Comments: If there is one thing to change..

If there was one thing you could change about Wikimania 2008, what would it be?

A better mix of academic lectures and community workshops. I believe WMania 2006 was the best in that respect, but 2007 and 2008 were less balanced between the scientific/philosophical academic track and the community track.
Transportation organization, which was awful.
A better balance between academic lectures and community talks. I think WMania 2006 was the best in this respect. 2007 and 2008 leaned towards the community track while somewhat neglecting the scientific/philosophical academic track.
A better balance between academic lectures and community talks. I think WMania 2006 was the best in this respect. 2007 and 2008 leaned towards the community track while somewhat neglecting the scientific/philosophical academic track.
More social spaces
I really wish there had been a central gathering place where people could have casually hung out. I was sad when the conference ended, that there were a lot of people I knew there, who I had not spent much time with.
The whole politically correct part, with official speakers and stuff.
the food caterer
Better accomodations, if possible. A hotel with wi-fi, a room devoted to press people so they could file back to the office, etc.
More time/place/opportunities for socializing/communication. Opening party/any kind of "ice-breaking" in the beginning. And also a way to properly coordinate post-conference activities/travel, preferably before conference, when you buy tickets/book hotels/plan your trip.
I would increase the pre-conference promotion inside Egypt.
softer beds in the dorms
Respect the time schedule
More coffee, faster
not enought time between each conference to debate.
fix the schedule before the start of the conference
Don't segregate speakers from other attendees at meals! This is prime socializing time.
Lodging, to spread out
longer sessions to allow questions and discussions. some sessions - the one about volunteer council for example, can even be a half-day unconference. perhaps the call for proposal for next year should allow more different formats.
Do not close the conference site at late afternoon.
there would be more time between sessions and speakers
In the program I would like to see more discussions, workshops and interactive sessions.
I wouldn't propose moving the party to an earlier night, but have some sort of evening activities to make it easier for people to get to know each other.
More evaluation of some of the panels in the different discussion sessions and moderators. Many (not all) of them were really bad presenters.
A copy of presentations (either videos or slides) on CD-s before the end of the conference because there were plenty of parallel sessions that we couldn't attend.
Better organization in general
A poll that doesn't crash as soon as you click on the li<x>nk to the speakers poll. Geez.
Parallel sessions No brief desc<x>ription about sessions in the schedule Recurrent changes/cancellation in the schedule
the registration was a mess although this process has been used several years before. please check this next time (registration page lost some input data, paypal costs and adress was wrong)
Its length; four or five days would be awesome.
The dorms.
"Birds of a feather" lunches and dinners. Some of the academics tried to organize our own impromptu lunch after we were all in a presentation about Wikipedia and Academia, but it would have been nice to have that organized. It doesn't have to take away from presentation time (and it shouldn't).
Leave the conference rooms open the whole 24 hours a day.
better food for the common man
The food
hacking days were missing, consequently the hackers were not there. consequently there was no opportunity to network with them
hands on lab for guiding how to use Wikipedia for editing and how to start
I think the space and time given to socializing was poor. I am also having trouble reaching people I met at the conference. I even sent a message to one of the organizers to provide me with an email of one of the participants, and they did not even respond. I would expect a response even to say that we contacted the person and he would prefer not to give out his email. I think Wikimania is largely about networking - how do you get to do that if you can't get hold of any emails?
Nothing, It was amazing
A better social space
Have better social space for community.
fewer parallel tracks longer conference more time to socialise
less parallel tracks = more conference days overall = looser schedule = more time to socialise
I would like to make Wikimania 2008's sessions more specific relative to specific fields such as engineering (my field).
more space at som of the talks (overflowed)
airport to alexandria shuttle which didnt show up
I think more support for more causal work would be ideal.
I have to be exposed more on Wikimania to be able to make a comment
Hosting for everyone at the same place than conference itself
More interesting keynote speakers
The arrival was difficult in my case. When I arrived at Cairo Airport, I didn't know how to find the promised shuttle free of charge. I managed to find the bus connection to Alexandria and when I arrived at College St-Marc in the middle of the night, I had to fix my accomodation because they told me that I wasn't on their list.
I wanted wikimania 2008 to be longer in time ,to be a full week conference,and the session spread out,so I can attend most of them.
add more fun in the presentations
I missed the Birds of the Feather sessions for open discussion.
Have Birds of a Feather sessions.
more focus on either the community or outreach: now most of the (non-egyptian) visitors were community members, looking mainly for interaction with other community members etc, but the program dit not really facilitate non-formal activities, untill the last night. Also the lack of descriptions for the sessions, which did not exist for all sessions and where not available in the venue, was a major problem in choosing which sessions to attend. Water available between breaks, I was now pointed to the bathrooms to drink the tap water.

Comments: One piece of advice to organizers..

If there was one piece of advice you could give specifically to the organizers of Wikimania 2009, what would it be?

Create a team of two or three people whose time will be dedicated to answer queries about scholarships, visas, transportations, lodging etc.
Make it more casual.
Creating a team of 2-3 people whose time will be entirely dedicated to answering queries about registration, scholarships, visas, transportation, lodging etc.
Creating a team of 2-3 people whose time will be entirely dedicated to answering queries about registration, scholarships, visas, transportation, lodging etc.
Provide a central gathering space for people to casually hang out in. It's really important!
Get money early. Know where you are going.
Have a "cafe" style place to hang out -- with food and room to sit, etc.
Appoint one of the local volunteers to each group of people especially for Taxi and transportation etc... I did it in Wikimania 2008 and It was greatly appreciated.
Make sure you keep the website information up-to-date and strive to have answers posted there before the people even think to ask those questions. :-)
stick close guys...
Focos on the mainiacs, not the newcomers
Use people who have organized conferences before
dont forget to help wiki users from thirld world to be present in the next wikimania. I've seen any black african in Alexandria....
provide places for socializing with chairs and more informal socializing
Give people plenty of opportunities to mix casually and semi-casually. Open areas, general -- not segregated -- meals, and encourage new participation such as Open Space-style informal sessions.
make sure there's break out space for late nights or early mornings impromptu socialising
Try to settle all the people in the same dorm/hotel to make it possible for people to interact more.
more technical sessions more detailed about the speaker and the session in the schedule paper
prepare some "i don't want photos" signs for attendees on site, or accept requests for making new signs or provide facilities for attendees to make their own signs.
Keep Wikimania (sleeping places, conference site) at one place.
sessions and speakers are less in one time
Please make sure people have a location to gather on the evenings.
More contact with the attendees before the conference. the site was not even updated and whenever someone asked a question it took more than two weeks to get the answer.
Make sure to think about all the details (international community and their quirks, drinks during the conference, etc)
Make sure to get the details right. Think about what people from other parts of the world expect; try to make sure any hickups are not due to bad organization.
viva la wikimania !
if you have bugs / problems with registration, please communicate more and faster - I never got a correct registration confirmation or a correct bill how much I should pay
More scholarships.
You don't know what sessions will be popular and which ones will be unpopular. Many of the sessions I went to (about more "academic" and theoretical topics - Geiger and Navot's talks esp.) were in tiny rooms that were packed to the brim.
keep conference rooms and sleeping places together
Make T shirts for Wikimania 2009
have someone be at the airport during the arrival days.. like they had them in Taipei. hackerdays
Make socializing easier. Provide bigger spaces where people can eat, talk and get to know one another comfortably. Provide schedules that say whether a session is technical or not.
Keep it up like we did in Egypt
More time for socialising/meeting people, etc.
Encourage socialising, leave space for it in the programme!
have a central meetig space with places to sit and laptop outlets
have a single central meeting area with chairs, tables, laptop outlets
I hope to find in Wikimania 2009 a discussion for projects relative to specific fields.
Be a little more consistent about the timing: Should the session start at the minute of schedule or should there be a 15 minute delay. Should a session be allowed to go over time?
Keep the time allocated for the speakers.
Keep the schedule.
better food at lunches
underpromise, overdeliver
I have to be exposed more on Wikimania to be able to make a comment
better socializing spaces
Keep up the enthusiasm you have shown so far
Meeting-point at the airport, accomodation closer to the venue or at the same place
make wikimania conference in one week.
Please run a day prior to "real" Wikimania specifically for newbies/outreach ("Wikipedia Academy").
Have a newbie/outreach day ("Wikipedia Academy" style) before the conference proper begins.
More room for informal meetings! :-) Water available at all times.

Comments: Advice on Wikimania in general..

If there was one thing you would like to see changed about Wikimania in general, what would it be?

I really like the event as it is.
More time for presentations to become freeflowing discussions -- a weeding out of presentations so that good ones can go expand for awhile.
Longer duration. Less parallel sessions so you don't have to tear yourself all the time between 2 (or even 3) simultaneous presentations you'd really like to be present at. If there'd be nothing, one is interested in, he can always select just smth. to attend and learn something new for him, or socialize with others during such moments. Video-recording of all sessions helped a bit, but just a bit.
Avoid turning into a normal conference. Always be UNIQUE.
making sure that the presentations/speakings are (reliable),, specially from people from the outside of the community ie: IBM's man who gave us a presentation about globalisation and economy, while it didn't relate to any of the wikimedia/wikimania interests at all
Focos on the mainiacs, not the newcomers
Segmentation by skill level, perhaps?
to add a track for novice users to get to know what the wiki and free culture is
nothing
less formalized. fewer keynotes. more time for socializing and informal gathering.
More side events.
More socializing activities.
More scholarships. More scholarships. More scholarships.
More actual results, for example via the integration of hacking days.
Making the wikimedia community more accessible to newcomers like myself, but in general it is a very impressive foundation.
I want to change the Parallel ?sessions
better integration of Wikipedia research, so much interesting work happens outside the community now
better quality presenttions and fewer cancelations
more beginner friendly guidance to move from being an observer to a producer
I have to be exposed more on wikimania to be able to make a comment
Nothing in general
More focus on either public outreach or community, or at least a more clear vision on how to incorporate both.

Comments: Dream Workshop

If there was one workshop you would like to attend at Wikimania 2009, what would its topic be?

The five pillars of Wikipedia - how were they phrased, what kind of philosophical approach underlies them, why it is good for Wikipedia (if at all), how the different Wikipedias should implement them (if at all).
creating an assessment criteria for articles in wikipedia.
A detailed discussion of who contributes -- is it a few people, or hundreds of thousands -- and why?
If not some mind-blowing technichal idea-stuff, something on community-building or impact of Wiki-communities on real-life communities/institutions.
Do a workshop regarding How to edit Wikipedia efficiently.
how to create a professional article in 5 mnts and 10 easy steps
Quality improvement efforts, a comparative survey of various languages of Wikipedia.
self-governance of the community. the relationship between the WMF and the community.
A discussion on how to work as a movement on free content. Which focuses are important etc.
Workshop on how to transform mediawiki pages into an actual book, something similar to what wiki travel press has done with Yucca.
Citing your sources howto
On Libraries
MediaWiki System new features
citation in Wikipedia pages how to
a detailed session for newcomers on wikimedia 101
the ways that make us increase the Arabic Contains
corporate wikis: benefits, experiences, challenges
road map of consumer electronics and the expected spread of free software accordingly.
Get "wikified" for rookies 101
It's too early to think about that

Comments: Dream Speaker

If there was one person you would like to see speak at Wikimania 2009, who is it?

Richard Stallman, who spoke at Wikimania the First in Frankfurt.
Anyone with really fresh vision and bold ideas :)
Ismail Serageldin
Sergey Brin
Brewster Kahle
kat walsh, larry page
Jimbo :-)
Florence Nibart-Devouard
Lawrence Liang
Larry Sanger
Google staff
Ronaldo Lemos
Larry Page
Caru Bass
rhonda roland shearer
Delphine Ménard
Diego Armando Maradona or Pampita (the actress)
Steve Jobs
andrew tanenbawm
Jimmy Wales on opening session about from how he envisioned Wikipedia thru its actual conception
It would probably be Florence
perhaps an EU-officer (someone from the Commission?) to speak about plans and visions within the EU regarding free knowledge

Comments: Advice on event design and planning

If you could give the people who design and plan Wikimania in general one piece of advice, what would it be? Write as much as you want.

The talks' and workshops' presentations, films and other documentation files should be uploaded to the Wikimania site as quickly as possible, maybe even during the conference. It is worth while to have a translation campaign for these files after the conference.
Start early, finish early, and try to find a constant mean of communication, because lots of time is wasted in looking where people are...
It should be possible to buy food at the venue
Try harder to raise the scientific level, without necessarily going professional.
put the country and languages spoken by the attendees on the badges.
more information earlier.there is no such thing as having information too late...being well informed is key to success
more community-oriented discussions. the community exchange ideas and make decisions through various channels. however, the kind of face-to-face exchange is irreplaceable. it's true that not everyone who'd like to participate in the discussion would be able to make it to the Wikimania, but there are ways to accommodate them. for example, panel organizers can prepare and release agenda in advance to invite discussions, and there can be IRC on-site to allow remote participation.
Try to make Wikimania a little more diverse. Try to make it interesting to every single individual, by seperating interest groups, and making clear tracks in the program for instance. Have side events for focus groups such as technics, policy freaks and chapter folks, which are more or less part of Wikimania. Maybe see it as working groups or sub conferences for one day.
Try to have more contact with your future attendees. Check what they ask and what they would like to see and check.
Good work, and I'm waiting for Wikimania 2009
Try to make it more about the core community members (editors, developers, community-builders etc).
Get more sponsors.
Make more free time between the sessions
i would like to thank them so much they were very helpful and caring and guide me through the conference sessions and accommodation issues they make very respectable effort thank you so much and God bless you all
I think the people who design and plan wikimania
Well I don't thing that I can anything Coz I was one of the organizer in this Conference and I already said what I want to say to make the Conference Great in the Preparing of the conference but I can Say To the organizer of Wikimania 2009 to not delay any task whatever it is very easy coz we had a lot of problems because of this act.
Nominate official chairs to have clearly defined responsibilities for certain organisation tasks (programme chair, local chair, workshop chair, press and outreach chair, whatever-needs-to-be-done chair). This ensures that nothing important is delayed or forgotten. I do not think that "professionally organised" and "a little casual" are contradicting each other (as an earlier answer option in this poll suggested). It is of course still okay to have multiple chairs for one task. Giving some key people an official status also is a good way to acknowledge their contribution.
1.Be in contact with people from now to the date of the conference. 2.Make the contact between the staff and the attendees before, during and after the conference easier.
Although cateringto students is good outreach, do not ignore the professionals
give the sessions longer periods
I can't think of anything. I think it is well-organized. Just keep on doing what you do.
It could really be wise to hold the conference over four days but still more or less on the week-end
Be bold :-) Dare to change things! The Buenos Aires team seems very enthousiastic and capable of making the next Mania a succes. Best of luck!

Speaker Survey

Survey Results

Is this your first time being a speaker at any conference?
Yes 3 (19%)

No 11 (69%)

No answer 2 (12%)
Is this your first time being a speaker for Wikimania?
Yes 8 (50%)

No 6 (38%)

No answer 2 (12%)
How did you hear about Wikimania's call for paper?
wiki[m|p]edias mailing lists sitenotice wikimania website

Foundation-l

personal communication, website
Please rate the visibility of the call for papers.
Completely adequate 5 (38%)

Adequate 5 (38%)

Not adequate 1 (8%)

Not all adequate 0 (0%)

No answer 2 (14%)
Please rate the adequateness of submission dates.
Completely adequate 6 (46%)

Adequate 6 (46%)

Not adequate 0 (0%)

Not at all adequate 0 (0%)

No answer 2 (8%)
Please rate the adequateness of web submission for your papers.
Completely adequate 4 (31%)

Adequate 3 (23%)

Not adequate 3 (23%)

Not at all adequate 1 (8%)

No answer 5 (15%)
Please rate the communications you had with the conference organizers.
Completely adequate 23 (23%)

Adequate 30 (31%)

Not adequate 8 (8%)

Not at all adequate 0 (0%)

No answer 5 (38%)
Please rate the registration process as a speaker.
Completely adequate 4 (31%)

Adequate 5 (38%)

Not adequate 3 (23%)

Not at all adequate 0 (0%)

No answer 1 (8%)
What, if anything, could have done to improve your experience as a speaker at Wikimania?
It was unclear whether the speakers' registration was the same as the attendees' registration, whether the information that should be given was the same, whether the registration fee was the same, etc.

a bit more information in advance (where to register on site, where the speakers room is...)

hmmm, I was in progcom, so I doubt I should reply here :)

More interaction with audience, even before the talk.

I was under the impression that I had entered a request to speak.. I learned when I heard nothing that I had not ... Only to be told that the information and everything could be found... I was lucky that i was given a spot to speak after all.

Should have made clearer that we needed to register twice, once on Pentabarf and again on separate system.

The call for papers was not visible beyond the core community, I think. Many people work with Wikipedia data for research and development, and more effort should be made to invite those to report their results to the community.

everything was ok
Please rate your satisfaction with the speaking facilities in the room in which you gave your session (lectern, stage, microphone etc.)
Very happy 5 (42%)

Happy 1 (8%)

Unhappy 3 (25%)

Very unhappy 1 (8%)

No answer 2 (17%)
Please rate your satisfaction with the support staff (technical, other).
Very happy 7 (50%)

Happy 1 (8%)

Unhappy 1 (17%)

Very unhappy 1 (8%)

No answer 2 (17%)
Please rate your satisfaction with the response to any of your special requests (materials/technology/etc.), if appropriate.
Very happy 2 (17%)

Happy 1 (8%)

Unhappy 0 (0%)

Very unhappy 0 (0%)

No answer 9 (75%)
How well did the room you gave your session in fit you?
Too large 0 (0%)

Just right 7 (58%)

Too small 3 (25%)
Elaborate on the problems, if any, that you experienced during your session.
The quality of the film documenting the talk is not so good, a thing which could have been easily resolved by a short rehearsal with the photographers 2 minutes before the beginning of the talk.

The poster session was located in a horrible location...

There was a beamer functioning even though I did not use it. This was shining in my eyes sometimes. Apparently it had to stay on because the next speaker would need it. Unfortunately the session moderators were not very well interfering if needed. (not as much a problem with my session, but with others it was)

Literally half of my time was wasted with tech people trying to get the presentation notebook running.

The sound of my microphone was not recorded completely consequently the video was not worth watching after two hours of download

Timing was a bit tight. Should have asked for more!

The room size was way too small. We had to move back the speakers table to have more sitting space on the floor.

Difficult to hear due to microphone feedback loop on stage

no problems
Elaborate on the good things you experienced during your session.
The audience was very cooperative and interested, the overall atmosphere was very good.

I was amazed how many people came to hear the talk - even it was such a "boring" topic (technology)

The microphones were provided well.

I loved the public, they were really nice. The organisers were on the ball but technically .. it was better then all the previous wikimanias.. it only means room for improvement for next Wikimania :)

Facilities were really great, participation was really easy because of desk microphones. Excellent place.

interested audience, equipment worked well

a lot of questions and good responce
Did you expectations of Wikimania from the Call For Papers match reality?
Yes 8 (67%)

No 1 (8%)

No answer 3 (25%)
Did you feel your session fit in the overall program (content-wise)?
Yes 10 (84%)

No 1 (8%)

No answer 1 (8%)
Would you consider presenting again at this conference?
Yes 10 (84%)

No 1 (8%)

No answer 1 (8%)

Posted by Shuhari 02:11, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]