Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-07-03/Wikimania series

This week, the Signpost covers a few updates on Wikimania 2006 planning. Registration for Wikimania and Hacking Days continues; early registration is open through 9 July.

The schedule for Wikimania 2006 is being drafted, and will include a poster session on Friday night (4 August), where the many posters displayed at Wikimania will be highlighted. There are 29 accepted posters this year, on topics ranging from wiki markup standards to the challenges that may arise as medical information continues to be added to Wikipedia. Other posters include a display a wiki-based art project, a proposal for sharing data between lexical resources, and an account of bringing computers (and Wikipedia) to the remote Venezuelan village of Sinamaica.

Other updates: travel scholarship applications are being reviewed, and applicants will be notified this week. The list of volunteer jobs has been updated. Announcements about early registration (ending 9 July) are going out; these can be redistributed widely.

Sister events: A day-long event on citizen journalism is planned for Monday, 7 August, the day following Wikimania. The event will be free and held in Pound Hall, the building that will hold the Wikimania events; Wikimaniacs are invited to attend. Dan Gillmor, director of the Center for Citizen Media, and fellow coordinators plan to bring about 100 people together in an informal event to discuss citizen journalism. The event will be an "unconference" without formal sessions; the purpose is to brainstorm some key aspects of citizen journalism, including principles, techniques, tools, business models and more.

SIGGRAPH 2006 will also take place earlier that week in downtown Boston. A tour of the SIGGRAPH exhibit floor has been suggested as a pre-Wikimania outing.

Next week: an overview of Wikimania contests and panels.