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2017 Wikimania Conference Montreal, Quebec

2017 Wikimania Conference Montreal, Quebec

The conference was one of those high points in life where you remember it for life, and an experience I continue to pull from, think about, and act on lessons learned. While at the Wikimania conference I participated in a panel discussion with Afrocrowd/NYC and shared my experiences.

At the conference I met a lot of Wikipedians. It was a joy to be around so many people with the same drive for creative informational content to share locally, nationally, and globally.
I learned more about the vastness of Wikimedia, and that there are so many ways to create content, and to get involved; like Wikivoyage, Wikidata; Wiki education, etc.

I learned more about Wikimedia's mission and that Wikimedia is a movement with project goals for the future.

I found all of the events that I attended to be very helpful and informative. The strategy sessions were helpful in regards to the many conversations about challenges. Many of the challenges that others have which are similar to Afrocrowd's and Wikimedia NYC, and my own networking especially in regards to retention.

Over the past two and a half years I have invited many friends and people I have met to attend edit-thons in Brooklyn, and in New York City. But the issue is how to get them to get more involved, how-to-demonstrate or teach the joy of learning that I get from writing articles. And, how empowering it is to use an open source scholarship platform such as Wikipedia, and that it is the future direction in learning. And that each article that I write is an amazing research and learning experience.

What I have been doing within-my community is having on going dialogues about Wikipedia, etc., and my next step is to do outreach using my laptop. This because clear to me after attending several workshops, and discussions in Montreal where retention was discussed.

* After attending the Conference I started to upload more of my photos into Wiki Commons.

* I learned also how important languages are in content creating.

* I learned more about other ways to engage in Wikimedia such as; Wikidata, WikiVoyage, Wikiloves Monuments. I became encouraged to get more involved in Wikimedia. I want to learn more about how to use sound and video.

* I met Wikipedian's from around the world. I talked with  Camelia Boban from Italy about having a parallel event during the Conference on the Status of Women to introduce Wikimedia to women and men who will be coming to NYC from March 11 to the 23 for a global conference. 

 And, that I would reach out to a Ilitha Labantu, a South African organization that I have known for years that come to the Conference on the Status of Women. I talked with Mandisa Monakali in  last November when she was in NYC about having a side event during the conference. She thought it was a wonderful idea. This is still a work in progress. I contacted Anne Nelson who is with Wikimedia New York City in regards to doing a presentation about Internet in a Box. Since one of the conference themes this year is rural women and new technology it will be post fitting to introduce the various women coming to NYC about new  media for areas that do not have Internet infrastructure. Anne has sent me information about her work to forward and spare with my email contacts for CSW62. Which I have circulated. I have secured a venue in Harlem called Raw Space for a side event. The South African women said they will get back to me at the end of February after talking with their funder. 

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