The programme for Wikimania – the annual gathering of volunteers from around the world to celebrate Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, taking place this year in Cape Town – features more than 80 community-submitted talks, 32 poster discussions, and four keynote sessions.
Wikimania’s 2018 theme, “Bridging knowledge gaps–the ubuntu way forward”, aims to ensure a more equitable spread of information across the Internet. Topics related to access, equity, sharing and open content will all be put under the microscope during the three-day conference and in the pre-conference sessions.
Wikimania will take place in Cape Town from 18 to 22 July, marking the first time the conference will be held in sub-Saharan Africa.
The main conference will take place from 20-22 July at the Cape Sun in Cape Town central. Through a combination of talks, panel discussions, workshops, and lunchtime lightning talks, attendees will share their ideas to bridge Wikipedia’s gaps, including gender and transgender contributions, African content, and language.
Pre-conference activities on 18th and 19th July include a Hackathon and independently organised meetups bringing together people with similar interests.
A path in the programme has been highlighted to ensure that new Wikimedia users or those interested in participating in any of the projects are able to do so.
In addition, a Learn to Edit Wikipedia section will be available in the public area of the conference, where volunteers will assist newcomers with registering and explain how to start editing on Wikipedia.
The seven underlying themes of the Wikimania 2018 sessions are: language and literacy, access and accessibility, participation and representation, community health, content quality, legal and policy, and knowledge forms.