TrendsWikipedia. The annual conference in Esino, Lake of Como

Ilaria Trapuzzano8 years ago7 min

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San Francisco, New York, London or Tokyo? Wikimania, the annual Wikipedia conference is currently held in Esino, a small village of 760 habitants on the Lake of Como.

These days are so lively in this small town that till June 28 will greet 1000 international contributors of the most famous and free encyclopedia, that this year celebrates 15 years. A week of meetings and workshops to discuss and confront on the new boundaries of online knowledge, looking for solutions for the platform and interrogating themselves on the future of the web.

From Frankfurt to Esino, Wikipedia is for everyone

esino-lario

The final to conquer the assignment was against Manila, the capital of Philippines. The first edition of the meeting was in 2005 in Frankfurt, and then it went to Buenos Aires, Mexico City, London.. how is it possible that this little village on Lario defeated such huge metropoles?

It seems like a huge challenge. The slogan with which Esino presented itself to the selections was “Wikimania goes Outdoor” and it seems to embody the spirit of the beginning of the Wikipedia community, when the collaborative knowledge process seemed like mission impossible.

Iolanda Pensa, general manager of Wikimania 2016 and citizen of Esino explained that “the challenge wanted to demonstrate that in the sharing era, in the era of open knowledge, an event can be held in any place, whether is an international city or not.” The element that conquered the jury was the possibility for the participants to experiment a local, friendly and intimate atmosphere of the village, to be lived in piazzas and bars.

The project got the participation of Esino’s inhabitants too, since they decided to open the doors of their houses to host the participants during these five days and the institutions got involved too. It’s been an occasion to promote the territory and, in fact, many funds have been invested to bring broad band and free Wi-Fi will the little village set in the Lombardy Pre-Alps.

2016 Edition, a week end among copyright and music

The themes of this 2016 edition are many: from copyright on images, to rights to the minorities, from filling information times to involving users in the project. In particular, it will be an occasion to talk about how to make  Jimmy Jimbo Waless creature grow more in terms of active users, how to incorporate new technologies and video and images production.

Among the meeting in the calendar, something to watch out for: “Going beyond the edit button, innovative ways of engaging people in our projects” and “Finding a good balance between protecting net neutrality and bringing free knowledge to the people”. And on the 26th “Women and Gender Gap: the way forward” every morning and evening, before and after meeting, there are collateral events like guided tours around the territory and culinary experiences, activities and concerts.

The whole program is available here: https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programme .

Ilaria Trapuzzano

“Il vero viaggio non consiste nel cercare nuove terre, ma nell’avere nuovi occhi” – M. Proust. Nata e cresciuta nel giornalismo televisivo, convertita al digitale per scelta inseguendo la voglia di sperimentare diverse forme di narrazione. Racconto la realtà attraverso una nuova prospettiva professionale e di vita, cercando ispirazione nelle cose universalmente belle: viaggi, cibo e buon vino.

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