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Monsters and critics

From Wikimania 2010 • Gdańsk, Poland • July 9-11, 2010

How was Wikimania 2010 for you? What was amazing, what was annoying? Help Wikimania evolve - present your positive and negative reviews here, please. Feel free to add more sections.

General comments

  • Generally a very great meeting at a good venue with an almost too strong program (I wish I could be at several places at once) and enthusiastic participants And quite amazing that you can have the The Philharmonic with a new work and documentary movie too. The accomodation was also nice. — Fnielsen 08:26, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I loved the music, having the party at the shipyard was awesome. I loved the people that I met this is what makes Wikimania so relevant and important. I was so happy that everyone shared the same facilities (there were the special rooms but we ate together and we had coffee together). Gdansk was a great host for us. GerardM 10:31, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Fantastic meeting with lots of energy, good, very well executed program, great participants. The venue was spectacular. I miss however some outreach towards the outside world. Could some public officials be invited to present or for panel discussions? The issues are many: copyright status of publicly-funded material, wikipedia in education, etc. Perhaps the participants could have physically left the venue to give workshops at schools/universities, etc. Wikipedia is a resource, a community and, I believe, also a group with an advocacy agenda.
  • The location was awesome - both the city, and the building. Fantastic lengths of breaks, with plenty of time to talk to people. Great organization of the weather. I just wish I'd been able to spend more time at it. Mike Peel 20:25, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • despite all my bickering below, I think this Wikimania worked out great. what else can you expect when you have several hundred wikipedians in one place :) -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:20, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Best of all: roughly 50-60 % of attendees were at their first Wikimania. Fresh air. Nemo 22:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I would like to thank everyone for a great event, City of Gdansk for the venue and just for creating the nice mood of the visit, and staff involved for the great service. And thanks to Wikimedia Foundation for the scholarship that made me able to attend! Finally, special thanks to Janusz (Ency) for helping and guiding all the way and being infinitely patient :) — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I enjoyed it and am glad I went. I really liked the way we got wikimedians from all over the globe. WereSpielChequers 09:12, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
THANKS
  • In the written program, I would have liked to have some useful Polish phrases translated/transliterated, especially "Thank you". I constantly forgot how to say it.... it's a small but nice touch to have. Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • My way to thanks is the image on the side. It was such I nice and friendly event. --Kolossos
  • It was a very enriching and exciting experience. Perfect for share opinions and know different points of view. I enjoyed it, the city and the venue are really beautiful. The schedule, and the experience of sharing the way we live a common objective, in the different spaces for talk, was good. Issues? There were with the final day of accommodation in the 6 Dom, the distance from student dormitory in the Akademia Medyczna to venue, and the inconvenience of finding a good place to eat in Philharmonia. Beyond that, I want to express publicly my gratitude to the Foundation for inviting me to Wikimania. Thanks, Ivanmartinez 20:10, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I enjoyed it very much. The location was great. Big thanks to everybody involved in the organization of this event. Stefan64 01:02, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Program

Agree. I think it was a bit confusing since which presentations grouped on a topic were not named. It would be a better approach if we could read prior the session the enlisted presentations Nevinho 22:07, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The overlap with WikiSym was generally a good idea, but I felt that the WikiSym friday became somewhat diluted because of Wikimania. — Fnielsen 08:39, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Being the third item in a session was high risk and frustrating - if the earlier ones overran it was your problem not their's WereSpielChequers 13:17, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • And if they finished earlier, you would get supplemental minutes :) I've experienced being the third is somehow frustrating though (My moderator, Mako gave me additional two minutes magically, so I could start even more relaxed. Thanks!). --Aphaia 00:27, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The 30 min coffe break at the end of each session granted some flexibility when things got late.
  • Having Jimmy's keynote the morning after a party probably wasn't the best approach to take... Mike Peel 20:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Better than having real sessions. Werdna 20:53, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Like guillom likes this.
  • There wasn't a "big guest" useful to attract also non-wikimedians (like RMS, Joi Ito and Lessig in previous Wikimanias). The concert wasn't enough, apparently: maybe only lack of advertisement in the city?
    • while I agree in general, I hope no one gets the idea of inviting RMS again :) Also... did that really attract any non-wikipedians? Is it really supposed to? I think keynotes are useful to get an inspiring outside view to wikimedians, not so much the other way around. who would attend a conference just for the keynote?... -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:22, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • I actually REALLY liked NOT having keynotes (aside from Sue and Jimmy). It meant more time for parallel sessions. No one really goes to Wikimania because of the keynotes, do they? Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:10, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      • Inspiring Keynotes are important especially from people outside the Wikimedia community. You could also achieve this with invited talks. Having only self-selected Wikimedia people instead of invited views from other communities is narrow minded. -- JakobVoss 15:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
        • I think keynotes (or any talks from professionals speakers) would be important for Wikimanias to become important not only for Wikimanicas but also for people that perhaps just like the idea. Maybe this could even help recruit new faces :-). --Nux 17:43, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I really enjoyed the program. I think the grouping sessions idea could catch on, although it needs to be done with care (some groupings were very random). But in general I felt that I could hear from many different Wikimedians, on many different topics, which is the whole point for me. Having 4 parallel sessions is better than 5 (as at Buenos Aires). --Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:37, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Some people's interpretation of "panel" seemed to be "I talk for 40 minutes, questions for 20." Might be good to check that panel convenors actually have organised some panellists. And limit them to 5! --Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:37, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I found being a session chair a bit harder than I expected :) Not sure how strongly we were supposed to keep things to time and "under control". Sorry to my 3rd and 4th speakers. Can't imagine how the sessions without chairs went! --Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:37, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I liked to program but next year organizers should make sure that they get the slides online at one place in time. You can force speakers to give their presentation before - just collect them and directly upload them so people can get the slides and point other people to them during the talk! -- JakobVoss 15:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Just one detail, I was scheduled in two panels (Wikipedia Credibility and and Wikis of the world) at the same time on Sunday. Ivanmartinez 20:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sideprogram

Concert

Filmpremiere

  • Good to have something like this, and worked OK this year. We had a clip the next day from the Peruvian Selva and I've high hopes for that film. WereSpielChequers 13:32, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Great. Perhaps it would be possible to organise a stream with wikipedia-related films and their creators?
  • I liked the movie. The presentation was way too hot (AC failed I guess, no ones fault), the seat reservations were pointless and just led to confusion. Sound was too loud (especially base). Also, there was no cance to go to the hotel to leave our bags before heading to the party. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:15, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The bass was too loud, and at times it was overshouting everything, making these moments awful. This was a problem not for everyone since the sound was below the “conventional” sensitivity threshold of 20Hz, and some just didn’t feel it, but definitely a significant part of the audience did. — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The discussion after the film was protracted and, IMHO, boring to some extent. During last 30 minutes or so, there was a strong urge to escape, catalyzed by overall hotness and thus brain refusing to perceive the conversation. — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Poster sessions

I thought it was nice that these were in the general social area so that it was very easy finding them, and talk with people about them. Ainali 09:41, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Socialization

  • Several informal meetings took place (e.g. strategy) or maybe not (e.g. Chapter_Meetings#6:45_PM_-_7:25_PM_:_Group_discussion and C, vampirized by A and B) but they were poorly advertised and not so visible (not in the main halls), so if you didn't know other attendees/organizers it was quite difficult to participate. (Cfr. wm2009:Postmortem/Conclusions#Socialization).
  • I appreciated the quite long breaks for coffee. All being at the same place was very neat. It lacked room to seat in particular upstairs. Even worn out couches would have been nice. Anthere

Party

  • Service was way too slow, if you start a party with a forty minute queue at the bar don't be surprised if the dancing doesn't take off. If you are going to have people serving cocktails, why not have one just doing beer? WereSpielChequers 13:25, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Nice we could all go to one single club user
  • Location was too far away from the main venue and the hotels - which made ducking out early rather difficult... Mike Peel 20:04, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • transport there was a mess, transport back didn't exist, the bar crew seemed unprepared. removing the cocktail options (at least for the first hour) would probably have made things smoother. was a good party though, I had fun :) -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:13, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Awesome location, library and w:pl:Instytut Sztuki Wyspa.
  • Funny trivia night, but not everybody had the chance to see the topics before...
  • Should have been on the last night --Church of emacs 21:29, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I agree with all the above. Would be better to have a dedicated venue (at least with a bar tab for beer!), CLOSE to the venue and/or accommodation. And I really missed having a single venue for the final night. Alexandria did that superbly. Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:13, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't drink and many people don't either. There should have been an alternative plan for them just like with the World Cup.--OsamaK 16:20, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The party featured: a) shipyards, b) library, c) (small sort of) art gallery, d) trivia. I didn't drink anything, just bought a book. Nemo 17:24, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Wasn't it [in a bar] with drinks, music and dancing? (that was I was told by the organizers in the reception)--OsamaK 13:45, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It was a core part which we had in late hours, but earlier, they opened art gallery with two installation (video) and one sculpture, a bookstore/library. A big night club, even not so huge as Tacheles. I however missed shipyards - where it was?? --Aphaia 19:13, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, then I wish I knew what the party really was and, as a general statement, whenever there is nightclub and drinking, there should be another option for people who don't want to join (i.e. the idea of having multi-place party seems reasonable).--OsamaK 17:15, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • It was a fun party. It was not much coming back, it did not have local support to return to the dorms. Ivanmartinez 20:17, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Service was horribly slow. Bus to go there really bad. Otherwise, weird and distracting. I even liked going back in the dark (very confusing though; happy I was not alone). I think there should have been more explanation about what the place was about. Anthere

Football

Communications

Pre-conference

  • The registration and accommodation information came somewhat late. I brought a sleeping bag and sleeping pad with me because I wasn't sure of the quality, but when I came I found that the dorm at the music academy was of hotel-like quality. — Fnielsen 08:39, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Visa support was slow initially, towards the end it became much more efficient though
  • The registration process was slow
  • It would have been good to know where I was sleeping _before_ I arrived in the country... Mike Peel 20:08, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Information on the website was out of date - it still contained information from during the bid process, rather than up to date information ("we hope to have...") Mike Peel 20:18, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Knowing that you sleep in other dormitory some kilometers away at 02:00 at the reception is an unforgettable experience. I ended up going to a hostel with fellow Russian-language attendees: luckily, it was not far and no payment from me was necessary. — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ditto others on late registration - it was so late I paid overseas, and Paypal subsequently froze my account because of the "suspicious" activity. And I arrived without knowing where I was sleeping - and that was only maybe 12 hours before the conference began. Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:15, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Deadlines for submissions, notifications, registration etc. were way too late. Many people did not participate because important dates and schedule were not available at least some month before the conference. This was the only thing that went bad, the rest was great! -- JakobVoss 15:34, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Everything was late, but the team was helpful and responded on emails quickly.--OsamaK 16:23, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Tickets and vouchers in "welcome bag" were not announced, not marked. I was surprised when informed I need them and where to find and some of them moved between pages of note-book so it was difficult to find them. If enclosed in envelope, they would be more noticable. Ciacho5 21:49, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

During the conference

  • As this was the first year I didn't attend, I was very pleased that the live streaming worked so well. Angela 08:39, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Things were run very smoothly. All sessions I attended were on time, there were no delays with meals either. It would have been useful to have water served all the time because of the heat
    Siebrand started his one even earlier, or did I misinterpret something? — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The check-in seem a little bit chaotic, it needs very long and then no T-shirt and no meal-voucher include. --Kolossos 19:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • When I got to registration, there was this huge queue. We were told to come back later. But then I was for a session in the morning, so only could register after my session; by that time, no bag any more. Oh... so no food voucher ? no concert ticket ? no program ? no tee shirt ? Team was nice, and I succeeded to negotiate most of the important things. But it would really be nice if all attendees got the attendees bags. Anthere
  • I also had some trouble pre-conference but the team on-location were great in solving that and very helpful and postive despite all the things they had to do. Thanks! Ainali 09:44, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Streaming / Video Coverage

  • I didn't attend but watched the streaming. Many congratulations to those involved with that; quality was very good and real-time cutting between views made presentations very visually appealing. I had some connection issues causing me to have to refresh the page to get going again, however this may be a problem with my connection rather than the source output - in any case it wasn't too much of an issue. At the time of writing post-Mania videos have yet to appear on Commons (or at least they haven't been put into the category I'm watching) but I have been told they will be uploaded at some point. --Bodnotbod
  • Thanks for great streaming, detailed programme and timely meetings. This way I was able to get rid of all these usuall (and unusuall) travel and conference inconveniences and watch almost all I wanted (at least as far as concernes the official events) from my Poznań home - comfortable and cool. It would be great to have an additional opportunity to send comments or ask questions online in the future. Or see you in Haifa? Cien 22:55, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The fact that it depended on Flash wasn't pleasing. Wikipedia should not endorse using proprietary software and standards. We should have made use of the current advanced free-standard steaming using e.g. Icecast.--OsamaK 16:44, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • How long we will need to wait that the videos comes to Commons? --Kolossos 22:59, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

After the conference

  • Missed a certificate of participation. --buecherwuermlein 20:33, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • +1 (it's still possible to send them and it will be great!)--OsamaK 16:46, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • +1 I have the same problem and the organizers did not bother to answer me:( I did not know that it is such a great problem even though I was actively participating in preparations of the conference and had a presentation as well. Huge minus! Psychology 00:16, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      • Of course, it is still possible to get them. Please contact me at lukasz @ wikimania2010 . pl - send me your name and surname, and information on what exactly do you want your document to say (gave a lecture title, participated in..., attended the Wikimania 2010 conference, etc.), and within 24 hours you will receive a PDF document of your choice. Airwolf 10:33, 15 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Would be good to have a record on arrival and departure times of attendees to plan hellos and goodbyes and hugs and surprise gifts and you-name-it. (I failed to give such a gift to a certain person because of an early departure I couldn’t even guess about.) — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • It would be great to see some statistics, like from where people came from, gender balance and what people listed as their main project. Ainali 09:47, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Logistics

WiFi and power

  • Very few power sockets --Church of emacs 08:37, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    indeed. a few boxes of power strips would have helped a lot. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    One of the organisers gave me one and I carried it around, but they were hard to find. And none in the main room. Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:17, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • It seemed like there was some preparation for the amount of bandwidth needed by Wikimaniacs, but the network configuration was lacking. I know we all dabble in technology, but this is the type of thing that might benefit from professional consultation, even if it costs a little bit of money. --In2thats12 10:32, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • As with last year the demand for WiFi swamped our capacity. It needs to be capacity tested in advance to try and have it ready at the beginning. WereSpielChequers 13:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Believe it or not, I have had bandwidth issues, when I could get an IP address. The problem was the configuration of DHCP and the use of a /24 subnet with a maximum of 254 IPs for distribution. They said on Friday morning that they were making it a /23 (510 IPs) but I never saw the anything outside of that one block. --In2thats12 14:25, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Running out of capacity is one thing, but the signal was quite bad in many areas (green hall in particular). When planning access points, remember that there will be a lot of water (i.e. people) in the room, interfering. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • It would have been better if wireless was available from the very beginning of the meeting. Also, there was only one place with reliable wifi, which was the concert hall and its immediate surroundings. This meant that I had no wifi reception in any of the other presentation rooms, which is kind of annoying if your presentation is online (e.g. a Google doc) or seeks to demonstrate things online.
    • There should only be one network name for the wi-fi, and roaming/handover should work across the building. --LA2 21:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • In addition to wi-fi, there needs to be a central area with wired ethernet sockets. Even with perfect wi-fi, some users are going to have problems. --LA2 21:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Would be nice to have optional WiFi encryption. — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Food and Drink

  • There were times when things got hot and dry - having water available all the time would have been helpful, as it was it didn't start till 11.
    ...and then glasses ran out. Seriously, having free water is essential. You can sell the coffe if you want. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • We have lots of vegetarians, and some people on kosher or halal diets. I thought the soup with bacon followed by pork sausages was very nice, as was all the food. But I felt a little guilty eating when so many had no option. WereSpielChequers 13:43, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Indeed, the quality and quantity of the food was very good but there really needed to be some degree of choice. At the very least, a meat option and a vegetarian option. --Tango 13:30, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    That would have been useful - but it was better than it normally is in Poland. The potatoes were fantastic (as always in Poland). It's just a shame that there wasn't more variety - at one point I ended up with a plate of (very nice) vegetables only... Mike Peel 20:06, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The food was surprisingly good to the scale of the meeting. I wish tea and coffee were also available after lunch. And yes, I am sorry too for the vegetarians, kosher and halal eater, etc.
  • Food was simple, but good. Better that than fancy food that tastes like crap ;-) Multichill 17:41, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • More local (and less allegedly italian-like) food would be better.
  • the food was OK, but the token system was silly. Was there really any danger of running out? This just made things unnecessarily complicated. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • the worst problem with eating though was the lack of tables. I don't need to sit for my meal, but i do need a place to put the plate. that was very annoying. even more so when you got a table plus a bowl of soup. impossible to handle! -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Coffee wasn't served at lunch, only at the coffee breaks. --LA2 21:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • No drinks in the morning and in the evening. Due to the hot temperature, one could not only consider this an inconvenience but also a potential health risk (dehydration). Simply water would have been enough --Church of emacs 21:28, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The food was great. Agree with the lack of tables being annoying, though. --Mormegil 13:41, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • +1 It was great. I mentioned in the registration form that I eat halal/kosher food and I would have loved to have it, but I think that the availability of vegetarian food (which is both halal and kosher) was very good as one of the two main dishes was always vegetarian (or at least that I thought!)--OsamaK 16:53, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Food was awesome, good both in quality and quantity. I am sorry to our vegetalian friends though. Variety of drinks were also great, when they available. Missing free water in anytime is a real problem specially in hot days without air conditioning. If a budget demanded the choice either multiple options of drinks in set times or several water cooler set during the whole conference, I am for the latter. --Aphaia 19:01, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

T shirts

Badges

  • Very readable, but not enough of them for everyone: if you have vertical badges, then make sure you have enough badges to go around - handing out horizontal badges to latecomers didn't work too well (it resulted in lots of bend necks...)
  • Badges could have contained a flag of the country of the user. Interesting to see how many countries are present, and a way to find persons in your own language user 17:36, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • make double-sided badges when using lenyards. Looked at a lot of white backsides. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) 21:11, 13 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I want registration form to have a text field, so that every user can fill a badge with any information they want: username, legal name, affiliation, editcount :), languages, contacts, whatever. Also, as told above, they have to be double-sided, so one can’t accidentally turn a badge to non-informative side. — Kalan 00:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Considering they hadn't even been printed on the 7th I'm surprised that this largely worked. I like the suggestion of printing on both sides, and I'd like to add make the name or preferred name bigger, and give an option for "username and firstname" rather than force people to choose between username and "username and full name". WereSpielChequers 09:06, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Would be great to have the food and drink cards within the badge 'by default' (I didn't do that so I lost the food card).--OsamaK 16:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Badges are readable and I like its size. If it gives the home project name, it would be better, but generally I content but one thing: I don't like the way the organizer wrote my name on the badge, whose surname should be precedent to the given name, but them force me to follow Western way without given any alternate. I have been embarrassed about that. Wikimedia should not be a tool to push a certain culture to the others who don't belong to. Convenience of organizers not be a good excuse to write someone's name wrongly, in the way they have never used. --Aphaia 18:53, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Babel boxes on the badges is an idea for next year. Ainali 09:54, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Printed program

  • Having a program in paper without great changes is super, and I'd appreciate the organizers. I don't however think it was a good idea to omit Wikiquote (and Wikiversity) on the top page. Specially Wikiquote is the third biggest project, and has a polish version, I have no idea why they want not to include. I'd like to know how and why the organizer chose the projects and omit two. Thanks. --Aphaia 18:53, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Visa

  • Even after getting a scholarship, I couldn't attend Wikimania because I could not get Visa. I got the visa invitation letter from Poland very late (24th June) after many emails to WMF and Poland. Almost all Indian Wikipedians had this problem and we had to talk many times to the Consulate officer in India and he agreed to take our Visa application at the last moment. Luckily, except me all managed to get the Visa in time. I wish this was done well. But we are all volunteers in this. So, no hard feelings. Thanks for the organizing team at Poland.-Ravidreams 16:15, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I recollect my proposal (it was published at wikimania-l and apparently was ignored) to mark usernames or contacts of all people which are not allowed to get in (due to discrimination on the recipient side, of course); I have such script for wikimania2010 wiki. It is already almost useless this year but it should be performed systematically in next years. It will help for the future Wikimanias to choose venue sites properly. Last but not least, users from Moscow (except those who got visas from another Schengen states) spent many time and faced an indignity in the embassy of Poland in Moscow. Incnis Mrsi 11:34, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Accommodation

  • The first place I was sent to was wrong and I had to carry my stuff back to the office and be sent elsewhere. I think this was a common problem as I met several people who had similar experiences - some late at night. But where I did wind up was perfectly OK and only a 15 minute walk. Also it would be nice to get WiFi working in the hotels and dorms or get a bulk deal on mobile broadband WereSpielChequers 09:22, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I hadn't been assigned to any place when I arrived on thursday evening, but thanks to Marcin Cieslak everything was solved. Carry Bass also played an important role. I was sent to a nice hotel only 200 meters away from the venue, Parnas Hotel just across the bridge leading to the historic center. Nevinho 21:49, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dorm 6

  • Dorm #6 was really quite far away. I heard that they were allegedly "nicer", but for three nights, I would prefer a place closer more than nicer. Also, there was no internet, wired or wireless. --Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • On the Sunday I (and everyone else at dorm #6, as far as I know) was told to check out, and had to take our luggage to the venue and wait until the afternoon to know where we would sleep the following nights. The place I ended up at was Medical dorm #1, which was REALLY far away. This is pretty obviously not very good. --Brianna (pfctdayelise) 13:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Accomodation in dorm 6 was superb. On Sunday, we were sent to 'Baltic Hostel', a place at the other side of town where we really didn't want to stay. Luckily we stumbled upon some Polish students that arranged a bed for us in a student dorm. Very bad organised! user 16:34, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dorm 2

  • The net was broken in Dorm 2 from the second day. Tgr 18:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • The lady who worked at Dorm 2 reception Thursday evening and Monday morning didn't speak English, which resulted in a lot of confusion. (A few people almost had to pay for their rooms a second time.) Since there were at least two other employees working there on less busy day who spoke perfect English, this could surely have been avoided. Tgr 18:52, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I was in Dorm 2, and the ladies I saw at its reception spoke English to some extent. Not every communication went well, but they were always trying to manage issues in their capacity. The network in Dorm 2 worked until the 2nd day morning, but didn't in the 3day morning. During the conference no wi-fi was available in Dorm 2. I missed the net connection greatly - specially just before I would give my presentation :( --Aphaia 19:07, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Personal service and behaviour of the team

See also

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