Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2018-03-29/News and notes

Conference Announcements and updates
Wikimedia Conference 2018 will take place in Berlin 20 to 22 April, 2018 to discuss the administration and governance of the international Wikimedia community. Registration is closed. However, anyone who has questions, concerns, or requests for advocacy should seek a conversation with the Wikimedia community representatives who are registered and planning to attend. The conference has the most impact when wiki community members select good delegates every year and when those delegates go with good support from their community to advocate for regional and subject matter interests. Please contact and support your representatives with good wishes in advance of this conference. Expected attendance is 250 people.

Wikimedia Hackathon 2018 will take place 18 – 20 May 2018 in Barcelona. This is a technical conference for those wishing to participate in Wikimedia code development on the MediaWiki platform. Registration is closed. Anyone with concerns, questions, and requests about Wikimedia development should watch the program page as the schedule develops and contact presenters and attendees, who all encourage each other to receive and report comments and requests.

Wikimania 2018 will take place July 18-22, 2018 in Cape Town. This general interest Wikimedia conference seeks to present the highest impact and highest profile Wikimedia projects and concerns. General scholarship applications are closed although individual Wikimedia organizations may continue to post regional and special interest scholarships at Attend. Program submissions close on 18 March 2018 and the schedule will begin to be set in May. This conference has an expected attendance of 1000.

WikiConference North America will take place October 18-21, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. Usual programming at this event reflects the interests and projects of regional Wikimedia organizations and partipants, most of which focus on English Wikipedia and are relevant to Signpost readers. Neither scholarships nor program submissions are yet open, but interested persons may want to reserve the date. When scholarships are available they are offered only to people in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Anyone may join the planning by contacting organizers at the meta:WikiConference North America user group. Expected attendance is 300 people.

GLAMWiki Con will take place on November 3rd - 5th 2018, in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque venue, in Tel Aviv, Israel. The event seeks to encourage collaboration among Wikimedia community contributors sharing information from cultural institutions and outreach staff at cultural institutions who would like to share their expertise and media with the Wikimedia community and its audience. The call for submissions and the call for scholarship applications both open 18 March 2018. Expected attendance is about 150 people.

Steward election results announced
Wikimedia Stewards are the elected Wikimedia community members who have complete access to use and grant all userrights on all Wikimedia platforms. As such, these users go through the most strict community review which the Wikimedia community can organize while balancing that need to provide administrative support especially to underdeveloped and underserved Wikimedia projects. The 2018 election ended with the election committee posting results on 28 February. The Signpost welcomes user:There'sNoTime and user:Green Giant, both of whom have a home in English Wikipedia, along with Rxy from Japanese Wikipedia, -revi from Korean Wikipedia, and علاء from Arabic Wikipedia. There are now 34 stewards, all of whom are volunteers and all of whom have demonstrated extraordinary understanding, courtesy, and ability in Wikimedia projects. Anyone wishing to show gratitude can become more aware of Administration and the volunteers who assist in this area. Stewards and all administrators appreciate any volunteer who understand their role and make timely, well formatted requests for assistance whenever appropriate.

Brief notes

 * DSI at UVA appoints WiR In March 2018 the Data Science Institute at the University of Virginia announced that Lane Rasberry, user:bluerasberry, has joined as Wikimedian in Residence. In this role Lane will support university students, researchers, and faculty in engaging with Wikipedia, Wikidata, and other Wikimedia projects. Lane encourages any Wikimedia community members who wish to encourage and discuss Wikimedia institutional partnerships to participate in Wikimedia affiliate organizations and on-wiki discussion groups. Lane thanks Wiki Cascadia, Wiki NYC, Wiki Medicine, Wiki Education Foundation, and the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network for developing a discourse and environment which enables institutions to find value in collaborating with Wikimedia projects.
 * New affiliates: The Affiliations Committee announced the approval of this week's newest Wikimedia movement affiliate, which is Grŵp Defnyddwyr Cymuned Wicimedia Cymru or Wikimedia Community User Group Wales.
 * New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, user:Lourdes. After passing review Lourdes has become the first (and so far, the only) new administrator of 2018.