Wikimania 2014 – London

Wuselig

Joined 26 January 2014
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Wuselig, already under close instpection in London

Where I will be staying

St. Paul's Youth Hostel, 36 Carter Lane, Tel 0845-3719344; Tube: St. Paul's or Blackfriars

My Wikimania Diary

July 12, 2014

Attending Wikipedia:Prä-Wikimania-Treffen_2014 in Berlin.

August 1, 2014

Getting ready: Just downloaded Transport for London Journeyplanner to my mobile phone.

Saturday, August 2

  • 09:39 Dortmund-Dorstfeld Gleis 6 S 2
  • 09:52 Dortmund Hbf Gleis 7 IC 2013, Wg. 10, Pl. 43, 1 Gang, Großraum
  • 11:43 Köln Hbf Gleis 5 ICE 16, Wg. 21, Pl. 81, 1 Fenster, Großraum

Waiting at the Terminal at Bruxelles-Midi We are sitting an waiting all biding our time. A lady approaches and ask if the seat next to me is open. I say yes, it has been kept open just for you. She strikes up a conversation right away. Small Talk, and yet for the common German quite intamit. Where are you going? Have you been to london often? Where are you from. Do you like that part of Germany? She has been to Weiden and Bayreuth. Has been to the Wagner Festival. Do you like Wagner? Than the gate opens and we depart to our coaches. Have a nice trip, enjoy your stay! In the train I come to sit next to a young man, our statisticans would say the „Typical Wikipedian“, so I try to strike up a conversation. Are you going to London for fun or busniess? He says he will stay just for five days. Well, no Wikipedian. He isn't very talkative either.

  • 14:52 Bruxelles-Midi Eurostar EST 9141, Wg. 14, Pl. 71, 1 Fenster

Travel at Flightlevel-Zero Pas de Calais, north of Lille. The Eurostartrain is travelling at top speed through the French part of Flandres. How peaceful the scenery outside. It is August 2, 100 years later. I had that thought earlier, when we travelled through Liege in Belgium. We are passing a hill with a stone tower on top. An old castle? This is Barbara Tuchmann Country. The landscape of both of her great books. For Henry IV. We would be in England already. But no, just now we are entering the tunnel. Now this is like going on the airplane after all. When we acend on the other side, the new landscape will be a surprise after all. Not like the gradual changes up to here.

Wow, that was a short ride thru the tunnel. So this is England? Must be, the cars on the road are all driving on the wrong side. Appart from this, you can't see much yet. It is one of these typicall new high-speed rail lines. Well, the weather could be better, but I don't want to fall into stereotypes.

  • 16:03 Arrival London St. Pancras International
  • Take a direct Train to City Thameslink from Platform A and take a short walk to St. Paul's
  • Check in at Hostel
  • 17:30 Walk to and accross Millenium Bridge and up along the Thames a bit.
  • Tate Modern (open Saturday's till 22:00
  • Golden hour: 19:58 - 20:47 pm
  • Blue hour: 21:04 - 21:53
  • Civil twilight 20:47 - 21:27


Sunday, August 3

After a good hearty English Breakfast I set out on walk thru the quiet little streets behind the hostel towards Fleet Street and Lincolns Inn Fields. The Sir_John_Soane's_Museum was unfortuately closed on Sundays. A sign said to come back on Tuesday. Well, the British Museum being just around the corner, I went there. After spending three hours on the first floor and contracting a bad case of broworn vase nausea, when walking thru the “Greeks in Italy Room” I decided to call it a break. The ground floor will be left for another time. Since the [Indian Restaurant I had picked out was close to the museum I decided to go there. The recommendation I had gotten was worth it. I then decided to walk up Oxford Street. This time a real bad idea. With millions of Sunday shoppers it was just tiring. After a short stop at Speaker's Corner, I have now lain me down to rest my weary legs on the grass in Hyde Park. And to write this short notice. When I drove back by Bus an Tube I couldn't imagine how much I actually walked today.

Monday, August 4

Took the train out to Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. It is a very beautiful temple regarding the architecture and the stone carvings. But it ia also a very sanitized affair and very well structured and organized. Well perhaps I am spoiled by Sri-Kamadchi-Ampal-Tempel in Hamm, Germany, where the "almost like India" spirit comes across stronger, or so I think at least. I did buy some Bombay mix in the attached supermarket. I also had a buffet lunch in the restaurant next door.

I then drove back to town and headed for the Victoria and Albert Museum. So much to see - so little time. And I did have to spend some time in the beautiful garden. I even had a lemonade there. Perhaps the most expensive I have enjoyed in my life, but then, there is no entrance fee to the museum. At closing time I walked past the Royal Albert Hall to the Albert Memorial just to take in the rest of the afternoon sun.

I took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus, to take in the crowd there, but also to try some Blue Hour Photography. Pretty tricky, because the illuminated Billbord is so bright, you have to shut down the shutter to such a high degree, the surounding will become tt dark. Well, we will see what Photshop can do. I tried to walk back to St. Paul, but finally at Holborn my feet gave out and I took the last leg by Tube again. Nice to have a handy Oyster card.


Tuesday, August 5

  • Since it was closed Sunday and Monday, I went to the Sir_John_Soane's_Museum first thing in the morning. I was one of the first in, and after 3 hours I knew I didn't regret it. Sir John Soane was a renowned architect of his time and also a great collector and teacher. Since i lieked to teach from home he arranged his collection arround his house. Because it got bigger and bigger he found - as an architect ingenious ways to present them. With the use of skylights and courtyards between the three houses he converted into a single mansion he managed to bring daylight even to the basement. Or he would arrange paintings in moveable panels, like medieval altarpieces, again opening up to new rooms with additional light, or with interesting perspectives, that will lead the eye from antique Herculaneum to the Venice of Canaletto. It is a Wunderkammer if I ever saw one. Okay technically not, because his collection was scientific and didn't include the fancy stuff, like unicorn horns and such. They didn't allow photographs in the museum and for once even I could find at least some sympathy with the reason given. First it would disrupt the visit for other visitors, but the most compelling reason was, that they don't want to advertise the existence of this museum too much, because it can handle just so many visitors at a time. So take this as a word of mouth advertising only.
  • After a little rest on the lawn of Lincoln Inns Field, together with hundreds of young students in their noon break, I walked to Covent Garden for some tourist doging and something to eat on the side.
  • Since the Covent Garden Tube Station was closed, and there was an interesting bookstore on the way to Leicester Square I only just made it in Time to Evensong in Westminster Abbey.
  • A walk along the Thames Embankment I cut off, due too my tired feet.

Wednesday, August 6

Hadn't set the alarm-clock today. Still the bell of St. Paul's did this job efficiently. After breakfast I decided to walk down the Thames, my goal beeing having a look at the WW I commemorative installation in the moat, with the poppies. The trip took longer than expected. I was "held up" at the Southwark Cathedral. They asked no entence fee, only a modest contribution and they handed out photopermits. Well so I did, what I like to do most, photograph monuments or their interior.

Just behind the Cathedral there is an extraordinarry market focusing on bio-organic products. They even sell proper german bread.

City Hall, Tower Bridge and the wharfs gave many more photoopportunities. Outside the Tower it was tourist doging again, but who am I to complain, am I not one of them? The poppy-installation (each poppy is to symbolize a fallen soldier in the Great War and will grow until it fills the whole moat around the Tower until November 11) is already very impressive.

With the Tube I than drove to Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum is so diverse and a bit more on to the historic periods of my interest, I wanted to see more. During the visit I ran nout of battery power on my camera - I was already using the replacement battery. This gave me time to enjoy another lemonade in the court. After all, the expected rain still has not come and the sun was still so inviting. Without beeing held up by photography I took the time to discover a few further areas of the museum. The paintings, the tapestries, the area about performing arts. I just took in the athmosphere, soaking in nostalgia for my next visit. And then there were the areas I just walked past, like Japanese Art or the Jewellery section.

On my way back to the hostel I picked up some Fish and Chips with vinagar as a take-out and ate it at a bench outside St. Pauls. After that it was a quiet evening at the hostel. Saving my images to the harddrive, checking mail and keeping up on my watchlists.

In the longer ride in the Tube back to "Mansion" Station I had time to browse through the Evening Standard left on my seat. An article by "Kamer, "Help! I'm a Wiki-geek" caught my eye. A reference to Wikimania and a tongue in cheek satire about self-editing his own article an giving advise to celebrities on how to do this right.

Thursday, August 7

  • 10:00 - Registration on site

First talk with an international Wikipedian. I am not going into names and nationalities, but it was a non stop dialogue of a woman on a mission, trying to tell me that volunteer work is inefficient and unethical by those that make money of our works. Well if she should have a point, she won't get it accross to her audience by texting this audience to death.

  • 11:00 Barbican Tour: Tour was more than necessary, because the Barbican is a labyrinth. But I guess once one has found all the shortcuts, it will become quite interessting. With tehe skywalks it is even very easy to get accross the area to get quickly to the Hostle.
  • 12:00- Museum of London Another of these interessting museums, I saw just 2/3 of. Well it is close to the conference, so who knows?
  • 16:00 - 17:30 Meeting of the German Participants to Wikimania at the William Blake: Nice meeting with the whole bunch, just before we pledged to not talk to any Germans anymore.
  • 18:00 - 19:00 Welcome Reception; food & drink in the foyer: First migling with the international crowd, over self-made hamburgers. Interspersed with the occasional short interuption by fellow German editors. Well at least we are conversing in English, when others are present.
  • 19:00 - 20:30 Barbican Hall: Opening ceremony; Greetings from: Jimmy Wales and Lila Tretikov; Opening keynotes: The Speaker of Amnesty International.: The usual greet and thank talks, and a bit of aren't we all great. Than we sang Happy Birthday to Jimmy Wales, and he told us how all the potential good press Wikipedia got for its transparency report turned into Monkey Business. Lila came across for a slow start, but by comparing her first difficult steps in the Wikipedia World with the difficulties other new users of Wikipedia would have and that it will be the emphasis of her work to make the use and handling of Wikipedia easier to new users, gets my assumption of good faith for the moment.
  • 20:30 - 22:00 Barbican Hall: A concert of traditional British music: Since the next few days wil be tough, I cut this part of the programm short. But now the discussions continue at the Hostel, as other participants are now dropping in.

Friday, August 8

  • 10:00 - 11:00 Workshop I: Submissions/How to produce video & audio files for Wiki projects, for instance interviews: Andrew Lih, because Jan is miossing. Britannica and Britannica are better.. BBC 5 shot method. Close-up of the hand. 2. the face. 3. Wide shot. 4 Over the shoulder. 5. unusual alternative.. 3-4 sec. each.(see Wiki makes Videos. Kdianlive for editting.Converting tools: Holger Münster showa Commons Video Convert. At last: Manuel Schneider regarding an Upload Server.
Nothing realy new about the problem. But there is light on the horizon in the fact that they are trying to make these informations machine readable. (Commons Maschine)
Matthias Schindler mentions the "Lizensverweisgenerator"
  • 13:30 - 14:30 Lunch
  • 14:00 - 16:00 Free Culture II - Conflict: Submissions/Which Law Applies to Wikipedia? Tobias Lutzi Whow, he is really structured. There are no way to avoid the application of US Law. Enthusiastic applaus for a very stringent, and also lively presentation. Looking forward to the online presentation. Okay, we can't do without the Monkey Selfy.
Submissions/Legal Demands: The Good, The Bad, & The Just Plain Wrong How does the Foundation handle Takedown notices. DMCA. No you can't copyright a complete language.
Submissions/Common grounds for battle, or is the Commons still common?
  • 16:00 - 16:30 Break
  • 16:30 - 18:00 Free Culture III - Heritage: Submissions/The URAA, Copyright Terms, and the Wikimedia Projects
  • 18:00 - 18:15 Break
  • 18:15 - 18:45 Got myself some salads and protein at the restaurant-buffet, because we hadn't been fed or offered drinks since lunch.
  • 19:00 - Commons:Photowikimeetup in London during Wikimania 2014: looking at the satellite data, I decided to not go along, since the group decided on the fair weather tour. Well as I am writing this in the Hostel it is raining outside. Well let the guys with the big cameras make the beautiful nightshts with the lights reflectiong on the wet pavement.
  • Golden hour: 19:45 - 20:37
  • Blue hour: 20:53 - 21:40
  • Civil twilight 20:37 - 21:16
  • Moonrise: 18:36 pm (94.8%) highest elevation around 23:00

Planning ahead

Saturday, August 9

  • 10:30 - 11:00 Forbisher 123:Creative ways to alienate women online-how to guide for Wikipedians
  • 11:00 - 11:30 Break
  • 11:30 - 13:00
  • 13:00 - 14:30 Lunch
  • 14:30 - 16:00
  • 16:00 - 16:30 Break
  • 16:30 - 18:00 Fountain Room-Free Culture VI Liquid Lobbying - How should Wikimedia advocate for free knowledge (90 mins.), if that should get too boring move to Boardroom - Discussion VIII What topics are relevaqnt/notable (45 mins.)

Mass article creation - who should write Wikipedia? (45 mins.)

Sunday, August 10

Monday, August 11

  • 15:04: London St. Pancras International EST 9140, 1 Sitzplatz, Wg. 5, Pl. 78, 1 Fenster
  • 18:25 Bruxelles-Midi Gleis 5; ICE 19, Wg. 21, Pl. 42, 1 Fenster, Großraum
  • 20:49 Köln Hbf Gleis 4; RE 10139
  • 22:23 Dortmund Hbf S 1
  • 22:25: Ankunft Dortmund-Dorstfeld

Where I want to eat

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