EMWCon Spring 2020

Note: We, the organizers of EMWCon, are fully aware of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, and are still monitoring the situation. At the moment, we have no plans to cancel this conference. We do expect attendance to be sharply lower than originally expected: perhaps 10 people instead of the original estimate of 40. We still think this can make for a productive conference, with most of the 3-5 days of the event being turned over to a hackathon/Create Camp, in addition to probably one day of talks and presentations, and expected remote participation in both.

The Enterprise Mediawiki Conference Spring 2020, or EMWCon Spring 2020, will be held on April 1-3, 2020 in Sandusky, Ohio (50 miles west of Cleveland). EMWCon is a three-day conference featuring discussions of topics related to "Enterprise MediaWiki", i.e. the usage of MediaWiki software by and within companies, non-profits, governments, and other organizations. The intended audience of EMWCon Spring 2020 is anyone who uses, or would like to learn to more about, MediaWiki within organizations.

This year the conference will be preceded by an optional, informal two day hackathon on March 30 and 31.

Event details

 * Announcement: HERE
 * Date/time: 9 AM - 5 PM, April 1-3, 2020 (plus a hackathon on March 30-31)
 * Location:
 * Online:
 * Wednesday, April 1: https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/661574103
 * Thursday, April 2: https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/472555868
 * Friday, April 3: https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/374098335
 * In person:
 * Kalahari Resorts Sandusky, 7000 Kalahari Dr, Sandusky, OH 44870 (see Google map - but don't use this link to book! Use the link included later on this page)
 * Venue Map: https://www.kalaharimeetings.com/media/4347/oh-floorplan-capacity-chart.pdf
 * Chat URL: https://riot.im/app/#/room/#emwcon:matrix.org
 * Social media: Please use the hashtag #EMWCon
 * YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQVG_tuf3Q2fji-CwqEDRJpZuf23wevrq

Registration
To register for EMWCon, please go to the EMWCon Spring 2020 page at Eventbrite.

The cost for the three-day event is:


 * $450 - corporate rate
 * $150 - students and freelancers

(If you would be paying your own way, go with the lower rate. If your company or organization is paying, the corporate rate applies.)

Talks
Program coming soon

If you would like to give one or more talks, please put the talk title and your name below.


 * "Data Everywhere: Opportunities and Challenges for Enterprise MediaWiki" - Yaron Koren
 * "Maintaining your wiki: You know you have to" - Ike Hecht
 * Potential topics by Daren Welsh (I might be motivated by votes)
 * "Measuring Knowledge Management Success"
 * "Algorithms in Wikis"
 * "Structured Spaceflight Analog Testing in Wikis"
 * "Upcoming changes to MediaWiki" - Cindy Cicalese
 * "EMW for The Internet Court of Lies: Liecourt.com" - Bob Thibadeau, Ph.D.
 * Something Cargo/Lua - TBD if 1 or 2 talks - Megan
 * Site Reliability: monitoring and alerting in 3 easy steps - Greg Rundlett

Lightning talks
To give a short (5 minutes or so) lightning talk, plus put the title and your name below.
 * Mediawiker SublimeText plugin - why this is the best thing ever & how to set up - Megan
 * Project Teams – from Talking to Knowing - Stanley Gould

Create Camp
Suggested topics:
 * Getting started with Lua
 * Converting SMW structured data to Cargo & expanding on the Cargo vs. SMW comparison and Manual:Managing data in MediaWiki pages
 * Maybe also tinker with Wikibase (ref: small VM for testing Wikibase)

Technical Tour
We are planning to a provide a tour of NASA's Plum Brook Station:
 * details tbd

Pre-conference hackathon
For the first time, due to popular demand, the conference will be preceded by an optional, informal two-day hackathon. The hackathon will occur March 30 and 31. There is no cost to attend the hackathon if you are registered to attend the conference. There will be a conference room at the hotel for people to meet. Suggest topics that you would like to explore with other attendees, or just take the time to work side-by-side with other MediaWiki enthusiasts in a collaborative setting. The hackathon is not limited to the "traditional" definition of a hackathon.

Accommodations
The conference will take place at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. The Kalahari is a family-friendly "all-in-one" conference center, hotel and resort, featuring one of the world's largest water parks. Anyone who stays at the hotel gets free admission to the water park.

Please be sure to book your rooms at the Kalahari using the following link:

 https://book.passkey.com/e/50040957 

See the resort map here.

Getting there
The nearest major airports are Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), which is 50 minutes away by car, and Toledo Express Airport (TOL), which is about an hour away by car. There is also Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW), which is around two hours away by car.

If you are arriving at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, it may be possible to carpool with others to get to the Kalahari. If enough people arrive at a certain time, we may even be able to arrange one or more shuttles. If you would like to share a ride to the venue, please put your name and approximate arrival time below:

Sunday (March 29th)
 * Bryan Hilderbrand - 6:31pm (Renting a car)
 * Daren Welsh - 11:20am (riding with Bryan)
 * Vincent Brooks - 6:18pm (Rental car)

Monday (March 30th)



Tuesday (March 31st)

Sponsors
The sponsors of EMWCon are:

To become a sponsor, please contact Richard Evans at richard.k.evans@nasa.gov