EMWCon Spring 2018

The Enterprise MediaWiki Conference Spring 2018, or EMWCon Spring 2018, will be held March 21-23 in Houston, TX. 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 2018 is anyone who uses, or would like to learn more about, MediaWiki within organizations.

This is the third EMWCon. EMWCon began as a spinoff of the Semantic MediaWiki Conference, or SMWCon, which is an annual conference held each fall in Europe. EMWCon and SMWCon are both three-day conferences with similar topics of discussion, though EMWCon has a broader scope.



Event details

 * Photo of the Houston Technology Center from Pierce and Bagby in Midtown.jpgDates: Wed-Fri, March 21-23 2018
 * Times: 9:00am - 5:00pm
 * Location: Main Campus of the
 * Houston Technology Center (HTC) map street parking wiki.
 * 410 Pierce Street
 * Houston, TX 77002
 * (713) 658-1750
 * Entrance to the Houston Technology Center in Midtown.jpg
 * Photo of the Houston Technology Center from Pierce and Brazos.jpg
 * Chat: Nuvola apps chat.png EMWCon Houston 2018 Group Chat (Telegram)
 * Twitter: #EMWCon
 * Videos: playlist (EMWCon channel on YouTube)

Organizers
The organizers of EMWCon Spring 2018 are:
 * General Chair: Mark Hershberger
 * Local Chair: Frank Taylor
 * Registration Chair: Yaron Koren
 * Program Chair: Ginger Hershberger
 * Create Camp Chair: James Montalvo
 * Video Chair: Greg Rundlett
 * Chair Emeritus: Cindy Cicalese

Registration
To register for EMWCon, please go to the EMWCon Spring 2018 page at Eventbrite.

The cost for the three-day event is:


 * $424.35 - standard rate
 * $160.41 - students and freelancers

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

Sign-up
Also, feel free to add your name to the informal registration signup, below:
 * 1) Peter J. Woudsma, NATO
 * 2) Lex Sulzer, dataspects
 * 3) Wolfgang Fahl, BITPlan/ProfiWiki (Unfortunately had to cancel last minute)
 * 4) Yaron Koren
 * 5) Bryan Hilderbrand
 * 6) Mark A. Hershberger
 * 7) Cindy Cicalese
 * 8) Greg Rundlett eQuality Technology
 * 9) Daren Welsh
 * 10) Costa Mavridis, NASA/SGT
 * 11) Evita Hollis
 * 12) Tony Mallia, Edmond Scientific
 * 13) Ad Strack van Schijndel, Wikibase Solutions
 * 14) Ben Fletcher
 * 15) Frank Taylor
 * 16) Billy Coffield
 * 17) Michael Barylak
 * 18) Chris Koerner
 * 19) Ike Hecht, WikiWorks
 * 20) Vincent Brooks NASA/Cimarron
 * 21) Erik Biegert NASA/Leidos
 * 22) Rich Evans, NASA-GRC
 * 23) Gergő Tisza
 * 24) David Strine
 * 25) Jared Olson NASA/SGT
 * 26) Ginger Hershberger
 * 27) Sabine Melnicki, WikiAhoi
 * 28) James Montalvo
 * 29) Brian Wolff
 * 30) Greg Anderson, NASA/SGT

Lightning talks
To give a lightning talk, just add the proposed title and your name, below:
 * MediaWiki vs. Confluence - Greg Rundlett (Wednesday)
 * Learning from Airtable - Yaron Koren (Wednesday)
 * MediaWiki and the European GDPR (datencockpit.at) – Sabine Melnicki (Thursday)
 * MediaWiki vs. SharePoint - Tony Mallia (Thursday)
 * Maybe room for another? (Thursday)

Create Camp ideas
Etherpad: https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/CreateCamp18

Add your ideas for Create Camp activities below:
 * 1) Add filtering to the Wiretap extension
 * 2) Add rollovers (see example) to the ImageMap extension
 * 3) Add a new field type, "Rating", to the Cargo extension
 * 4) Improve documentation for the meza application
 * 5) Create some SMW showcase examples with documentation on the creation process at the enterprisemediawiki.org demo wiki
 * 6) Notify VisualEditor users about session expiration BEFORE it expires
 * 7) * https://www.ssa.gov/accessibility/bpl/bps/forms/timeout/default.htm
 * 8) make two wikis with a common custom namespace function like a single wiki (508??? Compliance)
 * 9) * one is open and all standard namespaces act as normal, but custom namespace redirects user automatically to 2nd wiki which is closed (i.e. protected)
 * 10) * second wiki does the reverse. all normal namespaces redirect to the 1st (open) wiki, and only the cusotom namespace is editable (if you are an approved user)

Local accommodations
METRO is the agency for public transportation in Houston, Texas. The services include the bus and the light rail. A handy way to pay the fare of $1.25 for three hours is the Q Card.

Social activities

 * The conference dinner, which is included in the cost of the conference, will be Thursday evening at Hugo's.


 * Conference attendees may choose to go in small groups to local eateries for dinner on Wednesday night.
 * The conference venue is about a 30 minute drive from NASA's Johnson Space Center. Attendees may choose to visit Space Center Houston, the official visitor center of the Johnson Space Center. Sign up below if you would like to visit Space Center Houston with other conference attendees Saturday after the conference. The cost of entry into Space Center Houston is not included in the cost of the conference.


 * Visit Space Center Houston on Saturday:
 * 1) Neus López Mata
 * 2) Gergő
 * 3) Lex
 * 4) Sabine
 * 5) Cindy
 * 6) Nancy
 * 7) Brian
 * 8) David Strine