Wikimania 2008 press conference Press conference Thursday saw the start of the fourth International Wikimedia Conference, better known as Wikimania 2008. The conference is being held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library with conference facilities for multiple tracks as well as a grand hall where the opening ceremony and first presentation were held. Wikimedia Board Panel Speakers for the opening ceremony: His Excellency Dr. Ahmed Darwish , the Egyptian Minister of State for Administrative Development, Florence Devouard , the outgoing chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, Mohamed Ibrahim the active lead volunteer, who took the initiative of approaching Bibliotheca Alexandrina to collaborate on the bidding and the organization of Wikimania 2008 along with the enthusiastic local volunteers, and finally Jakob Voss head of the program committee. Florence Devouard spoke briefly about the library, comparing their goals with those of the Wikimedia Foundation and drawing a number of parallels. One of the projects hosted by the library is a mirror of the Internet Archive . As a surprise announcement, she revealed that the language subcommittee had approved the creation of a new Wikipedia version for Egyptian Arabic. Mohamed Ibrahim talked on how Alexandria winning the bid had significantly raised the profile of wiki projects within the Arab and African media. This was evidenced at a press conference held early that afternoon. Around six or seven TV crews were present along with at least 30 reporters. Despite not being Western media, the focus of questioning was on academic skepticism towards Wikipedia; the oft-repeated confusion between Wikia and the Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed when raised. Jimmy Wales gave a speech titled Freedom of speech, human rights, and free culture. In his speech he made a comparison between the Freedom House rating with the size of the Wikipedia in that language. He found a link between the two in the cases he examined. Category:Internet Category:Culture and entertainment Category:Education Category:Egypt Category 
Wikimania 2008 press conference Press conference Thursday saw the start of the fourth International Conference, better known as 2008. The conference is being held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library with conference facilities for multiple tracks as well as a grand hall where the opening ceremony and first presentation were held. Wikimedia Board Panel Speakers for the opening ceremony: His Excellency Dr. , the Egyptian Minister of State for Administrative Development, , the outgoing chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, Mohamed Ibrahim the active lead volunteer, who took the initiative of approaching Bibliotheca Alexandrina to collaborate on the bidding and the organization of Wikimania 2008 along with the enthusiastic local volunteers, and finally Jakob Voss head of the program committee. spoke briefly about the library, comparing their goals with those of the Wikimedia Foundation and drawing a number of parallels. One of the projects hosted by the library is a mirror of the . As a surprise announcement, she revealed that the language subcommittee had approved the creation of a new Wikipedia version for Egyptian Arabic. Mohamed Ibrahim talked on how Alexandria winning the bid had significantly raised the profile of wiki projects within the Arab and African media. This was evidenced at a press conference held early that afternoon. Around six or seven TV crews were present along with at least 30 reporters. Despite not being Western media, the focus of questioning was on academic skepticism towards Wikipedia; the oft-repeated confusion between and the Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed when raised. gave a speech titled Freedom of speech, human rights, and free culture. In his speech he made a comparison between the rating with the size of the Wikipedia in that language. He found a link between the two in the cases he examined. Category:Internet Category:Culture and entertainment Category:Education Category:Egypt Category :Wikimania 2008 Category:Computing Category:Science and technology Category:Africa Category:
D
Wikimedia
D
Wikimania
D
Ahmed Darwish
D
Florence Devouard
D
Florence Devouard
D
Internet Archive
D
Wikia
D
Jimmy Wales
D
Freedom House
A
:Wikimania 2008 Category:Computing Category:Science and technology Category:Africa Category: