Skip to the main content

Boston will host Wikimania 2006

(Reporting live from SJ Klein's blog) On Saturday, Boston was chosen by an 11-person jury to be the host city for next summer's Wikimedia conference (aka Wikimania 2006).  The week-long event on global collaboration and free knowledge is being sponsored primarily by HLS's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.   Over 50 speakers and 600 attendees from around the planet are expected to attend - an energetic mix of Wikimedia contributors; wiki maintainers and developers; academic researchers in law, technology, and sociology; and librarians, educators, and entrepreneurs.  You can see part of last year's program and schedule on the old Wikimania website.

The decision followed a month-long bid process that culminated in a deadlocked jury and a week of overtime deliberation.  The two finalist bids, for Boston and Toronto, were both so strong that a jury vote earlier this month was inconclusive.  After asking for more information from both bids and from the global Wikimedia community, a second vote this past weekend was 5 - 4 in favor of Boston, with 2 abstentions.

For more information, please check out SJ's blog post.