Tagline and theme
The tagline and overall theme for this conference is "unity through good works."
After careful planning and feedback from over 30 Wikimedians from all over the world, we have decided on having a regional conference called the Conference of the Americas, which serves to unite the United States, Canada and Latin America and the work they do for free culture and Wikimedia, uniting in the common goal for knowledge to everyone, as it relates to their countries, societies, and languages. The tentative date we want to hold it is May 15-18, 2008, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I discussed the date with people involved with Wikimania as well as people in the office, and none of them felt it conflicted with Wikimania's date; in fact, all the people I talked to want to attend this conference and the one in Egypt.
National formats have worked well in Europe and Asia for years [...], but nothing on that scale has really had a concerted effort in the Western Hemisphere. I believe this is our time.
The Conference of the Americas will be dedicated to Wikimedia as well as the free culture movement, and how it relates to regular people and their everyday lives wherever they may live or what language they may speak. One idea I've been passionate about from the beginning was showing off the benefits of free knowledge and free culture as it relates to everyday people who may not otherwise know about these movements or organizations. The free culture movement and Wikimedia are wildly popular in the Americas; the United States and Canada are the #1 and #3 most avid readers and users of English-language projects according to Alexa, the widest number of contributors and visitors to Spanish Wikipedia and other projects come from Mexico, with Chile a close second, followed by Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, and Brazilian users comprise the majority on the Portuguese Wikipedia and on other Wikimedia projects in the Portuguese language. As far as free culture goes, the United States and Canada have long had thriving communities, with Latin America's community finally growing out of its infancy.
My image for the conference is to have one dedicated room for speakers who wish to talk about things that are universal across all projects and would relate to anyone, and then other rooms for American free culture issues and American users of Wikimedia, and the same for Canada and Latin America. As such, any attendee can sit in on another country or region's discussion, and gain a perspective they may not have considered, which is a valid criticism of American Wikimedia users, who usually are not aware of what's going on in other countries as far as free culture goes, or even on other Wikimedia projects. It fits very well into the theme of unity we wish to foster. In addition, Wikinews would like to put on a journalism conference with the help of Leonard Witt, Endowed Chair at Kennesaw State University and head of pjnet.org, and Turner Broadcasting, the company that owns CNN and other television networks in the U.S. and worldwide. Turner has graciously offered us a large auditorium for the conference, and they will bring in industry people to speak along with our own.
We would offer most of the talks in English, but options for presentations in French for Canada, and Spanish and Portuguese for Latin America would be welcomed with open arms, and on my end, would be more or less expected. We also want to do maybe live streaming video hookups of smaller events like meetups or day-long conferences with places across the continent, to continue in the unity theme. One is already planned at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I would like to eventually have the support to schedule local meetups that can be broadcast to us and vice versa, maybe one on the West Coast of the US, one in Canada, one in Mexico, one somewhere in South America. It's ambitious but me and my team have strong work ethics and know how to get things done.
The Conference of the Americas 2008 Atlanta Team
Proposed dates
Citizen Journalism Unconference - May 15 - Hosted by Leonard Witt pjnet.org
Main Conference of the Americas Events - May 16 - May 18.
Post-Conference Event - Carter Center - May 18.
VIP Party at Mary Mac's - TBA.
Information for sponsors
If you've relied on Wikimedia projects in the past, now is your chance to give back! A partnership with Conference of the Americas Atlanta will be mutually advantageous; your organization will be seen as friendly to interested technology professionals and researchers from around the world. Your partnership will be supporting Wikipedia's longstanding commitment to free and easily accessible knowledge for all.
Sponsorship Levels About us
Conference of the Americas Atlanta is a volunteer effort, primarily organized and run by Wikipedians in the Southeastern United States. There are about 30 volunteers from metro Atlanta, and 20 others willing to travel to assist with the event. These are our volunteers .
Of these volunteers, eight individuals are primarily responsible for the proposal, management, and organization of Conference of the Americas. This group consists of eight people, six men and two women. Five of the eight members live in Metro Atlanta and three do not, however they will travel as needed for preparations. Here is a bit of background on the strengths and qualifications each team member brings to the conference:
Andrew Guyton
Andrew Guyton is an undergraduate Computer Science student at Georgia Tech, and an employee of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). He is also a skilled writer and copy editor for The Technique, Georgia Tech's student newspaper. He has lived in Atlanta since August 2004, and brings his contacts from his WikiProject, Georgia Tech, and GTRI.
Andrew is a 2004 graduate of the International Baccalaureate program at Pensacola High School, receiving "highest honors." In high school, he was particularly involved in Mu Alpha Theta, and attended numerous competitions.
Andrew is most active on the English Wikipedia, where he has made about 20,000 edits since February 2006. He is the founder of WikiProject Georgia Tech, which has produced a strong community of Georgia Tech Wikimedians and featured content such as Tech Tower. Andrew also has accounts on commons and meta.
You can contact Andrew Guyton at
Andrew.Guyton@cota-atlanta.org .
Craig Spurrier
Craig Spurrier brings a technical background as well as media experience to the Conference of the Americas team.
He is a Wikinews bureaucrat, a Wikibooks and Meta admin and a steward. Spurrier attended Wikimania 2006 and 2007. As a Wikinewsie he covered both Wikimanias. He spoke at Wikimania 2007, served on the Wikimania awards jury, as well as assisting with press coordination.
Spurrier works as a computer consultant specializing in web application and embedded system development. He is lead developer for several open source programs. He has system administration experience with a wide variety of Unix and Windows servers.
He is in his fourth year at the University of South Carolina Aiken, pursuing a degree in sociology. He lives a few hours away in South Carolina, but can travel as needed to Atlanta for preparations.
You can contact Craig Spurrier at
Craig.Spurrier@cota-atlanta.org .
Dan Rosenthal
Bio coming soon.
Geoff Swanstrom
Bio coming soon.
Hillary Lipko
Hillary Lipko brings an attention to detail, a strong background in project management and nearly 10 years of print and online publishing experience to the Conference of the Americas team. She hopes to provide a polished and professional face to the conference's content and appearance and would devote the same care to the conference's production should Atlanta be selected. Lipko is a fifth-year Public Policy undergraduate at Georgia Tech and is also pursuing dual minors in Computer Science and Law, Science & Technology.
An experienced researcher, writer and editor, Lipko has interned with the Office of Policy Analysis and Research (OPAR) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and with the Georgia General Assembly as a technology policy analyst. She has also worked for the Technique in a number of positions over the past five years, at times managing a staff of 25 or more writers. Prior to this, Lipko worked as a freelance journalist and web designer, having designed her first website at age 12 and submitted her first article for print at age 15.
Lipko's experience with planning events includes the Technique's annual homecoming alumni event, attended by approximately 20 individuals each year, and OPAR's inaugural Legislative Roundtable event, held in November 2006 and attended by over 100 researchers, students, faculty, businesspeople and legislators. The latter event resulted in the proposal of specific legislation pertaining to Georgia's non-participation in certain provisions of the REAL ID Act in the Georgia General Assembly's 2007 regular session.
Lipko has resided in Midtown Atlanta since 2003 and has lived in the Atlanta area since 1993. Prior to that, she lived in a variety of other places as a result of her father's work with the United States Air Force and United States Navy. Her travels in this regard as well as her other travels have given her an astute awareness of the kinds of information and assistance that are necessary for first-time visitors to any locale. She also speaks and reads French at an intermediate level and can provide basic assistance to non-English speakers in that language.
Lipko is most active on the English Wikipedia where she has actively edited as a registered user since February 2006 and as an occasional anonymous contributor since early 2004. She also has accounts on Meta and Commons.
You can contact Hillary Lipko at
Hillary.Lipko@cota-atlanta.org .
Jessica Gibson
Jessica Gibson has just graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in International Affairs. She is currently enjoying her first time off from work in several years by doing applications for grad school, working on Georgia Tech's production of Macbeth, assisting in running a Model UN conference for Georgia Tech, and doing research on analyzing various approaches to doing mass-casualty emergency planning.
Jessica has spent the last several years planning and running Georgia Tech's annual high school Model UN Conference (GTMUN). GTMUN brings around 800 high school students from all over the Southeast to the Georgia Tech campus for two days of debate and discussion. In her various roles she has focused largely on logistical planning, event management, scheduling, and was responsible for a wide variety of leadership and project management tasks. She has significant experience in stage management for various theatrical productions. On Wikipedia, she does disambiguation when she has free time.
To COTA Atlanta, she brings her enthusiasm and experience in event planning and management, her connections around Georgia Tech, and her ability to organize people and events.
You can contact Jessica Gibson at
Jessica.Gibson@cota-atlanta.org .
Matt Britt
Matt Britt is currently an undergraduate at Georgia Tech finishing a B.S. in electrical engineering. He hopes to be an electrical engineering graduate student at Georgia Tech by Fall 2008 is held. Matt currently works as a research assistant in the compound semiconductor group helping design and fabricate RF and high-power electronics and optoelectronics, which somewhat explains the fancy suit. Further information on his research focus can be found on his PI's website.
Matt is an administrator on English Wikipedia and had edited there since sometime in mid-2004, though he is currently mostly retired for personal and ideological reasons. Having lived in metro Atlanta most of his life, Matt brings local experience and numerous contacts in Georgia Tech's OIT (computer support group), ECE (electrical/computer engineering), and MiRC (microelectronics fabrication facilities) departments to the table. He has years of public speaking experience due to his religious affiliations, as well as teaching experience with Georgia Tech's Computer Science department. Despite typical perceptions surrounding his major field of study, Matt fancies himself capable of producing intelligible prose and enjoys Pope and Johnson as much as photolithography and junction theory.
You can contact Matt Britt at
Matt.Britt@cota-atlanta.org .
Mike Halterman
Mike Halterman , originally from Pensacola, Florida, brings ingenuity, dedication and persistence to the Conference of the Americas team, particularly in the field of public relations. He became interested in knowledge at a young age, being most interested in travel guides, maps, and other geography-related books. In 1999 he was a national finalist at the National Geography Bee in Washington, D.C., representing the European and Asian branches of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools. For this achievement, he earned recognition from the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and the Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper.
A 2004 graduate of the International Baccalaureate program at Pensacola High School, Halterman received "highest honors" at the commencement ceremony for his high grade point average, and was actively involved in the National Forensic League and the Quill and Scroll Journalism Honor Society; he holds lifetime memberships in both organizations. He is in his fourth year at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, pursuing a degree in print journalism.
Halterman is most active on the English Wikipedia, where he has edited since June 2004, and has been an administrator since September 2004. He is also registered on the Simple English Wikipedia, the French Wikipedia, the Japanese Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, English Wikinews, and Meta-Wikimedia. Since June 2007 he has been an intern at the Wikimedia Foundation offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, holding the volunteer title of Communications Coordinator. In that capacity, Halterman organizes and coordinates press contacts who wish to correspond with the Wikimedia Foundation.
Halterman has had experience with planning events, including the June 2007 St. Petersburg Wikipedia meetup, which approximately 20 to 25 people attended, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. He has had previous job experience with ChoicePoint, the Sam and Martha Gibbons Alumni Center at the University of South Florida, The Oracle, and with the University's Residence Life department. He has also been offered an internship at Soap Opera Digest, which he had to refuse due to financial constraints.
Since first arriving in Atlanta on a vacation in April 2005, Halterman has returned no less than seven times, and is familiar with the city and its businesses.
You can contact Mike Halterman at
Mike.Halterman@cota-atlanta.org .
Volunteer
Conference of the Americas is a volunteer-driven effort, and our list of volunteers is growing every day! If you are interested in volunteering to either help organize or help run the event, please add your name in the appropriate section on our list of team members . We also recommend that you join our Facebook event if you are interested in helping out, so that we can keep you up-to-date with what's going on. We promise we won't spam you.
Media
View the official press release about COTA Atlanta.
Visión del comunicado de prensa oficial acerca de COTA Atlanta en español .
Contact us
team@cota-atlanta.org
Thanks to:
