This week, the Signpost brings you a brief update on the themes of the Wikimania 2006 program. Registration for Wikimania is ongoing in 5 languages at http://wm06reg.wikimedia.org ; sign up soon to reserve a room on-campus. A public announcement is available for release.

The program for Wikimania 2006 is now in the final stages of planning. A diverse program is taking shape, consisting of presentations, panels, workshops, invited speakers and informal discussion sessions. The program will have a number of concurrent sessions each day, plus a discussion track — with multiple presentations and workshops happening at the same time.

Several themes will be highlighted in the program. These include the Wikimedia projects, their status and future; case studies of the challenges involved in starting a new wiki; wikis in education, with its own half-day track; new and ongoing wiki technologies and related technologies, such as the semantic web; and the future of free knowledge production and sharing, including analyses of the challenges faced in producing knowledge with wikis and a panel on how traditional encyclopedias are produced. There will be also sessions focused on non-Wikimedia projects, such as wikis in the corporate world and related projects in the developing world; as well as sessions about copyright, free licenses and Wikipedia and the future of free content.

Some workshops and discussions planned for Wikimania include:

• Introductions to Wikimedia projects (e.g., for Wikisource, Wiktionary & WiktionaryZ, Wikipedia)
• Research techniques -- using library and Internet sources
• Research overview -- research about Wikipedia, its community, and tech developments
• Semantic Wikipedia -- the Semantic Web and using Wikipedia content in other contexts
• An overview of copyright -- origins and current practice
• Freeing the curriculum -- working towards a vision for wikis in education
• Encyclopedia production -- how traditional encyclopedias are produced
• Wikipedia 1.0 -- building stability and trust, validating quality
• Fighting vandalism -- techniques and tricks
• Criticism of Wikipedia -- what is being said and done
• MediaWiki Hacking -- techniques, ideas, and do's and don'ts

Sessions of poster and lightning talks are also planned. There will be a number of posters, which will hang the entire conference and will provide an opportunity to look at and discuss new ideas, wikiprojects and non-Wikimedia projects, research studies, and prototype designs. Lightning talks will provide a way to learn about new projects and get updates on wikiprojects in a short and focused format. These talks are 5 minutes long, and will be grouped together with a question and answer session afterwards.

Discussion sessions will focus on topics ranging from the multiplicity of Wikimedia languages and cultures, to consensus and dispute resolution, to the role of Wikimedia projects for various groups such as educators and librarians.

Finally, there will be room set aside for discussions planned on site. Sign-up sheets and other materials will be provided; all attendees are encouraged to bring their ideas for informal discussions. These sessions may be shared and discussed ahead of time. The program committee is also still accepting ideas for posters and lightning talks, particularly those focused on the Wikimedia projects, their status, challenges and future plans. For more information, contact cfp <<at>> wikimedia.org. All participants in the conference are encouraged to discuss conference topics and presentations online and to bring their questions and ideas to the conference.

Next week: other international Wikimedia meetups happening this year.

Please send news or information about other meetups to the authors. Stay tuned for more program news and profiles of invited speakers, in the coming weeks.