This week, the Signpost takes a look at some other international meetups happening this year.

The second MANIA column on 17 April, 2006 profiled the history of Wikimedia Meetups and Wikimania. This column takes a look at three large international Wikimedia meetups planned in 2006 other than Wikimania: Wikipedia Academy, Chinese Wikimedia Conference 2006, and Wikimedia Conference Netherlands.

The "Wikipedia Academy" will be held 16 June and 17 June, 2006, in Göttingen, Germany. It is conceived of as a way to teach academics, students, teachers and others more about Wikipedia and how they can participate. The event was first discussed in September 2005, and is being run by members of Wikimedia Deutschland. The program for the event, which includes lectures, workshops, and panels, is now available. For more information email info<<at>>wikipedia-academy.de.

There will be a conference for Chinese-speaking Wikimedians on 26 August and 27 August, 2006 in Hong Kong. It was announced on 14 March on Wikinews, and was discussed on the Foundation-L mailing list in mid-March. Discussions about having a conference were begun in Taipei in late 2005; Hong Kong was chosen as the city for the event after a vote and discussion. The conference is being organized by an organizing group, chaired by KaurJmeb; and a local Hong Kong organizing group, chaired by users chpapa and lorenzarius.

The purpose of this international gathering is to provide a way for Chinese-speaking Wikimedians to talk in person about the issues faced by the Chinese Wikimedia projects. The conference will enable contributors to meet in person and communicate more effectively, as well as benefiting those who are unable to travel abroad to Wikimania. It is also hoped that by having the meetup just three weeks after Wikimania, individuals who are able to attend both conferences will be able to report back on Wikimania to the Chinese community. Finally, the conference aims to promote Wikimedia projects in Hong Kong. It is hoped that the conference will provide a chance for editors from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other areas to meet. While there have been local meetups for the Chinese community, this will be the first regional meetup, and is the first time the Chinese community has collaborated on producing such an event.

The two-day program will consist of six presentations and eight workshops and discussions. Presentations are targeted towards the general public, while workshops and discussions are aimed towards Wikimedia contributors. Topics will include Wikipedia, Wikimania, copyright and free knowledge, and government, education and the media. The planning committee is also still looking for presenters. Sponsors of the event include Red Hat and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), which is providing the venue and audiovisual equipment. There will be a low entrance fee of around HK$50 (roughly US$6.40). For more information, contact lorenzarius.

On 2 September, 2006, the Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland (VWN), the Dutch Wikimedia Association, is planning a regional conference to be held in the Netherlands, the "Wikimedia Conferentie Nederland" (or WCN for short). It is hoped that this meetup will be a chance for Dutch-speaking members of the Wikimedia projects to share ideas and brainstorm in their native language, as well as meet and get to know each other. Others are also welcome, however, and there may be presentations in other languages, although the majority of the content will be in Dutch. The organizers are also still looking for presenters. They hope to cover the spectrum of Wikimedia projects with the presentations, as well as have a number of workshops or Birds of a Feather discussions.

The main sponsor of this event is Kennisnet, a Dutch organization that provides an Internet portal for education information in the Netherlands.

This meetup was first discussed in a meeting on 31 October, 2005, following the first Wikimania conference, and was originally nicknamed "Wikimania Reloaded". Since that time, the idea has developed, with a planning committee formed in February 2006. The location of the conference is not yet set, but will be centrally located in the Netherlands. For more information, please leave a note on the WCN pages or email wcn<<at>>wikimedia.org.

In addition to these larger meetups, other local and regional meetups are constantly occurring around the world. Check the Meetups page for details of meetups in your area. Some events from all over the world are posted on Meta; links to localized Wikipedia meetup pages can be found there, and as interlanguage links from the English Wikipedia page.

Next week: an update on featured speakers at Wikimania 2006.