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Pinoy Wikimedians at the Philippine Open Source Summit

6:21 pm PHT

 Facade of the Cebu International Convention Center.

Shown above is the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City where the first ever Philippine Open Source Summit will be held. The Summit will happen on June 23 to 24—that’s next week, Monday and Tuesday. Surprisingly, Microsoft Philippines is a major sponsor of the said summit so it’ll be interesting to see what Microsoft can contribute to the Open Source Community. (It’s also expected that there will be discussions and debates regarding Microsoft’s Office Open XML, an XML-based format for office documents that got ISO standardization early this year amid numerous controversies.)

Anyway, this Summit will also mark the first time that the Filipino Wikipedia community will take part in a public event. Cebuano Wikipedians will participate at the Philippine Open Source Summit as a Local Implementing Partner. That means, Wikipedians will be there to promote Open and Free Content, which is very much a related goal of the Free and Open Source movement. Oh yeah, our participation is also being supported by WikiPilipinas. (Yeah, yeah, I know.  :D) They will probably have a booth there just like in last year’s Book Fair.

If you know me, then you’ll know that I’m an active contributor to Wikipedia. The Filipino contributors to the various Wikimedia Foundation projects plans to put up Wikimedia Philippines within the next few months. This will be a non-profit organization, as well as the official local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. Basically, Wikimedia Philippines aims to help the Wikimedia Foundation in promoting Free and Open academic and educational content here in the Philippines.

If you have time and the money, you should visit the Open Source Summit in Cebu and meet the Wikipedians/Wikimedians there. I’d love to go myself but I have work and my planned budget for this year has no room for a round-trip airfare, accommodations, and summit registration fees. Maybe next year the Summit can be held in Manila.  :-D

By the way, if you’d like to join and help us put up Wikimedia Philippines, you can add yourself to the participants list or look over and help develop the Articles of Incorporation (discussion) and By-laws (discussion). You don’t need to be an active contributor to Wikipedia to participate. As long as you support the aims of free content, then you’re free to join the organization.  :)

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