Taipei, Aug. 2 (CNA) Using a unique discussion format, an "unconference" on the theme of citizen journalism, reflective of the "bottom-up" characteristic of Web 2.0, kicked off Wikimania 2007, an international Wikimedia conference, Thursday in Taipei.
The Citizen Journalism Unconference (CJU) was a side event of the main Wikimania 2007, to be held in Taiwan for the first time from Aug. 3 - 5 at Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center.
Unlike conferences employing top-down discussions, the CJU used an Open Space technique to allow participants to manage their own agenda by first announcing the topics in which they are interested before splitting the participants into eight to 10 discussion groups focusing on various topics.
Moderated by facilitators and conducted with the "law of two feet", which means participants could join or leave the discussion at any time, about 100 participants of various nationalities started discussion groups of six to eight persons.
"I don't have any money. I want to know whether citizen journalism can be profitable, " said Singaporean blogger Preetam Rai, who was in charge of Global Voices Online South East Asia. Naturally, Rai join the discussion on citizen journalism funding and joint ventures.
Other topics raised in discussions included "Citizen Journalism vs. Professionalism," "Journalistic Passion and Enthusiasm," "Ethical Concerns Citizen Journalism Creates, " and "the Relationship Between Traditional Media and Citizen Journalism."
Well-known local bloggers, such as Schee, Eric "Ilya" Lee, and Chiao Ching, acted as facilitators in the discussions, as did staff from PeoPo.org, a citizen journalism platform initiated by Taiwan Public Television Service.
This year's Wikimania, which will be the third annual international Wikimedia conference, was co-organized by the Wikimedia Foundation and Academia Sinica's Institute of Information Science. It is both a scientific conference and a community event, bringing together bloggers and members of various Wikimedia projects.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports nine free information project, including Wikipedia. It is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. It was created in 2001 and soon grew into one of the largest reference Web sites, with articles that can be edited by anyone with Internet access.
More than 50 seminars and workshops will be held during the event's three days, which is expected to attract more than 350 participants from all over the world. Registration staff said that the number of registered participants exceeded 1,000, but many of these will be unable to participate due to a variety of reasons.
"We could have had a lot more participants from overseas, but a lot of them had trouble obtaining visas," he said.