Конкурсы/Викибудущее/en

WikiFuture
First Literary Futures Contest

Why are we conducting this contest?

Stanislav Kozlovsky about the contest idea (Russian)

In the early days of Wikipedia, its authors have seen the priciple and, seemingly, unachievable purpose of the project in creation of the free universal encyclopedia. However, this goal was achieved relatively quickly. The encyclopedia was created, but the quality of its articles was initially lagging behind from the classical encyclopedias like Britannica. Over the years, Wikipedia had caught up with, and in a number of aspects even overtook all most authoritative encyclopedias of the world. The project purpose was reformulated as giving every human on Earth free access to all of humanity's knowledge. This goal, even if not fully, has largely been achieved as well. Where should we head next? We decided to ask you — science fiction writers and futurists — so that you offer ideas which would inspire the community of Wikipedia authors to move forward towards a new global objective.

By the way, Wikipedia itself was foreseen by science fiction writers too. In 1930s H. G. Wells proposed the doctrine of «New encyclopedism» as a new era of humanity's development, where stupidity and wars are eradicated. To achieve this, he proposed to create «World Brain» — a global flawless encyclopedia the volumes of which were freely available to all people on the planet. Isaac Asimov, understanding that knowledge cannot belong to a separate or even thousands of humans, described in his 1951 novel «Foundation» the coming about of «Encyclopedia Galactica» that was being created on a separate planet by 100 000 Encyclopedists to revive the Civilization after the «Dark Ages». Douglas Adams in 1979 novel «The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy» describe the most popular book in the Universe — «Guide to the Galaxy», which pushed aside the glorious «Encyclopedia Galactica» as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom. The Guide «despite having many omissions, and containing lots of incorrect information, or, at the very least, terribly imprecise ones, is winning against the old, more prosaic encyclopedia». This became possible because this «Guide» is open for contribution by anybody. This is exactly the way of Wiki-technology, the basis for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Propose new ideas that can inspire people to build new world of knowledge!

Nominations

The contest has two nominations:

• Science fiction novel
• Futures article

Contest theme

Contest theme is the future of Wikipedia and other wiki-projects; encyclopedias and other global knowledge bases in the future; the impact of Wiki-technologies, encyclopedias and knowledge bases on the world of the future etc.

How is it happening?

The Contest is being conducted at two most popular Russian-language authors' platforms — «Проза.ру» and «Самиздат».

Organizers

The contest is conducted by «Wikimedia RU» Non-Profit Partnership together with Russia's Writers Union.

Timeframe

Works are accepted beginning 21st of February 2019:

• Till 20th of May 2019 @ Проза.ру. See contest page.
• Till 1st of May 2019 @ «Самиздат». See contest page.

The Jury

• Paul Amnuél — science fiction writer. Ph.D. in Physico-mathematical sciences. Editor-in-Chief of «Млечный Путь» (The Milky Way) Russian-language literary journal of Jerusalem, editor of «RBG-Azimuth» international magazine. One of the leading masters of natural-science science fiction, authored a number of works on history of sciene fiction and development of its creative imagination.
• Stanislav Kozlovsky — executive director of Russia's Wikimedia organization («Wikimedia RU»), administrator of Russian Wikipedia (since 2004), psychologist from Russia, specialist in cognitive neuroscience in the area of memory and perception, Ph.D. in Psychological sciences, docent of Moscow State University.
• Nikolay Romanetsky — science fiction writer, translator, secretary of «Полдень. XXI век» science fiction almanac. Author of cycles «У мертвых Кудесников длинные руки» (Dead Magicians have long arms), «Экспансия» (Expansion). Recipient of «Большой Зилант» (Large Zilant), «Bronze Snail», Alexander Belyaev Literary Award, Ivan Yefremov Award, as well as Arkady and Boris Strugatsky International Literary Award.

Useful links

• Проект:Будущее in Russian Wikipedia
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Futures studies in English Wikipedia
• Smart region - an initiative about using Wikimedia project opportunities for the purposes of regional development

Results

The winner in each of the nominations will be receiving a special prize with symbol of «Wikipedia». The work of contest winners and other diploma recipients will be published under free license in a special «WikiFuture» print edition by the Printing-house of Russia's Writers Union.