Hi Iolanda,
Thank you for your thoughtful and swift response.
I'm not particularly critical of the bid team for being open about the
result, since there are good reasons to get the news out there and it
would be unreasonable to expect a bid team to keep their win or loss a
secret for any period of time.
I think the answer here is for the official announcement of the jury's
decision to be as prompt as possible; this doesn't seem to have been an
issue in previous years. The decision to award Wikimania 2015 to Mexico
City was also done with the condition that further WMF vetting was
required, and this isn't a problem, as long as it is noted in the
announcement and on the updated pages.
Kind regards,
Christopher
On 22/01/2015 10:21, Iolanda Pensa wrote:
thanks Christopher!
I perfectly understand your point in the communication. I decided to give the news on
twitter (and then to share it on facebook where the Esino Lario community is very present)
because I needed two things
1. to make sure people got excited about it and kept their enthusiasm. we have been
waiting a lot for this answer and it arrived after the expected date (it was postponed). I
had around 200 people asking me every day about it; i needed to tell them as soon as
possible to not consume the enthusiasm and making sure they are on it.
2. to fundraise. the very same day (December 24th - and I can assure you that with two
children 5 and 6 years old is not really the best day) I delivered an application for
200'000 euro to be used to involve people in the region in wikimedia activities for 2
years, and to have more funds for the infrastructures. The deadline was December and i
needed to tell them we have been selected immediately and i could not wait later on to
communicate the information.
Of course Esino will be visited by Ellie and Garfield and the decision is provisional. At
the same time it is important to say that we had already a site visit in July 2014 (Deror
and Manuel Schneider) with a positive evaluation, and our bid provide full information in
a realistic and correct way. Of course it would be better to announce the winning after
May 2015 (after the confirmation), but this would delay the project and now we need
fundings, partners and people to get involved to make it. Esino is an extremely complex
situation to have a conference and we want to make sure it happens and it happens well.
This at the end is the role we have.
I wanted to provide you and explication because I do understand and respect your point. I
hope the explanation can clarify why I did it; I really wanted to let you know that I
didn't do it for pride and joyful enthusiasm (which I have but i could wait for the
official announcement); i did it because we need to move and move fast: start working in
making Wikimania Esino starting and get the necessary attention from the stakeholders (we
are currently negotiating with the Lombardy Region for a program of agreement which needs
to get done now or we can't get all the resources for the event).
my warm regards
iolanda / iopensa
> Il giorno 21/gen/2015, alle ore 21:04, Christopher Cooper
<ctc_wikimedia(a)fastmail.com> ha scritto:
>
> May I offer my congratulations to Esino Lario on winning the bid. I personally backed
Manilla for various reasons, but it was a fair contest, and I look forward to going to
Italy in 2016.
>
> I have noted though that there was some confusion caused by it becoming public
knowledge via Twitter that Esino Lario had won, despite there having been no official
announcement. I think in future years the decision should be formally announced and pages
updated before tweets etc. are made.
>
> Kind regards,
> Christopher
>
> On 20/01/2015 23:24, Ellie Young wrote:
>> Dear Wikimedians,
>>
>> On the recommendation of the Wikimania 2016 selection Jury Committee, we have
accepted the proposal from the Esino Lario Italy team. The Wikimania Esino Lario team
is composed mainly of volunteers. It is promoted by Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia CH in
partnership with Esino Lario city council, Ecomuseo delle Grigne, Pro Loco Esino Lario,
Parco Regionale della Grigna Settentionale and the Esino Lario local associations and
community. nThe proposal will be further vetted by the WMF staff in the coming months,
after which time we hope to confirm the award. Please join us in congratulating
Wikimania Esino Lario!
>>
>>
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario
>>
>> We would also like to thank the team from Manila, Philippines for their efforts
in putting together excellent proposal. As a volunteer-led movement, it is hugely
encouraging to have so many who want to support Wikimania. The bidding process requires a
substantial time investment, and we are most grateful for every team’s hard work.
>>
>> For those of you who are considering hosting in future years, we expect to issue
the Request for Proposals for 2017 in September.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ellie Young, WMF Conference Coordinator
>> On behalf of the Wikimania Steering Committee
>>
>
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