For unclear reasons my reply below was blocked. I am thus re-sending it.
Mark Williamson wrote:
If you are
afraid, just do not act. If you fear terrorism in Egypt,
just
do not come. We'll meet in other places, at other times. There is
nothing wrong in being afraid, but respect the fact others may have
other fears and other priorities than you. There will be other
wikimanias as well. There is a long future in front of you.
Probably the most important sentiment here. Although I strongly
disagree with WMF holding Wikimania in Alexandria, I have to agree
with Florence that there will be other Wikimanias in the future, and
it is time to put these issues behind us for now.
Yes, perhaps the selection did not give enough weight to certain
issues. Yes, Egypt is not the most safe country for certain groups of
people, of which I count myself a member of several.
So we can just not go to Wikimania, or we can decide that the benefits
for us outweigh the risks. It is a tough decision, but we will have to
make it. And if we don't go this year, we can show up next year, or
the one after that.
Thank you for being realistic At some point a decision has to
be made,
and we can't afford to look back on the decision with regrets. We can't
build a good conference if the organizers' time is so taken up by
rear-guard actions. The Toronto people could not have been very happy
when Boston won with a late bid. The Turin people were upset when they
lost to Taipei. I personally favour Buenos Aires for 2009, but I'm not
going to make an issue of it if another city gets that Wikimania.
Ec