Hi Gary,
I wish you luck with this one.
I’m trying to understand how one goes about “selling
air” to a bureaucrat. If there was some kind of a package together, say
an agenda, a couple of potential well known speakers, or workshop attendees, I
might see some way in which to help. But it seems Wikimanian sales people have
to reinvent the prop every year. Also, the conference is considered as just a
local one off, which makes it very hard unless you have the kind of
relationship that Mido obviously has with the Bibliotech and Egyptian National
Library.
I’ve only had a decade or so of experience here, doing
stuff like Rotary conferences for 64,000. So you’ll appreciate I’d
really like to see you and the other proposers have something in your kitbag,
which breaks the ice in doing a global linkup, so even if a country “misses
out” one year, there would still be some kind of local interaction with the
main live event, every year.
You’ve done the right thing here though, well done. Go
straight to the top. But don’t be disappointed if they give you the run
around. The main thing you must know is that, in government, it always comes
down to a committee, who don’t give a stuff about getting results. (After
all, it’s not their money) In selling the rule of thumb is to present
to 10 potentials to get a result, so I’ve put another iron in the fire a
while back, if the
The Open Uni seems like such an obvious fit as they have the
same aim as the WMF. I’m trying to encourage their OpenLearn Initiative
to partner with the WMF’s projects.
1, Re the tools (wiki extensions on WMF side, the
real time stuff like presence and conferencing from OU) and
2, Re ‘their’
free content (the basic articles
from WMF projects, the courses from the OU and its partners).
So if you were to talk to
Patrick down there on that basis, I think yu might find an open mind. I’ll
point you at the
OpenLearn home page; link
to ‘people’ on the right. http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/about-us/our-story.php
If I was I your end of the world, and was looking for a
potential hit who might help with Foundation stuff, both for conferences and
the convergence between academic Wikibooks and Wikiuni, then JISC would be my primary
focus, and Louisa seems to have the relevant international seat. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/aboutus/international.aspx
. Might be an interesting discussion. But lead off with
The nice thing about representing the Foundation, which in
effect is what you are doing (whether anyone wants to admit it or not) is that
the air around it inspires a lot of hope in bureaucrats who suffer from “unimaginative
empiricism”. But beware! :) you have to be so careful as unless you’re
very clear about what you’re proposing, they won’t have a clue; hot
air is all they’re used to.
Good luck and Merry Xmas.
From:
wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Gary Kirk
Sent: Saturday, 15 December 2007
3:51 PM
To: Wikimedia UK mailing list
Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimania
2009: assistance from the government?
Jim
Knight, the schools minister briefly wrote to me saying he "looks forward
to hearing more" - I explained a little, and pointed him to someone in his
office who I had emailed. I have heard back from neither as yet, and the next
time I would expect to would be Monday, I assume. *crosses fingers* :)
The UK/London bid page is at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/UK
by the way, people :)
I have updated it slightly and added to the
Cheers,
--
Gary Kirk