Ah, the downside of doing your work open and in public is that people see a
half finished doodle of a budget and get overexcited and you come back to
45 emails in your inbox...
Yes, it's likely that the Wikimania 2014 London Bid Committee is going to
be applying for a grant to help it put together a good bid, but we're still
figuring out which roles are required and waiting for other inputs, so the
numbers were really just placeholders for now.
The deeper question I see here is - what sort of event does the community
want Wikimania to be? It's a conference that is really beginning to come of
age, and with this comes growing pains. From a 200 person glorified pubmeet
it's become a five day long 1000+ person multi-track affair with all the
attendant expectations on AV, travel logistics, social events, catering,
multi-tiered accommodation... and unless it's not handled well, potentially
a very frustrating experience for a lot of wikimedians who have invested
their time and money travelling to take part.
With the correct facilitating software, a lot of people have been able to
collaborate together to build a killer encyclopaedia. Similarly, a well
designed conference can allow for positive interactions between a very
large number of people. As the size increases, the complexity increases,
the risk increases, and the cost increases - but so do the possible
benefits.
Let us be clear: running an event this size is not cheap. A Wikimania costs
hundreds of thousands of pounds, and probably significantly more in a place
like London. Tickets to your average <http://www.websummit.net/get-tickets/>
tech <http://www.leweb.co/register/paris>
event<http://www.ted.com/pages/tedglobal>of a similar size and scope
would easily cost £1000+ per delegate, and in
comparison a Wikimania is basically free. This means that we need to do a
lot more work fundraising, which takes a lot of time and planning, and a
chief concern of potential sponsors is whether the event will be delivered
to a professional standard. We are finding that a lot of the groundwork for
the event has to be laid well before the bid process even starts. Not to
sound patronising, but event organisation is different to wiki editing;
there are deadlines which must be met, and mistakes that cannot be reverted.
So let us ask ourselves, why should the community spend so much donor money
on Wikimania (bids)? What is Wikimania there to achieve?
WMF's policy on grants:
Grant requests should support the achievement of
Wikimedia's mission and
strategic priorities. We favor high impact requests over low impact
requests; try to break new ground, and to increase your group's capacity
for new programs and partnerships.
Holding such a conference is high impact, breaks new ground, and fosters
links to local
institutions<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_London>…
builds relationships with sponsors
and
partners<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_bids/London#Part…ns>.
It's fantastic for encouraging
innovation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strateg…
with Jimmy
on
hand<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_bids/London#Supporte…
the press it should be great for increasing awareness
and
participation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Stra…gt;too.
It seems as good a thing to invest in as any - after all, if it didn't
have community support, a thousand people probably wouldn't show up to it
every year!
Ed
On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 9:14 PM, <wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>wrote;wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
2. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Theo10011)
3. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Thomas Morton)
4. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:19:17 +0100
From: Joseph Fox <josephfoxwiki(a)gmail.com>
To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)"
<wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid
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I understand this. But people here seem to have seen that they'll be making
up a financial plan for the event, then announcing that there is no raw
passion underneath the money. I'm just telling you that there are a *lot*
of
very active and very passionate Wikimedians in the UK looking to make the
best possible event.
Also remembering that Brits are all tightfisted, of course, so they'll not
be silly with their money ;)
(Also, James, my apologies for the assumption. I wonder if WMUK will be
able to negotiate such a discount...)
Joe
On 25 August 2012 21:15, Manuel Schneider <manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch
wrote:
Am 25.08.2012 22:10, schrieb Joseph Fox:
To be honest I'm rather offended that the UK
bid is being written off
while
it's still 2014. I agree with you, but London
is far from the cheapest
city
in the world, as I'm sure you're aware -
money will be required.
from my experience on the Wikimania Jury I can assure you that it is
pretty much taken into account how much Wikimania experience the bidding
team has and how much the understand to make a Wikimania as Wikimania is.
/Manuel
--
Regards
Manuel Schneider
Wikimedia CH - Verein zur F?rderung Freien Wissens
Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge
www.wikimedia.ch
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