Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] [Foundation-l] REMINDER: Wikimania 2013 - invitation to bid

As one intimately involved in the planning and execution of the last WikiConference India, we need to have a cold rational thought on this process for bidding for Wikimania, not hubris. Without prejudice to User:Vibhijain, a bid from Delhi cannot be made unilaterally by an under-age editor who is not in a position to execute any of the responsible roles. There should be a requirement for each bidding city community to show support and backing. Otherwise the bid should be thrown out. That Delhi has editors is without question, the real question is does Delhi have a strong and united wikicommunity which will be able to take on this kind of huge commitment? There are few signs of such an established community, not withstanding lot of relatively new editors such as Noopur taking up new activities to do which hopefully will lead to a strong and vibrant community in the future. For the reasons mentioned above, the Delhi bid should be re-examined in all seriousness. I'm not siding with Mumbai either. In my opinion, we should have a few more WikiConferences India before we ask for Wikimania. India needs WikiConference Indias, not to host the international community. It is akin to the person who has not yet furnished his house or setup his residence in a city falling over himself to invite others from outside. WikiConference India 2011 stretched the volunteer community of the nation's Wikipedians and was possible due to the unflinching support of so many others not from the city. Which is as it should be. So can the country deal with both a WikiConference and Wikimania in the same year? I think not. Suppose another city, say Kolkata hosted WikiConference India, where would the funds, volunteers attention go? I think it is a raw deal for the city hosting the WikiConference. The amount of volunteer effort which goes into these is not funny. I think around 5000 edits worth of effort of mine went into the Conference. WikiConference India 2011 proved to be beyond the resources of Mumbai wikipedians alone. If they have bid for Wikimania 2013, can they assure the Indian wikipedian community that they can tackle this even larger event without extensive external help when they could not tackle the smaller? If Indian editors are supposed to all join in loyally to support Mumbai should it win the bid, isn't it right that Mumbai ask the community's opinion at large first before bidding instead of taking it for granted that Indian volunteers will pitch in when needed? I do not grudge supporting Mumbai, I identify strongly with it and will do whatever I can do to help those wonderful guys, but I strongly feel that this light hearted attitude to such serious subjects in fact takes the rest of the Indian community for granted. My own personal take is let this opportunity go. Let us have WikiConferences 2012 and 2013 and bid instead for Wikimania 2014 and that year we should not have a WikiConference. 2013 is too early. The need of the hour is building strong Indian wikipedias and communities not hosting foreigners. Warm regards, Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------ On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Béria Lima <berialima(a)gmail.com> wrote: important under livre wrote: _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l