As an inhabitant of Birmingham I would back the second city as well.
(This may be biased btw as I live here, but I try to remain impartial ;)
It's early stages so I'll keep free of detail at the moment.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Air: Birmingham International has a 15 minute rail journey time to the
city centre. The connection is easy too.
Rail: Birmingham New Street station is the central hub of the UK's
national rail network. It also has frequent services to London and
off-peak can be as little as £15 to London.
Accomodation: Hagley Road is 5 minutes from the city centre by bus and
has several hotels, there are also others on Broad Street which are
opposite Birmingham's International Convention Centre
http://www.theicc.co.uk/
Culture:
Plenty of bars/restaurants, Birmingham has a "cafe culture" about it.
Things to see:
The Bullring shopping centre is a local landmark, and a large quantity
of old redundant buildings have been knocked down as part of the housing
boom so it looks quite attractive, and will continue to improve over the
next year. There a some under-advertised [IHMO] attractions to visit.
People:
The University of Birmmingam and Aston University have high proportions
of Computer Science students and a good record of being helpful with
community projects. So possible "recruitment" opportunities exist.
Cost:
Far off London prices! £3 in London for a pint, £2 here. Public
transport could get you from transport hubs to major venues with ease,
Taxis wouldn't be too outrageous either.
Press:
Several local newspapers would run it and the council would be more than
happy to get involved.
I WOULD BE PREPARED TO HELP...
...with the initial bid at least, so long as we have the resources to
back it up. Ideally a 10-person group with some being available in the
Birmingham area. I have limited experience of organising such events,
but I'm a good communicator and have lived here long enough to know
where to look for help.
I think Birmingham would stand a good chance at getting to the final
rounds of voting at least.
Greg
[[User:GregRobson]]
Angela wrote:
> On 8/12/05, Dan Grey <dangrey(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I live in Reading, but I'd advise against it myself. While the
>>transport links are excellent (particulary to Heathrow), and the uni
>>campus is nice, it's not the most exciting bit of the UK to visit, nor
>>very touristy.
>
>
> Frankfurt isn't touristy either, but there was very limited time to
> see much of the city, so I don't think this should be a primary
> concern if Reading was otherwise ok.
>
>
>>I'd back Brighton myself - reasonably close to Gatwick, not too far
>>from Dover, and a nice place to visit.
>
>
> Is flying to Gatwick the only way to get there? That might not be the
> most practical. Also, I'd expect Brighton to be more expensive than
> cities in the North.
>
>
>>Manchester as a close second
>>choice - more central in the UK, I believe Manchester Airport handles
>>trans-Atlantic flights (I wonder how their prices compare to
>>Gatwick?), and pretty cosmopolitan.
>
>
> I've never been to Manchester, so I've no idea how good this would be.
>
> My first choice is Birmingham. It's England's 2nd city, but much
> cheaper than London. It has an international airport which is just 10
> minutes by train to the city centre. It has a large range of
> conference venues and lots of cheap accommodation, from the 3
> universities and many youth hostels, and every other type of
> accommodation. Public transport is better than London (as in less
> crowded, less confusing). It's only a couple of hours on the train
> from London if people want to fly to Stansted (very cheap from Europe)
> or other London airports.
>
> Angela.
On 6/23/05, Angela <beesley(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I could be wrong, but I vaguely recall reading something that "England
> > > only" (or probably England-and-Wales) was being looked at, as it
> > > potentially simplified matters from a legal standpoint.
> >
> > Yeah, the current Plan is to incorporate under England-and-Wales law, but
> > we'll be for the whole of the UK.
>
> UK is the working name for the chapter at the moment, though this does
> unfortunately exclude Ireland, which might not be large enough to get
> its own chapter yet, so I think there is still room for changes to be
> made to incorporate them.
>
> This was discussed at <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK>.
> The suggestion of using "WISE" (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England) was
> made at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_UK
>
> Angela.
I think it would be nice to incorporate Ireland into this chapter, but
obviously the name and the legal framework will be the problem. I'd
still like to see the efforts to focus on smaller languages be
extended to Irish Gaelic, which is in big trouble as a spoken
language. It'd be really nice to see pan-British Isles collaboration
on scholarship and general education in smaller languages, learning
lessons from the resounding success in Wales, for example. Even though
there's now a dedicated TV channel in Irish and it's a compulsory
subject throughout school, there's a big need to promote its actual
use and make it a community-based initiative. This, you understand, is
coming from someone who suffers from non-Irish-speaking-Irishperson
guilt, so I'd be happy to help out with this.
Cormac / Cormaggio
As far as I can see, we are pretty ready to start constructing our bylaws
since many of the fundamental issues are settled (legal responsibility,
etc.). This would avoid further stalling and give us a boost.
The best way I can see doing this (as suggested by Angela), is to write a
first draft on Meta Wikimedia and arrange a meeting on IRC (#en.wikimedia)
at a later time to debate wording and such forth.
Is everyone happy with people going ahead and starting to write the bylaws
at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia UK/bylaws ?
Oldak.
We should get more actively into getting Wikimedia UK off the ground.
Once we're a UK charity, possible sources of income include the Arts Council
(freedom of information about culture, innit), and the British Council
(spreading British culture across the globe, as well as much the same
reasoning as for the Arts Council - especially as current Chair is Kinnock,
who will probably like the pro-proleteriat direction open content moves in
;-)), and others - thoughts?
As to personnel, I'm happy to take an active rôle in the UK Foundation;
David has said that he'd rather take a more back-seat affair (non-exec.
Board member, perhaps?); others?
Alison - what's the current status? Probably buried under real work
deadlines, no doubt. :-) Anything I can do to help?
Yours,
--
James D. Forrester -- Wikimedia: [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]
Mail: james(a)jdforrester.org | jon(a)eh.org | csvla(a)dcs.warwick.ac.uk
IM : (MSN) jamesdforrester(a)hotmail.com
I have started a FAQ about local Wikimedia chapters at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Local_chapter_FAQ with 10 of the
questions that I know have been asked a lot.
If you know of any more frequently asked questions, or if you have
questions yourself, or if you are able to answer some of the existing
questions, please help with the creation of this page.
I am hoping it will become a useful resource, both for those involved
with current chapters, those wanting to start a new chapter, and also
for users of Wikimedia projects who are confused about the entire
concept of chapters.
Thanks.
Angela.
hello!
has any progress be made so far on planning how WM UK will be set up, what its
purpose is going to be, etc.?
i see the main issue on the meta page is regarding what it should be called
and the region it should cover. is there any consensus on this?
(as for my opinion, i don't think a "Wikimedia England & Wales" chapter would
be a very useful thing; it's likely to lead to a large number of small local
chapters, which even if part of a larger "Wikimedia EU", seems like too much
division of resources. beyond that, though, i'm not sure.)
regards,
kate.
I'm here. Why does mailmain insist on sending me an email containing a
password that I chose myself? And in plain text! (fx: bangs head against
monitor).
Just a message to say that I'm subscribed. :-)
Yours,
--
James D. Forrester -- Wikimedia: [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]
Mail: james(a)jdforrester.org | jon(a)eh.org | csvla(a)dcs.warwick.ac.uk
IM : (MSN) jamesdforrester(a)hotmail.com