hi sam,
from time to time you manage to puzzle me. discussions with you are in general path-leading and very inspiring. i appreciate this :) you know why i edit wikipedia? (1) because i want to find that information online afterwards, freely available, no strings attached. and (2) because i love to meet people around the movement so (1) is easier to achieve. you know why people pay money (i.e. donate)? because they like this as well.
you know what would make me stop edit? if you want me to pay additional money only because i am an interested volunteer. this is independent of how much money i earn.
just in case you try to say: i get it cheaper because i am poor, a student, a woman, disabled, or my organisation pays for it. i want to be treated as a normal person, and i want to pay a normal price. i want my organisation to pay a normal price for me in case they pay. i am not a beggar. my organisation is not a beggar. and i do not need WMF to make me one. i want that our local GLAMs who are funded by by tax money i pay are not ripped off additionally by wikimedia foundation triggering high entry prices. this is also valid for people like anasuya sengupta. as she is not contributing, she is not eligible somebody pays her flight and entry to the conference. please do not rip off people like her as well.
so - low ticket prices for everybody - and using donations to make contributing people meet is a good thing. i volunteer to edit wikipedia and i engage myself in fundraising and tax exemption to allow this to people. besides (1) contributing contents, and (2) contributing software, meeting is imo one of the three core functions of the movement.
rupert. https://twitter.com/swissglammies
On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 12:21 AM, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Proposed prices for Wikimania tickets continue to seem artificially low. I'm not sure what the benefit to this is. Could people who have run events in other contexts comment on how you set ticket prices?
In my experience, tickets are set at roughly what it costs for each person to attend. Then there may be different sorts of tickets: for local supporters & volunteers, for school groups, for students & community members, presenters, VIPs & sponsors. Sponsorship helps ensure how many tickets of each type there are. Last-minute tickets are more expensive.
This has a few benefits:
- tickets fully cover the cost of food and materials
- tickets contribute significantly to covering the cost of the event
- scholarships and reimbursements for attendance (for scholars,
professionals, academics all getting covered by their home institutions), in paying for tickets, cover the full cost of those people attending the event.
- more accurate headcounts in advance.
Warmly, Sam
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