2011/1/19 Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com:
On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 1:13 PM, Finne Boonen hennar@gmail.com wrote:
However, most other fields have several conferences a year where people meet each other. I'm not sure we have enough events that allow real international 'mingling' to take place. In my experience most conferences we have are very local events, and there is real benefit from interacting in person with a wider community then the local one.
I am a bit with Harel on this one. However, I agree with you Finne. To me, the solution would be to have a rotating (yes, the big R word) international event every other year (ie. it would be decided _in advance_ which continent wikimania is happening on) and allow/foster more regional international meetings the year in between. This would allow for the following:
<snip>
*This would actually strengthen the ties between communities of big regions (such as the US, for example), by allowing people to participate in an event close to home at least once every other year.
I'm still not totally sold on biennial idea, but this is the one compelling reason for me. With two weeks of vacation per year, most Americans have to carefully decide how to use it. Do I attend Wikimania? Wiki-Conference NYC? And forget about me attending any non-Wiki conferences, if I do that.
(Thankfully, the socialist country in which I now live (;)) guarantees me a lot more free time, but I still appreciate the issue.)
Austin