I'd just like to be the bad guy and repeat my suggestion expressed in the past in this list and on wikimania-planning-l that in the future Wikimania be held every two years. The no-Wikimania years could possibly be devoted to regional conferences, smaller in scope and cheaper to produce.
Producing a very good bid for a constantly-expanding and improving conference, every time in another place, is a task we won't be able to support over time.
Harel Cain Wikimedia Israel
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 21:07, Jan-Bart de Vreede janbart@wikimedia.orgwrote:
Hi All,
Disclaimer: this is my personal opinion, and in no way represents any sentiments of the board.
That being said
In the past years I have seen a lot of people spend a lot of time on different bids which never made it (even though they were pretty good). Could this be the year that we change this procedure and try to do things differently? I would love to explore how we can avoid a lot of people wasting their energy...
How about taking a little time to look at these and other imperfects of the current system before jumping right in, and trying to see if we can improve it?
Jan-Bart
On 23 nov. 2011, at 19:47, James Forrester wrote:
Dear all,
It's getting towards the end of November, which means it is time to run the Wikimania bidding process for 2013[0].
Given the traditional absence of a formal system, I'm putting myself forward as Jury[1] co-ordinator - a non-voting person who helps the Jury form and Bids get started up, sets the timeline[2], and hopefully makes sure everything happens smoothly.
In this role, I would like to make two requests:
Firstly, I'm sure the whole Wikimedia community would love to see as many good bids as possible. There are already a few bids[3] on Meta, but if you or your local community are thinking about putting one in, I'd urge you to get started now - there's not much time left before new bids will not be accepted. Making a good bid for Wikimania can be a lot of work, but we all benefit from there being a strong field of bids.
Secondly, I would like to invite volunteers to serve on the Wikimania 2013 jury. There is a list of general requirements on Meta[4], but to summarise:
- The Jury will have some from the Wikimedia Foundation's Board and
staff alongside the community volunteers;
- You can't be on the Jury if you're closely involved in a Bid (it's a
conflict of interest);
- You need to have some free time during the selection period
(January-March);
- We want to represent the community across the different projects and
activities; and
- We of course want a mix of people from a diverse range of
backgrounds, sexes, cultures and regions of the world.
If you wish to be involved in the Jury, please e-mail me (off-list) at jdforrester@gmail.com - I hope we can announce the Jury in the first week of December, so please contact me as soon as you can.
Please also consider passing this message on (and translating it!) for your wiki's community forum for those that don't read these mailing lists.
Thank you, and good luck to all Bids.
[0] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013 [1] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Jury [2] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Bids/Timeline [3] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Bids [4] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_jury
Yours,
James D. Forrester jdforrester@wikimedia.org | jdforrester@gmail.com [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]
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