On Sun, 4 Oct 2015 at 11:25 Joseph Fox <josephfoxwiki@gmail.com> wrote:

On 4 October 2015 at 19:10, James Forrester <jdforrester@gmail.com> wrote:
At the Committee’s meeting in Mexico City in August, we agreed to alter the way that Wikimania locations are decided.

I don't mean to slight yourself, James, or the committee, but this seems an unnecessary delay. Why is this only now being communicated?

A fair question. We spent too long discussing options rather than presenting this earlier. I'm sorry. I have discussed this change with a variety of people since at least 2007, and others were talking about it before me, but as the complexity of Wikimania rises each year it has become more chronic. As Chair of the Committee, the delay is my fault, and I apologise.

Would it not have been wise to reveal this as it was agreed upon rather than now, after at least two bidding parties have put time and effort into their bids for 2017?

I might equally ask why people not associated with running Wikimania decided the create and keep updating mistaken pages on meta about Wikimania 2017 being open for bids without even a post to this list, let alone the Committee, where we could have pointed out it was false before people spent time ill-advisedly. :-(

The large majority of our community members are based in either North America or Europe; organising Wikimanias in these areas allows the majority of our community members to attend cheaply, so that money spent on scholarships can go further, and be more focussed in supporting our community members wherever they are based.

This is true and cannot be ignored. But why, then, is "Europe" such a narrow definition? Why no provision for Eastern Europe and Russia? This seems quite disappointing given we have active affiliates in these areas.

The groupings are based on where the majority of Wikimedians are. They can of course change over time. I was hoping to work with fellow Wikimedians to narrow down these definitions so that it's clear for instance which group each interested community group falls.

I'd note that we've already had one Wikimania in the "Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia" area, which is one more than, for instance, South Asia where we also have a large number of Wikimedians.

We should probably cut to the chase and just name the location, since by now it's common knowledge.

Despite people breaching trust and leaking "news" rather than seeking clarification, the announcement for 2017 is not final and is still subject to approval.

Other than my previous comment about the lack of inclusion of Eastern Europe—are we seriously suggesting holding one in Russia and then one in (for instance) Warsaw? That seems to defeat the point of this exercise somewhat.

No. "Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia" would cover both of those locations, so at the smallest they would be three years apart, and in practice probably a great deal more.

Yours,