Here is another suggestion to help make the Wikimania region selection a
*community effort*, rather than a competition:
It would be nice to see coordinated efforts on local issues in the months
surrounding a non-US/European Wikimania (assuming for the moment that the
US/Europe can take care of their own issues). For example, volunteer days
concentrating on eswiki and Spanish localization issues in the months
leading up to Wikimania 2015. Otherwise it feels that Wikimania can be
just a "tourist visit" with little long-term contribution.
It's important to note that building the *community* required to host a
Wikimania is indeed a worthwhile achievement and does have long-term
influence. So the area for improvement I'm discussing is a broadening to
technical or content issues. For example, deciding to adopt Mexico-related
entries on eswiki, or some feature to better support <translate> for
Wikimania content. The coordinating committee could "adopt" certain
projects or features for the year.
In my ideal world, Wikimania would be the culmination of a year-long
focus[*] by the broader movement on a specific country or region, with many
coordinated events planned, content written, and technical features
implemented in anticipation of the conference.
--scott
[*] With the three-year rotation, perhaps this could even be a three-year
focus? But let's not jump ahead of ourselves yet.