As Ray said - The rotation principle is not sacred. It is safe to assume that the 2013 Wikimania will will not be in Eastern United States - but all other continents and even western US may apply for a bid - thus enabling the jury to select the best bid. The rotation principle basically has four purposes: 1. enabling people who can not afford expensive flights (or has visa issues) to attend 2. develop the local wiki community 3. increase the wiki activities in the area it is held. The fact that Wikimania may one year take place in the UK, does not prohibit it from taking place in France the next year (as two of the three purposes is still served). Deror

On 11/23/11 3:29 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:

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It's too late for this year, since a lot of bids have already started, but in future I would suggest formalising the currently unofficial rotation policy.

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If everyone knew in advance what continent it was going to be in, you won't have bids that are disadvantaged from the outset because they're on the wrong continent.

While the rotation principle is a positive factor, i think it would be a mistake to formalize it.  That could leave us stuck with accepting a bid that is considerably inferior from one from elsewhere.

Ray