Hello everyone, I have spent some time in the last 3-4 days looking around, trying to dig information about what was happening about Wikimania. First, I would like to say that I am very excited Wikimania will be in Taipei. Not only because it will be a great opportunity to see Taiwan. But also because I see Wikimania as a extraordinary opportunity for the editors to get to know others better. This is already happening, when I see editors from Taiwan, from Germany, from the USA, from France, working together to make that event happen. I have rather little helped preparing Wikimania in the previous years. But I was a participant. And I had a great time. Wikimania is probably the most important event of the year for the community. It is the moment when people can meet and can talk together. This is a fabulous experience. Right now, I am sure that for some of you, it appears tiring and difficult. I am sure that you sometimes lack courage, because it is a lot of work, few people see you doing it, sometimes trying to find a sponsor does not succeed. But if you look at it, the conference is getting a little bit more real everyday. So, keep faith (you are welcome to tell me the same when I am lacking courage myself). The Foundation will help as much as possible on its part. Erik is currently involved in the program. I read the notes of the last meeting and it looks as if things are moving nicely. I will have a look on the budget with Theodoranian and all those involved in it in a few days. It seems Frances, Tzu-chiang and Alice are working hard on the sponsorships. Danny from the Foundation will also bring some help to get some more sponsors. Pyb is also willing to give a hand. What I hope is that we can have more money this year, so as to help more people to join. Registration seems to be the hot topic of the moment. I suggest that once registration system is open, we could not only mention it on lists, but also on the Foundation website, and possibly inform the sign post and Walter from wikizine to reach a larger audience. I am willing to help you here if necessary. We need visitors from everywhere :-) According to the website, it seems that venue is having hard time. Would it help to ask for more volunteers ? I intend to give you more information probably within 2 weeks for when the board meeting will take place (probably before Wikimania). But this is a detail. I'll try to stick around so as to see how I can help. But essentially, thank you for the great work. Anthere _______________________________________________ Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l