Compared to  North America and Europe which  have a tight  concentration  of reasonably  wealthy  countries, I  think  we should not  lose sight of the fact  that  the Asia-Pacificc region contains some of the most  wealthy  and and poorest  countries in  the world. SE Asia was poorly  represent  at  Wikimania 2012 - AFAIK I  was the only  Wikipedian from  Thailand and I'm  only  a British  expat  living  there.

I am  therefore not  confident that  SE Asia countries will  be any  better represented at in  HK than they  were in  DC. Hence I  feel  that  a more local meeting , such  as  already  suggested in  Bangkok, would be appropriate -  and with  funding  for those who  still  find the financial  burden onerous.


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On 8 Dec 2012, at 09:29, Charles Gregory wrote:

Just to come back to this discussion - which I didn't get around to replying to the first time ..

With WM2013 being in Hong Kong, I would probably avoid a separate Wikimedia Asia meeting/conference in 2013, and instead integrate it with Wikimania - either as a session during the conference, or an additional mini-conference before or after the main one.  Maybe in other years we could have a separate WM Asia conference.

The problem with that is you may end up with a situation similar to State of the Map (OpenStreetMap's international conference).  For the first three years it was in Europe.  The fourth year (2010), it was again in Europe, but there was a secondary smaller one held in Atlanta (USA) a month later.  In 2011, the conference was in Denver, but a secondary one was held in Vienna.  In 2012 the main conference was in Tokyo, but secondary ones in Portland, USA and in Scotland.

For many people/chapters, time and money are both limited, so they may end up choosing between Wikimania or the Asian conference, which would only dilute both.  Of could the GAC could fund travel for people but we would need to be very specific as to the benefits to the movement if they are to approve such a grant.

I think we need to focus on getting as many Asian participants to Wikimania 2013 for now and ensure we have a productive plan for the future :)

Regards,

Charles Gregory
Secretary and WCA Council Representative
Wikimedia Australia


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