On 10/11/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Muhammad Alsebaey wrote:
Hey Aude and George, thank you for voicing that opinion, it is exactly how I feel. Another point for everyone to consider: If Wikimania was restricted to being in USA and Western Europe, it's kind of a closed-membership club, people from Africa, the Middle east and various other places will have a hard time getting a visa there if they have a shot at that at all (I know that a US visa requires that you prove beyond doubt you have ties with your home country that will force you to come back after the conference, and that you have a considerable amount of money in your bank account, which is something hard to do for young people without established families.).
I think that many of us look forward to visiting Alexandria and, if we can make the time, the rest of Egypt. The press tends to blow the occasional criminal or terrorist incident completely out of proportion. The American media in particular attaches a far greater degree of tragedy to the one or two Americans that die in such incidents then the 200 local individuals who also perish. I do not attach a lot of importance to whether a country is "democratic"; that is not something to be decided by outsiders I regret the concerns of the LGBT people, but sometimes it is simply not possible to adjust to all the interests of special interest groups.
I did not hear of visa problems at Frankfurt, but it affected many people who would have liked to attend in Boston. AFAIK, unfortunately and ironically, the only people that were kept from Taipei because of visa issues were the Egyptians.
For the record, visa arrangement for Egyptians were perfect: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of R.O.C. promised those Egyptians would be able to get visas on port. Unfortunately it was settled after the Egyptians had given up to attend and had filled their schedule with other local concerns. So ultimately there was no critical visa issue in Taipei. No registered attendees rejected by the government of the hosting place. It was not the Taipei case.
I expect that visa issues will continue to be a factor in choosing American hosts at least until after they have had a change of government.
As for accessibility, visa issue was a big concern of us the jury, particularly people who were involved into the 2006 conference organization in Boston. And for enforcing free knowledge in a global level, I personally this visa issue concern could be much more weighed, even more than the geographical rotation (as announced, even if we got rid of this category, the final result wouldn't be altered). Immigration policy is also a political concern, but it directly affects the conference and hinders our community members to share the knowledge with us the rest.
Cheers,
Ec
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