foundation-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Austin
If it were simply a matter of being "closer to Europe and North
America," however, and if that were the deciding factor, Toronto would
have won easily. When we talk about "accessibility," we look at the
broader community, not just the NATO-centric view. As Patricia points
out later in this thread, South America is home to a huge chunk of our
existing and potential community; we could go on to talk about the
continuing recovery from the eswiki fork or debate Ameri- and
Euro-centricity, and although I'm sure somebody will before this
thread ends, the plain fact is that Buenos Aires was judged the
superior bid?with due consideration to who will be able to attend.
Really we can do
without the attacks of being "NATO-centric" Its not
about that. Its about who can attend. And maybe if WM was in areas that
people would be able to attend, people would go...at least more than
from what I hear, 25% of the people not affiliated with WMF.
I don't know where you get a superior attendance from a place like
Toronto or something else. Maybe the jury has money or is well off, but
if you took into consideration the "cultural diversity" then you would
realize that WMF contributers, a majority cannot dream of going there or
Egypt.
What broader community exactly? Because the way I see it is the
project's communities come first. My biggest priority would be to get
contributers there first rather than seeing if we can appeal to people
who have no clue what Wikimedia is.
Jason Safoutin (DragonFire1024)