Now that the dust has settled a little bit...
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Sabine said
Taipei was chosen - that is a fact. They did great work like all other
bidding teams did. Instead of creating problems could we please look
forewards and help them to make it a great event?
Which is exactly what I feel like saying.
Some people will try to think of better way for the next bid.
But we mostly have a new Wikimania to prepare.
I'd like to say thank you to Hsiang-Tai Chien for his civility and that
I hope we'll do a fabulous Wikimania 2007 in Taipei.
One of the specific request I will have (which is basically the same
that the one of the past two years) is that we try to find funds to help
wikipedians to come from all over the world. We need to start looking
for such funds as soon as possible. And make this event a bridge between
continents.
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Birgitte said
"Original jury comprises of the members of the
Board :
Angela, Anthere, Jimmy Wales, Michael Davis, Tim
Shell, to which will be added the new Board member
elected in September to replace Angela, and also the
core organisation team of Wikimania 2006: Phoebe
Ayers, Austin Hair, Samuel Klein and Delphine Ménard.
Other members are: Andrew Lih.
and
We should start talking about how future
Wikimania's should be selected.
Perhaps the first task is to really define the
relationship between Wikimania and Wikimedia. Is it
dealt with through a commitee? Are there any Board
Resolutions that pertain to Wikimania? What exactly
is the connection?
and
Will any member of the jury be employed by Wikimania
2007? Will any member of jury be in a position to
decide how sponsorship monies are spent (i.e. drafting
budgets or who receives scholarships)?
and
Any possible perception of corruption should be
avoided at all costs.
My answers to Birgitte
Jury was Angela, Tim, Anthere, Phoebe, Austin, Sj, Delphine and Andrew.
You raised issues of possible corruption and issues of possible conflict
of interest. I'd say pretty clearly that I do not think *any* of us was
corrupted. I absolutely understand the anger of some people, complaints
of poor process may be receivable, but accusation of corruption are
serious accusation and should only be done with proof imho.
Conflict of interest is more likely of course.
In this case, I do not think any of us are meeting a conflict of
interest. Very likely, none of the three board members will be on the
board by next summer (Angela is already gone; Tim is planned to resign
by the end of the year or so; and my term ends in july). So, we were not
planning our next exotic holidays.
Afaik, none of the jury members is planned to be paid to take care of
the organisation. I do not think it will happen, but afaik, none of them
have expressed the slightest desire to be hired to do the job. And this
was not discussed on the board.
Presumably (and hopefully), some of the jury members will merge with the
chinese team so as to offer their own abilities and experience.
Will they be involved in drafting budget ? I do not think so. I presume
this will require one of the chinese team member to work closely with WMF.
Will they be involved in deciding who will receive sponsorship ? Well,
if they are part of Wikimania 2007 team, this may happen of course. I do
not think it represents a conflict of interest though. They could have
done the same for Torino.
"to really define the relationship between Wikimania and Wikimedia"
Well, the WMF is the legal organiser of Wikimania. Generally, it is the
organiser of Wikimania, but most of the organisation is delegated.
A better question would rather be (imho) "what are the goals of Wikimania"
"Is it dealt with through a commitee?"
Well, informally, yes. The Wikimania committee. Which is not officially
a committee...
We may wish to formalize this a little bit....
"Are there any Board Resolutions that pertain to Wikimania?"
Afaik, none for this year. I think the only decision was made last year
with regards to Delphine contract. Actually... this was not visible at
all, but I spent a lot of time, with Delphine and Sj, trying to fix an
agreement to define areas of responsabilities. This document and the
pertaining agreement were approved by the board. It was done before the
resolution system, so there is no resolution, but it was amongst the
most documented decision we took.
In the end, the carefull agreement was useless as areas of
responsabilities were largely not respected, which lead to a lot of
tension in the team.
But you have a point Birgitte.
In view of what happened last year, it is best that
1) decent resolutions be passed on Wikimania issue
2) a committee be created, with clear description of each person
involved, area of expertise and area of responsability. This is doubly
important as (at least for I, and certainly for Michael Davis), we know
quite little the chinese team. And important in case the last year team
or others want to get involved.
3) each person involved makes a clear statement of potential conflicts
of interest
I'd like to ask HT if all the chinese wikimania core team could join the
wikimania mailing list, even though it may be that some of you discuss
issues in chinese only. It is important (imho) that at least some non
chinese be involved in the organisation, as it will greatly enrich the
process.
Also, I would like that all core organisers provide a little bit more
information about them, and that the role of each be defined as much as
possible. This will help identify areas where help is missing. And this
will help us identify who the Foundation should be in touch with for
various issues (for example, the Foundation (Michael) MUST be in contact
with the budget person).
ant