Birgitte SB wrote:
I intially disagreed with you, david, but now I am coming around to your way of thinking. Everyone is a volunteer doing there best in this. I do not doubt that this is true. But I am beginning to think a competitive process requires a higher level of professionalism than can be provided by volunteers doing their best.
I can understand that some people are disappointed by not winning the bid, but now that a decision is made supporting the winning bid serves well in maintaining general harmony.
This is not the kind of decision that can be effectively made by votes at broad volunteer level. There are too many factors that cannot be properly communicated even if a heroic effort is made by the committee to do so. Much can depend on technical considerations about the facility that can only be answered by very direct and specific questions from the committee. It would probably be a good idea to leave time for feedback from the general membership about the shortlisted bids; perhaps a month would do. This would give time for concerns of various sorts to be raised. I don't think that this was possible for 2005-7 because of the tighter time line for making the decision. It should be possible for 2008 and later since we do want a longer planning cycle.
I support the principle of rotating Wikimania around three broad geographical regions (Europe/Africa, The Americas, Asia/Australia), but this should not create a situation where we must accept a city's clearly inferior bid just because it is the only one from its region.
Not that I think people should continue fighting over the Wikimania 2007 selection. But we should not stop talking about this process. 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?
I think that the Foundation's connection with Wikimania should be closer than its links with any of the other sister projects. Wikimania's objectives have more to do with marshalling physical assets than trying to build something on-line. There is still the task of putting together a programme for the conference, but I don't see that as a big logistical problem. As long as the programmers are respectful of the diversity of Wikimedia projects serious difficulties are unlikely.
Perhaps a separate, but closely linked non-profit corporation needs to be set up to deal with Wikimania. It could be the one responsible for any possible liabilities that could arise from operating real-world rather than virtual events.
Ec