On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 4:07 PM Devouard (gmail) fdevouard@gmail.com wrote:
I think it is a very good move.
Berlin conference has a big default, which is that, contrariwise to our mouvement, it is not inclusive. This is a closed conference where only specific people may go. That naturally let out a whole lot of people. All those who do great things, but who are not representative of an affiliate.
True. But:
Berlin has become so big that increasingly, many decisions are made over there, in a closed environment. And those who are not part it are missing opportunities to weight in.
I have been to every Wikimedia Conference since 2009, and I disagree with this characterization. I am hard-pressed to think of *decisions* made at WMCON. I remember discussions, feedback-gathering (e.g. the recent strategy work), but not *decisions*. The only *decisions* I can think of actually made at the Wikimedia Conference are either: 1. committee decisions (e.g. AffCom), using the conference for a face-to-face meeting and making the same kinds of decisions they otherwise make online, or 2. decisions between a group of volunteers to collaborate on something (i.e. individuals inspiring each other into undertaking a volunteer project, e.g. WLM).
Characterizing this conference as a secretive decision-making cabal is untrue and unfair, and may give people who've never been to it a very wrong impression.
A.