--- Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
I'm not sure you realize how big the world is---a day of driving or on a train covers a miniscule fraction of the world. Covering even 80% of Wikimedians within a day's train or car distance would require on the order of hundreds of meetings. In the US alone, it would require meetings in:
- Some city in the northeast (Boston, NYC, etc.)
- Seattle
- Chicago
- One of San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego
- Phoenix
- One of Houston, Austin, or Dallas
- Atlanta
- Denver
- Somewhere in Florida
My partner and I have driven all over the western part of the U.S. so I'm well aware of travel times (Sacramento to Yellowstone in 17 hours, Sacramento to the Grand Canyon in 14 - no problem at all when you have more than one driver). For example, a single meeting in Northern California/Southern Oregon would cover the entire western seaboard of the U.S. and much of the interior west. A few more meetings would cover the rest of the nation. Part of the meet-up process will be to carpool, expanding the range that any auto can cover in a day.
Of course we would also need meetings in Canada, 2-3 countries in northern europe, 2-3 countries in eastern and southern europe, Korea, the PRC (at least a few cities), the ROC, Singapore, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, Russia (probably multiple cities), Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Australia ... and those are just a bare-bones start.
So why the defeatist attitude? Just because the Olympics can only be in one nation every four years does not mean that rotating where it is held is a bad idea (same thing for EVERY international organization that rotates where its meetings are held). The foundation will persist for a very long time, giving ample opportunity (4 times a year every year) for all regions of the world to be covered. As with the Olympics, we could have competitions about where to have the next meeting; chapters would have to demonstrate that they can secure the facilities necessary to conduct the meeting and perhaps even help with the travel expenses of the trustees. I foresee these meetings as opportunities to energize the membership and act as launching pads for fund drives and special projects.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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