On 14/07/2014, Jane Darnell jane023@gmail.com wrote:
Well maybe all of you are independently wealthy, have laptop and and will travel, but as I see it, for the rest of us, without travel budget facilitated by WMF and chapters, I don't see how we can achieve meetups to do any brainstorming at all. And poring over lists of ideas tucked away in the recesses of the deep dark Meta is not my idea of a good time (but as ever, thanks for the links Nemo)
We have very different views of the world. I have no expectation that Wikimedia donations should pay for me to go to local Wikimeets/meet-ups (which cost me about £3 in bus travel). Similarly, as a member of the Steering Group for the GWToolset, I was happy to have several significant strategy meetings via Google Hangout, which cost the participants precisely nothing and Wikimedia nothing in expenses, even though we were deciding how to invest a few hundred thousand euros.
Yes, some people may get scholarships to travel to Wikimania or other conferences, however my understanding is that this would be limited to those presenting.
A lot can be done using virtual tools, and we should all be experts in making this work well. I would much rather virtual discussion be used for maximum effect and the default choice, so that flying people around the planet is kept for special events with high measurable returns for the money spent. I still regret that for every Wikimania so far, we have not cracked the virtual participation problem by live-streaming and accepting questions via live-chat or similar. Anyway, this is a bit tangential...
Fae