It's clear that some of the previous threads about Wikimania drifted
off-topic and became unproductive. However, I think that several
serious concerns got lost in the noise, and that we cannot drop the
topic from the list without addressing them, especially as people are
starting to plan their travel. If we can be assured that safety
concerns are being taken seriously by the WMF and the Wikimania
organizers and are not being dismissed or ignored, this would go a
long way toward improving the tone of discussion on the list.
I have two main concerns with Wikimania so far.
First, the coverage of the Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy and
images in the Muhammad article on Wikipedia have sparked protest from
many people, some of whom have made frightening and violent threats of
reprisal against Wikimedia. These threats become more immediate and
worthy of concern in a region where there is recent history of
violence in response to religious controversies. This would be an
extreme reaction, but I don't think that we can discount the
possibility. It only takes a few extreme voices to cause a serious
issue, and we need to be aware that this may happen and have a plan to
ensure that attendees are not put in danger.
Secondly, I am also concerned that the local organizing team has not
been sufficiently responsive to concerns about safety. A risk which is
dismissed is one which is not being mitigated. Every location has some
risk involved, and there should always be consideration of those
risks. But I can't find any indication that this is happening here,
and I would like to know that someone is considering it and taking
reasonable steps to mitigate it.
Even if the safety concerns were completely without merit, perception
of risk is important to an event which can only be successful if a
diverse crowd of people attend. People are going to choose whether or
not to go based on what they think is true. If people do not go
because they think they will not be safe, even if they should have no
reason to think so, the event is harmed by the failure to address
their concerns.
So I would like to know:
What plans are in place to ensure attendees' safety at Wikimania?
What happens if we get threats of violence at the event?
Cheers