foundation-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
If you're interested in establishing a more regular North American or Europe-wide conference the for years when we don't have Wikimania in the area, then great! We can certainly use more local organization of this sort in the US, and at the Europe-wide level in addition to the numerous country-wide groups there.
- -- brion vibber
Well that would be nice but would WMF pay for all these conferences? Who would organize them other than one person? This isn't a task for one or two people much less someone with no experience in doing so.
Last I heard the "Conference of The America's" is not happening. Why? Not too sure why but if I cannot afford a trip to Buenos Aires or Egypt I certainly cannot afford to make my own conference.
Jason Safoutin (DragonFire1024)
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:57 PM, Jason Safoutin < jason.safoutin@wikinewsie.org> wrote:
foundation-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
If you're interested in establishing a more regular North American or Europe-wide conference the for years when we don't have Wikimania in the area, then great! We can certainly use more local organization of this sort in the US, and at the Europe-wide level in addition to the numerous country-wide groups there.
- -- brion vibber
Well that would be nice but would WMF pay for all these conferences? Who would organize them other than one person? This isn't a task for one or two people much less someone with no experience in doing so.
Last I heard the "Conference of The America's" is not happening. Why? Not too sure why but if I cannot afford a trip to Buenos Aires or Egypt I certainly cannot afford to make my own conference.
Jason, you seem to be under a misconception. Wikimanias are primarily organized by teams of local volunteers and primarily funded by a combination of attendee fees and corporate donors, so they take in about as much money as they spend. Yes, the Foundation does have a role in planning, organization, and financing, but in many ways not the dominant role.
So the first step in organizing a conference is assembling a team of semi-local Wikimedians who are committed to making it happen. In most cases that builds off organization at the Chapter level, in places where chapters exist. The bid process exists, in part, to ensure that the necessary local support team has been put in place.
So if you would like a conference to happen near you, perhaps the thing to do is figure out how you can gather a group of dedicated Wikimedians in your area to rally around the idea.
-Robert Rohde
Robert Rohde wrote:
Jason, you seem to be under a misconception. Wikimanias are primarily organized by teams of local volunteers and primarily funded by a combination of attendee fees and corporate donors, so they take in about as much money as they spend. Yes, the Foundation does have a role in planning, organization, and financing, but in many ways not the dominant role.
An important role, though, is blessing it as the official worldwide Wikimedia conference. This is what attracts most of the corporate donors, and without that status, it's very difficult to get any funding, so therefore hard to put on a significant conference without prohibitively high attendee fees.
The Atlanta bid team attempted to turn their Wikimania bid into a Wikimedia Conference of the Americas, but as far as I can tell they weren't able to keep the sponsors on board once it was no longer the international event, and it basically fell through.
-Mark
I'd suggest asking Mike Halterman the details on that.
Considering that the cost for a conference of that size is in the 6 figure range, raising that kind of money is going to simply be beyond most organizers without serious backing; and I do not believe the foundation can provide or will provide that kind of backing.
-Dan On Mar 31, 2008, at 10:45 PM, Delirium wrote:
Robert Rohde wrote:
Jason, you seem to be under a misconception. Wikimanias are primarily organized by teams of local volunteers and primarily funded by a combination of attendee fees and corporate donors, so they take in about as much money as they spend. Yes, the Foundation does have a role in planning, organization, and financing, but in many ways not the dominant role.
An important role, though, is blessing it as the official worldwide Wikimedia conference. This is what attracts most of the corporate donors, and without that status, it's very difficult to get any funding, so therefore hard to put on a significant conference without prohibitively high attendee fees.
The Atlanta bid team attempted to turn their Wikimania bid into a Wikimedia Conference of the Americas, but as far as I can tell they weren't able to keep the sponsors on board once it was no longer the international event, and it basically fell through.
-Mark
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Jason Safoutin wrote:
foundation-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
If you're interested in establishing a more regular North American or Europe-wide conference the for years when we don't have Wikimania in the area, then great! We can certainly use more local organization of this sort in the US, and at the Europe-wide level in addition to the numerous country-wide groups there.
Well that would be nice but would WMF pay for all these conferences? Who would organize them other than one person? This isn't a task for one or two people much less someone with no experience in doing so.
Last I heard the "Conference of The America's" is not happening. Why? Not too sure why but if I cannot afford a trip to Buenos Aires or Egypt I certainly cannot afford to make my own conference.
The funding may need to come from the chapters and their own fundraising. Apart from the high costs of travel to far-away places, the organizers have done an excellent job of keeping costs, including accommodations, down. If you feel that a Conference of the Americas should be happening, what are you doing to help organize it?
Ec
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