On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 1:01 PM, Jason Safoutin Please note that members of the jury read Foundation-l and Wikimania-l, so any criticisms, compliments or suggestions made here does indeed reach them. Therefore, you should probably address yourself directly to the moderators and jury members if you think we are doing a bad job. In addition, I will be glad to forward any private messages to the jury email list. Constructive suggestions are probably the most helpful, along with a more detailed explanation of any criticisms. In that vein, these are the basic questions that I am personally most interested in hearing constructive, creative, and thoughtful answers to: * Is the bidding system the best way to identify possible Wikimania locations? if not, what other system could be used to ensure an enthusiastic and capable organizing team every year? * If the bidding system is the best way, then how would you choose from amongst bids in a timely manner that would ensure fairness, consistency and community representation, while also providing in-depth knowledge of the conference and representing the interests of the Foundation? If the answer is a small-group jury, then how would you pick the members of that jury? * Is something wrong with the conference, or the conference location? * If the conference location, then how would you define a better location? How would you pick a location that does not unfairly penalize any group of Wikimedia editors and community members? How would you pick a location that is accessible to as many community members as possible? What evidence would you base this decision on? * How would you change the bidding criteria to ensure this better location? Would you change the bidding criteria in other ways? * How would you deal with the different criticisms of locations that have been raised on this list -- considering that different criticisms have been raised regarding all four conference locations (on four continents) to date, and all of them have validity? * How would you best support the passionate and dedicated community members who have volunteered to make the huge personal sacrifice of organizing the conference? * Would you be willing and capable of organizing the conference (which past experience says is a commitment of 10-30 hours a week for a year, plus the responsibility of providing an excellent experience for the community with very little reward and the responsibility of coming up with your own funding, and motivating 10-20 volunteers to donate an equivalent amount of time)? If not, how do you suggest we find people who are? -- Phoebe _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 6:20 PM, Majorly <axel9891(a)googlemail.com> wrote: I agree with Majorly on this, and maybe this is the root reason why people seem to be so disgruntled with these processes. We've got this closed and secretive selection where a small group are making these sweeping decisions. The "community" (however you choose to define that) isn't given any input in this matter whatsoever. We don't get to help in the decision-making process (except for submitting bids which are judged on unknown criteria), and we don't get to express problems in any orderly way after the fact.

I won't harp on this issue anymore here other then to say, as I say often, that a little bit of openness and communication can go a long way to solving problems. --Andrew Whitworth _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Aphaia <aphaia(a)gmail.com> wrote: Then, when the decision has been made, there seems to be no venue presented and no tolerance displayed for people who have questions, comments, or concerns about it.

Having a talk page on meta hardly means that the process is an "open" one.

--Andrew Whitworth _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l