The bidding process for Wikimania 2011 is now open for business!

==DEADLINES== Timeline: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Bids

Important dates:  * February 8, 2010 (0:01 UTC): Bidding creation ends. List of running cities announced. WHAT THIS MEANS: if you want to bid, create a page on Meta (see below) and add your city to the list. Your bid does not have to say anything beyond "we're bidding!" at this point. New bids will not be accepted after this date, however.

* March 29, 2010 (0:00 UTC): Bidding ends. All major information on bidding pages must be finalized. WHAT THIS MEANS: your bid must be complete! all information about your proposed venue, accommodation, key team, etc. should be posted. Minor changes (updated information, background information) will be accepted after this date, but the critical parts of the bid should be finished.

* March 31 - April 12: Refining of bids and answering questions. WHAT THIS MEANS: you can clarify unclear parts and add updated information. Suddenly divulging a new venue is not ok, though.

* April 12: Question & Answer from jury ends * April 13 - April 26: Jury deliberation. * April 27, 2010: Announcement of host city to public.

The early timeline means that (if followed) hopefully representatives of the winning bid will be able to attend this year's Wikimania in Gdansk, which is very helpful for organizers.

==HELPFUL INFORMATION==

To file a bid, follow these directions: * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Official_requirements_for_bidd...

The criteria for bids, with a few minor changes from last year, are here: * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Judging_criteria

==UNOFFICIAL ADVICE==

Previous winning bids can be found linked on Meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania

All winning bids have shared certain characteristics: a strong community-based team with defined roles and leadership, a thoughtful budget, careful consideration of the spaces Wikimania will be in, an attention to detail and to all of the criteria, and a willingness to improve on the last conference.

That page also has links to the suggestions for improvement that people have made after each conference. These follow patterns too and can be helpful to review.

As a bid team, it can be helpful to articulate -- both for yourselves and the jury -- what you want Wikimania to be and what you envision it being for the community.

All members of the community should feel free to discuss and analyze bids as they are developed; this is not a sealed process. Members of the jury have to carefully review each bid, and having any unclear areas pointed out and discussed (and fixed) ahead of time can be very helpful.

Finally, if you have any questions or suggestions or comments on the bidding process, as always, post them to the talk page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2011

If you have any questions for the Wikimania jury specifically, please email them to me or to James Forrester and we will pass them along to the private jury mailing list. All private communications with the jury are confidential.

best regards, and good luck -- Phoebe Ayers Wikimania 2011 jury moderator (non-voting) on behalf of the 2011 jury: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Jury