All,

The below may be of interest. Please follow-up on the Wikimania mailing list.

J.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: James Forrester jdforrester@gmail.com Date: 10 February 2013 18:13 Subject: Wikimania 2014 - Request for Bids and Jury nominations To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)" wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org

[Please note that I send this as a volunteer, and in no connexion to the Wikimedia Foundation.]

Dear all,

== Preamble ==

Last year, after some discussion on this list[0] and other places, I felt we as a community had said we were unhappy with the traditional ad-hoc system for selecting the location for each year's Wikimania, and wanted something different, a process that involved the community and was more transparent, clearer and possibly set out candidate areas or countries rather than inviting interested bids alone. In the hope that the community would self-organise along these lines, I haven't done anything to re-run the existing system.

However, no real discussion has taken place, and it's clear

[0] - http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2011-November/003225.html etc.

It's getting towards the end of November, which means it is time to run the Wikimania bidding process for 2013[0].

Given the traditional absence of a formal system, I'm putting myself forward as Jury[1] co-ordinator - a non-voting person who helps the Jury form and Bids get started up, sets the timeline[2], and hopefully makes sure everything happens smoothly.

In this role, I would like to make two requests:

Firstly, I'm sure the whole Wikimedia community would love to see as many good bids as possible. There are already a few bids[3] on Meta, but if you or your local community are thinking about putting one in, I'd urge you to get started now - there's not much time left before new bids will not be accepted. Making a good bid for Wikimania can be a lot of work, but we all benefit from there being a strong field of bids.

Secondly, [Please note that I send this as a volunteer, and in no connexion to the Wikimedia Foundation.]

Dear all,

I write again to ask for people to submit bids to host Wikimania in 2014[0], and also to serve on the Jury to select which bid will be chosen, in my traditonal .

== Request for bids ==

As always, the whole Wikimedia community would love to see as many good bids as possible. There are only two bids[1] on Meta, so if you or your local community are thinking about putting one in, or re-submitting one that is now withdrawn, I'd urge you to get started right away - there is very little time left. Making a good bid for Wikimania can be a lot of work, but we all benefit from there being a strong field of bids.

I have updated the timeline[2] to have an (extremely) foreshortened pre-bidding process, which means that all provisional bids must be created by 23:59 UTC 3 March 2013 at the latest - i.e., three weeks' time from when this e-mail was written. I appreciate that this is short notice, but it's very important to give the winning bid the time to make a success, and the idea of bidding for Wikimanias should not be completely new to everyone by now.

== Request for Jury volunteers ==

I would like to invite volunteers to serve on the Wikimania 2014 Jury. There is a list of general requirements on Meta[4], but to summarise:

* The Jury will be mostly community volunteers with possibly some Wikimedia Foundation staff or Board members; * We of course want a mix of people from a diverse range of backgrounds, sexes, cultures and regions of the world; * We want to represent the community across the different projects and activities; * You can't be on the Jury if you are closely involved in a Bid (it's a conflict of interest); and * You need to have some free time during the selection period (March-April).

If you wish to be involved in the Jury, please e-mail me (off-list) at jdforrester at gmail.com - I will announce the Jury in one week's time, so please contact me immediately.

== Note ==

Last year, after some discussion on the Wikimania list[4] and other places, I felt we as a community had said we were unhappy with the traditional ad-hoc system for selecting the location for each year's Wikimania, and wanted something different, a process that involved the community and was more transparent, clearer and possibly set out candidate areas or countries rather than inviting interested bids alone. In the hope that the community would self-organise along these lines, I haven't done anything to re-run the existing system.

However, no real discussion has taken place, and the process is now four months overdue[5]. It's clear that a community-agreed system won't magically snap into existence in the next few days. I would implore the community to work to establish a selection system for 2015 and beyond, but we cannot wait for 2014. Therefore, on the basis that I've done this before, I am running the process for Wikimania 2014 as before, as a non-voting organiser like the previous times. I would hope that this is the last time.

Please also consider passing this message on (and translating it!) for your wiki's community forum for those that don't read these mailing lists.

Thank you, and good luck to all Bids.

[0] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014 [1] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Bids [5] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_bid_selection_timeline?oldid=... [3] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_jury [4] - http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2011-November/003225.html etc. [5] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_bid_selection_timeline?oldid=...

Yours, -- James D. Forrester jdforrester@gmail.com [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]] (speaking purely in a personal capacity)