As we make our way back home from the hangover and euphoria of Wikimania 2007, I can only imagine the exhaustion but sense of accomplishment of the Wikimania conference team. Congratulations to all the planners for showing us an amazing time.

But I wanted to specifically praise the superb job the Taiwan team did. We should all thank them for their personal sacrifice of time and energy for the Wikimedia cause.

It was a staggering achievement. The effort was an eye opener to those new to Asia and to the growing communities in the region. This year Wikimania transcended its role as a gathering of Wikimedia projects, becoming the local event of the year for the free culture community in Taiwan. Wikimania became a reason for Creative Commons and Debian Linux to create parallel events, showing Wikimedia's influence worldwide.

Wikimania had a passionate core team of local Wikimedians, dozens of Taiwan-based free culture and technology veterans, and over 100 volunteers from the local college. Their commitment and attention to detail started even before the first speech was given, as they had volunteers greet attendees at the airport, just outside the gates of immigration.

Thanks would not be complete without highlighting the exemplary work of four individuals. They are not the only ones who worked hard, but their commitment, organization and professionalism throughout the year to plan this conference was stellar.

- Theodoranian, having been to every Wikimania conference so far, was a leader with the passion to bring Wikimania to Asia. (ie. he is the one crazy enough to try to do it in the first place.) He took "be bold" to heart and we benefitted. - KJ, always in control and with checklist in hand, led the way with sponsorship, and seemed to anticipate things ahead of time. She was a marvelous host and a consummate professional. - Frances provided a smile and pleasant demeanor even when being a traffic cop to the swarm of press inquiries. - TCliou handled technical and programming crises with authority and calm (even with the stress of his laptop going missing).

If only we could clone them to help plan every Wikimania.

The staff showed an agility to collaborate with many groups. I can speak from my own direct experience. This year I redirected all my involvement into the creation of a Wikimania Lounge. It was in the works ever since Wikimania 2006. While the Harvard location that year was top notch, it lacked a central gathering point for community to meet and exchange ideas outside of conference sessions. It was a concern many folks had -- Wikimedians were gathering, but were not mixing.

So when I proposed the idea of the Lounge for 2007, the Taiwan staff embraced it wholeheartedly by providing a space and sponsorship. Specifications for the Lounge were rather demanding -- a large central space at the venue; free flowing food, coffee and drinks; sofas for lounging; seating and tables for laptops; a projector, computer terminals and a learning area. A space was found and allocated. Theodoranian even went out of his way to transfer sofas from his workplace for the effort. TC provided volunteers on site to help with logistical assistance. Honestly, I asked for more than what I thought was reasonable, knowing full well even a partial fulfillment would have been an improvement. The team met and exceeded those expectations.

The selection of Taiwan for Wikimania 2007 was not without controversy at the time. There were excellent proposals from many locales, and the selection jury was surprised the bids had raised the standard so high. Any of the final three would have been excellent choices for Wikimania. Taiwan's selection certainly was in the sprit to "Be Bold".

If there were doubts whether Wikimania in Asia was a good idea, the Taiwan team put those to rest. Wikimania 2007 allowed more participants than ever from the Indian subcontinent, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan and Australia, showing a commitment of Wikimedia as a global effort.

Kudos to the Taiwan team for a spectacular job.

And just think, we get to do it all over again in 11 months and three weeks.

-Andrew (User:Fuzheado)