Looks like work has started... for example in Sydney.
I rather fear that hosting Wikimania is a bit like the
Olympics or the
Eurovision song contest, a dubious honour that saps more from the host
organisation than it generates. That said if there are a keen group of
people who want to organise a UK Wikimania I have no objection to it
being here in 2014 or 2015.
Better still we should encourage those who want to organise a UK
Wikimania to get involved in the team running DC in 2012 and/or help
Manila or whoever gets 2013 (by 2013 we really should be taking
Wikimania back to the far East rather than yet another event at this
end of Eurasia).
II think that a UK bid for 2014 or 2015 would be much more impressive
if the bidders included people who'd played key roles in making 2012
and 2013 a success. If the UK was to fund flights and accommodation
for UK Wikimanians who made those events a success then I'd consider
that money well spent.
One criticism of the Wikimania process is that it involves reinventing
the wheel, so a bid for 2014 that included "accommodation booking will
be organised using the same software as 2012 run by the UK 2014 bid
member who is currently running it for 2013" or "scheduling team
includes ***** who has been a full participant in program scheduling
for 2013" would impress me and I hope others.
Another feature of some Wikimanias has been linguistic diversity and
even a non-English channel in the program. Now we could try for that,
perhaps with a collaboration with Wikipedia France. But I'd prefer a
more global approach - perhaps with skype channels and translation on
demand so that we or the Foundation provide scholarships for people
who speak a wide range of languages and can then offer skype channels
in various languages based on demand from Wikipedians around the
globe.
Regards
WereSpielChequers
On 25 July 2011 14:22, Gordon Joly<gordon.joly(a)pobox.com> wrote:
On 24/07/2011 16:11, Christopher Cooper wrote:
>>>>> In the longer-term, the
chapter would benefit greatly if the UK
>>>>> hosted the conference, of which it has not yet done so.
Ah,
yes, that old chestnut....
Gordo
--
Gordon Joly
gordon.joly(a)pobox.com
http://www.joly.org.uk/
Don't Leave Space To The Professionals!
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