Sure, both fair points. We certainly want one of the city centre colleges, and if we need multiple then getting neighbouring ones would be ideal (e.g. Balliol + Trinity or Balliol + St. John’s). The centre of Oxford is in any case pretty tiny. Nowhere is really more than 10 mins from anywhere else.

From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Cormac Lawler
Sent: 31 July 2008 17:50
To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Report back from meeting at the OII + Help request

On 7/31/08, Tom Holden <thomas.holden@gmail.com> wrote:

Balliol is just for accommodation and social spaces. People from the OII are going to get in contact with its master imminently to see how they could help. We will however need at least one other college for accommodation though, which the OII is also investigating for us. A £50 per person per night figure sounds like the upper bound at the moment (fingers crossed).

Thanks for all your work Tom, and this update. Though this accommodation situation is another thing I would identify as already being a point of concern. One of the criticisms of this year was that attendees' accommodation was scattered across different places, meaning that social potential was compromised. Of course, it was still liveable with :-) - but just to point out that it would probably be a "perceived weakness" of the bid. If there is any way of accommodating people all together, and as near to the venue as possible, that would be best. These practical questions are the things most likely to swing a bid IMHO, more than partnerships with prestigious organisations (even though these are of course *great*).

Cormac