I don't know, I'm 14, (15 in September), I live in Brighton, so it wouldn't be too hard to get there, but the idea of getting lost in London by myself scares me, and going unaccompanied into the pub (the regular venue I believe)... I guess I like the hackathon because theres a fair amount of time for talks and bugsmashing as well, and there are lots of techy people in one room...

The current arrangements suit me, but I'm conscious that under 18s and moslems are unlikely to  come to a pub. Having a loo that weelchair users can't use doesn't help either. The advantage of a pub is that provided you have a few drinkers such as myself the venue is free, but with the current state of Wikimedia UK funds I think we might be able to get some grant money to sometimes hire a different venue.

On 17 May 2011, at 13:58, Marco Chiesa wrote: In general, trying to get a room for free is a very good approach - but if it doesn't work out, then I can't see a reason why WMUK couldn't provide funds to hire the venue, particularly if there is an obvious benefit such as the "joint Wikimedia UK/Bangla Wikipedia meetup" that WereSpielChequers suggested. BTW, I've previously tried to get a free room at the university I work at on a weekend for the WMUK AGM in 2009, but failed to get it for free because they would have to charge to open up the building on a Saturday (we had a lack of money at the time of this AGM). We ended up in a good room in a nearby pub that we hired for free - but again, it was not disabled-friendly and had several other flaws as a meeting place. Moral of the story: there are many obstacles that can present themselves when trying to get a room for free, and sometimes the best way to get around them in this business-orientated world is with some amount of money.... Thanks, Mike _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

On 18 May 2011, at 07:04, Lewis Cawte wrote: If you think such a page would be useful, then please go ahead and create it - the WMUK wiki is open for everyone to edit for a reason. ;-) I'd encourage more of a direct approach, though - try organising a meetup, and record what the outcomes and lessons learnt are afterwards... Thanks, Mike _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

The current arrangements suit me, but I'm conscious that under 18s and moslems are unlikely to come to a pub. Having a loo that weelchair users can't use doesn't help either. The advantage of a pub is that provided you have a few drinkers such as myself the venue is free, but with the current state of Wikimedia UK funds I think we might be able to get some grant money to sometimes hire a different venue. I'd like to try moving round a bit and maybe theming a few events - a joint Wikimedia UK/Bangla Wikipedia meetup at the http://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/facilities would be interesting. If the chapter were willing to fund it we could use this for some really interesting outreach work. WSC _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

On 19/05/2011 12:29, Richard Farmbrough wrote: On the other hand, a (strict) Muslim friend would not attend my birthday party in a pub. If people are absent, they may not be counted. I recall somebody saying how rich a country was. Everybody is driving round in fancy new cars. But the people who are poor are not seen, since they are not driving cars of any sort, and living in away from the richer areas. Gordo

On 16 May 2011 21:51, Lewis Cawte <lewiscawte(a)googlemail.com> wrote: As the organiser of the London meetups, I should throw in here that I've been mindful of the lack of variation in venues and a worry that as a pub, the location discourages some of our community - I'd be happy to move it to another spot if that would work better for people (Lewis and others). :-)