Dear Chen,
I'm reaching out to you on behalf of the WikiIndaba Steering Committee
(WISCom) regarding the next WikiIndaba Conference host country for this
year 2023 and year 2024. After careful consideration we have decided that
WikiIndaba 2023 will take place in Agadir, Morocco on 3&4 November and
WikiIndaba 2024 will take place in Cape Town, South Africa on 1&2 November.
Going forward, we have adopted a system of selecting two host countries
which will cover two years of the conference. This will ease the burden and
save time of having to deliberate in a long selection process after each
conference. It will also give time for the next host to prepare themselves
for the conference. One needs to mention that this was advice from WMF’s
CEO.
In order to ensure that we have regional rotation, we were deliberate with
our selection process. We invited affiliates from Francophone speaking
countries including Algeria, Cameroon, Morocco, Congo, Benin, Mali and
Conakry Guinea to express interest in hosting the conference. This was
followed by a selection criterion which looked at several factors including
the capacity to host the conference, if there were elections this year in
the bidding country, capacity of the affiliate as well as motivations they
provided on why they wanted to host. We are happy to further meet with you
to discuss the bidding process and criterion we’ve used.
We believe that both countries offer the perfect environment to host the
Conference, and they both have the resources, infrastructure, and capacity
to make it a success. Although we have not officially announced this to the
wider community, we’ve already informed the hosts that they’ve won the
bids. We are confident that both countries will be able to provide the
necessary support and facilities for the event.
Despite all of these measures, we still want to find out from you if
Wikimedia UG Morocco is cleared or fit to receive funds from the Wikimedia
Foundation to run the conference for this year?
I’ve already addressed the issue of late submission on my other email and
again would like to sincerely apologise for this oversight from our end.
However, I would also like to reiterate that WikiINdaba is important
because it provides an invaluable platform for African Wikimedia
communities to come together and discuss projects, challenges and
opportunities for collaboration. By convening Wikimedians from across the
continent, WikiINdaba serves as a forum to identify potential new partners
and synergies and provides an opportunity to strengthen the African
Wikimedia community as well as ensures that the African Wikimedia movement
is well connected and informed. So, we can’t have the conference halted
this year because of poor communication between ourselves and you. Hence,
our request for an extension of the due date.
Kind regards,
Bobby Shabangu
WISCom