[Foundation-l] Taipei chosen to host Wikimania 2007

[Alison Wheeler]

On Thu, September 28, 2006 12:07, David Gerard wrote:
> The procedure as it is evidently needs work, since other bidders (e.g.
> London) are disappointed at their hard work being pretty much wasted.
and
> The current system seems to ensure a lot of volunteer time and effort
> being futile. This is damaging to the project.

Coming a little late to this discussion, could I (as one of the leads on
the London bid) say that (a) I don't see the need for a bidding process as
at all 'damaging' nor, other than the first few hours after the decision
was announced am I that disappointed. Yes, the work is 'wasted' by some
views, but much of it will get recycled into other projects (the schools
outreach and community outreach programmes we had been planning are still
likely to go ahead in some form, for instance) and if you think we were
depressed be glad you weren't Paris at the latest declaration of the city
to host the Summer Olympics in 2012! So far as I am concerned I am happy
that Taipei will be hosting in 2007 and wish them well.

One thing I would definitely say though is that this process did point up
a few things that need sorting before the next city is chosen.

1. Travel costs; should be researched centrally by WMF or someone
independent from all the bids. It was clear that this caused great
friction in this year's bids as Taipei - by their own admission - used
this year's prices without taxes and surcharges even though actual-date
flight information and charges were available and used by other bids. This
meant that the bids information was clearly biased and inconsistent and
could mislead the analysts.

2. What is the *point* of Wikimania? Is it just for editors of Wikimedia
projects? Is it for technical/academic purposes? Is is (as we in London
had planned) a way to expand the 'reach' and use of the Wikimedia projects
to the wider population and not just those already in the FLOSS/wiki
sphere?

3. Extending from both of these points is that of who the attendees are;
the demographics of our editors and how much disposable income they have
to be able to fly around the world. In essence this is an old-fashioned
network routing calculation as whilst some people may be expensed to
attend Wikimania (the board, for example, and some presenters) most
attendees aren't and if we aim for 'free and open source' then we should
also aim for 'cheap and easy travel' too.

4. A last thought on location is the one of language and locality. The
nationality of the host location and its 'default language' don't have
that much effect on the conference itself - our working language is
english, after all - but they do on the attendees ability to travel
in-country and enjoy anything the location might offer outwith the
conference.

Could I also suggest that we should be seeking an 'independence of view'
from all people concerned with deciding on a venue or employees of same.
Brad's support for Torino during the selection period, and Jimbo's recent
comment here are, to my mind, very out of place and could easily suggest
to many that there is pressure being brought on them.

I was dishearted, indeed, to see that people were making suppositions
about different candidate cities external to the information those cities
made available about their offerings and that - if geographical
considerations are to form a part of the decision-makiong process - they
need to be clarified in advance and applied equally.

Alison Wheeler