[Foundation-l] Taipei chosen to host Wikimania 2007

[David Gerard]

On 30/09/06, effe iets anders <effeietsanders at gmail.com> wrote:

> Please... Why are we having these fights?


Because this is the sort of thing that can come from setting it up as
a competitive process.


> Taipei has been chosen now,
> and we can i think do two things: Accept that or not. If we do the
> second, we will be fighting over this for weeks, months and maybe
> longer.


I suspect at least some of those not chosen question the transparency
of the selection criteria and process. Saying "stop talking about
this" doesn't stop them thinking about it.


> Please stop fighting over who copied something from someone else. It
> is NO use! In wiki it is *good* to copy the good things right? As long
> as it is the idea of improoving your bid, it is OK imho. The bid it is
> copied from won't be less good by that.


I do like the idea of the wiki process being applied to bids. It means
at least some effort is preserved for use by others.


> The idea is not to *win* with
> your bid,


If that is the case, it is at odds with the word "win" being used all
the way through the process, and with it being a competitive process.


>  Please let's all
> hope it will be a great conference, and don't make it harder for them
> with all these fights.


The competitive process by definition has a winner and several losers.
The losers will be upset if the selection process and criteria appear
not to have been transparent. Telling people to stop talking about it
won't stop them thinking about it, especially if they feel their
concerns are being dismissed rather than addressed. (I have no idea if
their concerns are valid, but they certainly think they are.) And
volunteers who feel ill-treated leave the project, which is damage to
the project caused by using a competitive process.

As I said, a competitive process will be inherently damaging. If
there's really no other way than a competitive process, then fine, but
don't be surprised when it has the side effects it's *obviously* going
to have.


- d.