[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

[Cary Bass]

The Jury for Wikimania 2008 bids have met and are pleased to announce
that Wikimania 2008 will be held in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Bids were assessed by a Jury[0] which included community members
representing various geographical areas, and organisers of the previous
conferences. The Jury used 12 criteria[1] to judge the bids, which were
drawn up based on the Jury's previous experiences organising the
conference and with input from a wide range of community concerns.

Alexandria was found to be particularly strong in the areas of
reflecting the Wikimedia Foundation's roots in geo-diversity and
multi-lingualism, of the very exciting nature of the proposed venue
and its local facilities, and of the particularly advanced nature of
the financial planning.

All three Bids were very strong in differing ways, each with stronger
and weaker points. We would like to draw particular attention to the
efforts of the team behind the Atlanta bid, which came in second place
and was particularly commendable in the areas of providing in-facility
accommodation and social space, and for doing great outreach to local
Wikimedians. Their efforts could serve as an example to any team
hoping to get the local community involved. The Cape Town bid was
marked strongly by the Jury for cultural diversity, a particularly
benign local environment, and efforts to secure local recognition and
facilities. We'd especially like to congratulate Cape Town on
providing our very first strong bid from the Southern Hemisphere.

A table of the results is given below. Each member of the jury had up
to 60 points to allocate to the bids in each of the 12 categories,
which they did after a period of discussion and careful deliberation.

Category         Alexandria  Atlanta     Cape Town

Accommodation       251         298          71
Funding             264         224         152
Location            294         154         182
Internet Access     204         263         133
Local Laws          155         253         222
Press               232         235         153
Organizing Team     244         206         163
Rotation            305          55         260
Social Areas        222         258         140
Cost                289         206         125
Venue               323         158         139
Visas               243         109         263

Total              3026        2419        2003

Note that a 13th category, on personal preference, was polled but is
not included as it had no significant effect on the result.

The Jury would like to thank all of those involved in bids, including
those whose bids did not go forward to the final selection, for their
efforts which combined to produce a competitive field.

We strongly encourage all those who bid this year, and those of you
wondering whether your city could have done the same, to consider
bidding for Wikimania 2009, for which the decision will begin very
shortly. See the Wikimania 2009 page on meta[2] for further updates
within the next few days.

We are especially looking forward to the Wikimedia Foundation
collaborating with one of the most famous repositories of knowledge in
the world, and emphasising the newly developing Wikimedia projects in
Africa and the Middle East. We would like to encourage the entire
community to support the Alexandria team over the coming year in
producing an outstanding conference, and look forward to meeting as
many of you as possible there.

On behalf of the Wikimania 2008 bid Jury.

[0] - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2008/Jury
     Sue Gardner and Jan-Bart DeVreede abstained from voting.
[1] - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania 2008/Judging criteria
[2] - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009

-- 

James D. Forrister
Cary Bass