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

[TzuChiang Liou]

Congratulation!!! All three candidates are great (hope to see Atlanta
and Cape Town join 2009 bidding!), and I believed that 2008 would be
even more fascinating and successful.

Alexandria team, the challenge is just now begin but you can make it,
we're all here to back you up, please do feel free to contact people
who might be helpful. Go wikimania! Go Alexandria!

Can't wait to next year!

regards,

TzuChiang

Tzu-Chiang Liou
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Cary Bass wrote:
> 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
>