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

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 10/9/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Agreed. Is there anything stopping people from organizing an event
> > somewhere that isn't so expensive?
>
> "Expensive for me" you mean? Someone always loses out.

That is true, which is one reason why rotation is a criteria, but this
selected location isn't particularly ideal for any of the larger user
clusters.

Had a location in western Europe been selected the costs would have
been much lower for eastern north America, most of europe, and I'm
guessing less costly for Australia.

We've also never had a Wikimania that was conveniently placed for the
Western side of north America, or south America.

All locations are not the same. Yes, someone gets screwed no matter
where its located, but a lot more people get screwed and fewer people
benefit when it is held

> "Actually useful"? I don't see how the location changes the usefulness
> of the conference...

... You don't?
So you don't think that if we held the next one in Antarctica that it
would be less useful?   .... This should be a question of degree.

Obviously a conference that lots of people can't go to is less useful
... I think there is something wrong when we're holding conferences
and directly involved people are nearly a minority at them.

> As someone else suggested, hosting local Wikimanias is a good option.
> Why not get behind Atlanta (I assume you live in the US as you agree
> with Greg's comments) and organise a US Wikimania maybe a couple of
> weeks before or after the official one.

Honestly, if we fork the conference with a US version (and potentially
an offset European version) there is a substantial risk that the
popularity of these events will endanger the success of Wikimania
proper.

There is also the question of who would front the money for a large
regional event... though that could be resolved.

The effort to make Wikimania a truly global thing adds an enormous
overhead but it can provide some good value.