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

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthony wrote:
> What's the goal of Wikimania? Depending on the answer to that, a
> location away from the larger user clusters might even be seen as a
> good thing.
>   
It's an opportunity to see the human side of the ogres that you meet on 
line.  It cements relationships among active people.  It can draw 
significant people to a world event when they might not otherwise 
attend.  It gives global exposure to otherwise local ideas.  It's good 
publicity about our world-wide scope.

You really should try to attend one.
> Considering that there are only about 500 attendees each year out of
> the millions of people ever involved in the project (and probably tens
> of thousands of whom would attend if it happened to be located in
> their city), maximizing the number of attendees certainly doesn't seem
> to be the goal.
>
> The number of attendees is so tiny compared to the number of people
> who are involved in the project, I really don't think it much matters
> where to go.
>   
Remember that Frankfurt drew more Europeans; Boston drew more Americans, 
and Taipei drew more from Hong Kong and Australia.
>> 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.
>>     
> But...NO ONE lives in Antarctica (permanently, anyway).  There likely
> wouldn't be any "locals" attending at all.  Location would be one of
> many problems, and there'd be virtually no benefit.
>   
Maybe we don't need to go quite so far south.  If a US based Wikimania 
can happen in Georgia, we should not neglect the possibility that the 
Antarctic rotation be in South Georgia. :-)
>> 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.
>>     
> As long as "Wikimania proper" gets first dibs on the speakers, and is
> the one that the board attends, I don't see that happening.
I don't see that there needs to be a fork at all.  Wikimania would 
continue as an annual event, but there are 11 other months in the 
calendar.  Local or regional get-togethers don't need to be completely 
tied to national boundaries.  Here in the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland 
sector of the I-5 corridor I can go anywhere on fairly short notice, and 
at relatively small expense.  The geographical size of Canada and the 
United States turn national events into major efforts.  I don't know how 
the Aussies view travel between Sydney and Perth.