[Foundation-l] Reply to Mark

[Yann Forget]

Hello,

Lars Aronsson wrote:
> Mark Williamson wrote:
> 
>> It has come as a shock to us that such a decision as the one 
>> about the location of this Wikimania could be passed down with 
>> such little consideration of our safety.
>>
>> As I have said, this seems unlikely to change now, and as we say 
>> in my family there is no use crying over spilt milk.
> 
> Your concerns are valid.  But hey, your problem is not the only 
> problem in this world.  People are oppressed by states, by their 
> fellow citizens, by poverty, and by their own lack of skills, 
> abilities and knowledge.  If more people knew how to advance 
> agriculture, or how to pool their resources in ventures such as 
> the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, they wouldn't have to work so hard 
> to support themselves. Oppression from states is made harder by 
> the dissemination of knowledge to individuals.  Wikipedia is here 
> to disseminate knowledge to individuals.  How can we improve this?
> 
> Perhaps you feel you need to stay at home from this Wikimania. 
> That's bad, but it doesn't mean the whole Wikimania is wasted.
> Wikimania should be kept open to the people who, for various 
> reasons, can't be there in person.  You can submit a paper and a 
> video presentation, and join the live chat session, but everybody 
> doesn't need to buy the air ticket.  We're not here to sell air 
> tickets.  We're here to disseminate knowledge.
> 
> Hosting Wikimania in Europe or the U.S. might be a problem for a 
> lot of people who can't get a visa or who just can't afford to go. 
> And for some people who feel that this is just another scheme that 
> "the west" is trying to push down their throats.
> 
> As an outreach it is really important to host some major 
> Wikipedia-related event on the African continent and it is 
> important to host a major Wikipedia-related event in the Arab 
> world.  It doesn't have to be Wikimania, last year there was a 
> "Wikipedia Academy" in South Africa, but now it happens to be 
> Wikimania.  And as such, Egypt is an excellent combination.  Many 
> other countries would be far worse.  Wikipedians in Syria, Algeria 
> and Malawi should certainly try to organize local or national 
> meetups, and we need to encourage this, but I doubt they will be 
> able to host Wikimania in the near future.
> 
> Rather than the U.S. gay community, our first question should be: 
> Can wikipedians from Iran, Syria, Algeria, Kenya and Uganda travel 
> to Wikimania in Egypt?  Are there any wikipedians at all in Libya? 
> What about guest workers from the P.R.C. on duty in Africa?  Or 
> Filipinos who work in Qatar?  Are there affordable flights from 
> Qatar or Nairobi to Cairo, and what about visa regulations?

Thanks Lars for writing down and remembering us the really important issues.

Regards,

Yann
-- 
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