[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimedians at Wikimania in Alex...

[Lars Aronsson]

Andrew Whitworth wrote:

> A single murder, or a single rape, or a single instance of any 
> other violent crime would have a massive chilling effect on 
> Wikimania, and possibly all of Wikimedia. We should never run 
> this risk, even if that means we have to abandon Wikimania 
> entirely.

I think you are being ridiculous.  A single murder at Wikimania in 
Boston or Frankfurt wouldn't have this all-chilling effect, and 
neither will a single murder in Alexandria.  A crime like that 
would be investigated by the police, and hopefully the murderer 
would get caught.  Perhaps the murderer is one of the attendees. 
Sorry for making this sound like an Agatha Christie novel.

But still, let's make a thought experiment:  We abandon Wikimania 
and instead we have regional conferences.  Every 7th year, 
starting in Frankfurt in 2005, there is a European conference.  
Every 7th year, starting in Boston in 2006, there is a North 
American conference.  Now in 2008 is the first Middle East+North 
African conference, to be repeated every 7th year.  Of course, 
wikipedians from all over the world are welcome to visit these 
regional conferences, but the main audience will be the locals of 
that region.

How does this change your view of Wikimania 2008?  Does it in fact 
change a single thing?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se