[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimanians in Alexandria

[Marc Riddell]

> On 3/5/08, John Reaves <johnreaveswp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So is it really worth having the conference there if steps like this are
>> necessary?

on 3/6/08 8:37 PM, Erik Moeller at erik at wikimedia.org wrote:

> 
> The Wikimania conference is the annual conference supported and
> co-organized by the Wikimedia Foundation, together with the local
> team. As such, I believe it should strongly reflect the Foundation's
> mission and values. Our vision statement says:
> 
> "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."
> 
> The cause of free knowledge is a global one, not limited to the
> corners of the world which we designate safe. Obviously, there's a
> threshold of safety when it no longer becomes feasible to hold an
> event like Wikimania in a given location - but I see no evidence to
> support the hypothesis that Egypt is above that threshold. On the
> contrary, the new Library of Alexandria seems like a beautifully
> symbolic location to promote free culture as a global movement. And
> for the regions where we can't hold conferences, we should still think
> about ways to reach people, send wiki-ambassadors, and so on. :-)
> 
> The fundamental tension here, IMO, is the notion that there is one big
> conference every year, and therefore people try to make it everything.
> Whatever choice we make as a community will therefore leave some
> people very unhappy. One of the strongest reasons to go to a Wikimania
> conference is to meet Wikimedians from many languages and cultures.
> But it's not the only reason Wikimedia supports an annual conference.
> If that is _the_ reason you want to go to Wikimania, and you find the
> choice of Egypt problematic, then the answer is, I think, to have a
> more broad and diverse range of events around the world.
> 
> Wikimedia is a social movement as much as it is an organization. Don't
> look to the Foundation as the only force to bring people together --
> do it yourself. That's a better use of your time than arguing on the
> Internet. :-)

Eric,

As if this insulting, patronizing post wasn't enough, did you really need to
end it by telling me what is the best use my time?

Marc Riddell