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

[Delirium]

Erik Moeller wrote:
> 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.

A major problem is that hosting a sizable conference and bringing people 
from around the world together takes a significant amount of money, and 
an event not officially blessed by the Wikimedia Foundation is just not 
going to get anywhere near the same level of sponsorship (and it's not 
like Wikimania itself is rolling in huge piles of cash to begin with). 
So it becomes difficult to pull off an event with low registration fees 
and subsidized travel, in order to put on something that isn't only 
attended by people who are either relatively well off or in jobs that 
will reimburse them for travel expenses. One solution to that, which is 
commonly adopted, is to give up the goal of global participation and 
organize regional events. Or try to bend Wikimania to be as close to a 
functioning global meetup as possible.

-Mark