[Foundation-l] A question for the Wikimania jury

[Jason Safoutin]

foundation-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:56:22 +0100 (BST)
> From: Patricia Rodrigues <snooze210904 at yahoo.se>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] A question for the Wikimania jury
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> 	<foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID: <239732.46585.qm at web27411.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> I'm sorry to start the e-mail like this, but... this is getting on my nerves.
>
>  pt.wikipedia and es.wikipedia are two of the biggest Wikimedia projects. en.wikipedia is edited by people from all over the world, predictably also by people from South America. Guess what: South America is Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking (respectively Brazil and *the rest of the whole continent*). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American there's more than 370 million people living in the continent.
>  
>  Can we stop being Euro- and North American-centric in what concerns Wikimanias and actually realize that there is a big probability that Wikimania will *eventually* visit all continents and we all get to go there?
>  
>  Is this going to be another thread about "how bad it is that people from Europe and North America can't easily access [insert place here that displeases europeans and north americans]"?
>  
> Congratulations to the winning bid, I hope to be able to go and see lots of my fellow editor colleagues. Even if that means stopping moaning about the fact I live in Sweden.
>  
>  Patr?cia
>
>   
The point is that its simple. The jury needs to stop picking the places 
that will generate headlines. Its not about Europe and North America but 
of the 370 million people living in S. America, I doubt every one of 
them contribute to a WMF project.

These places, Egypt, Argentina were IMHO picked to glisten and 
shine...aka bells and whistles. We pick this place because it makes the 
biggest statement. WMF is not about making statements. Its goal is not 
to be political. It is to celebrate the work that Wikimedians do. And to 
hold this in places thats dangerous and has severe rights violations 
(Egypt) Or in a city, where I would love to visit but cannot because I 
don't have the luxury of being rich or better off.

I mean being realistic, does the jury even take into consideration the 
amount of money it will cost to travel to these places for the people 
who will actually make an effort to attend? I am not trying to be biased 
but fair and logical. Stop using Wikimania as a political statement or 
to use it to make headlines. This is supposed to be a celebration, not 
an publicity contest.

Jason Safoutin (DragonFire1024)