[Foundation-l] A question for the Wikimania jury

[Casey Brown]

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 7:39 PM, Jason Safoutin
<jason.safoutin at wikinewsie.org> wrote:
>
>
>  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.

No one said they did... and not all of the people in Europe and North
American contirbute to a WMF project either.

>  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 am not going to respond to these comments because the issue has
already been beaten to death, I doubt anything would change your mind.

>  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?

Seriously, read the bidding pages before you comment on the reasonings
behind why a certain location was chosen.
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Official_requirements_for_bidding_cities>
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Judging_criteria>

>  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.

No one is using it as such... and how could this be used to make
headlines?  Were there even any newspaper articles about it?  I don't
recall seeing any...

>  Jason Safoutin (DragonFire1024)
>
>
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/me wonders why this discussion is taking place on Foundation-l
instead of a more appropriate place like Wikimania-l

-- 
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023

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