[Foundation-l] A question for the Wikimania jury

[Jason Safoutin]

foundation-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> Austin
> 	If it were simply a matter of being "closer to Europe and North
> America," however, and if that were the deciding factor, Toronto would
> have won easily.  When we talk about "accessibility," we look at the
> broader community, not just the NATO-centric view.  As Patricia points
> out later in this thread, South America is home to a huge chunk of our
> existing and potential community; we could go on to talk about the
> continuing recovery from the eswiki fork or debate Ameri- and
> Euro-centricity, and although I'm sure somebody will before this
> thread ends, the plain fact is that Buenos Aires was judged the
> superior bid?with due consideration to who will be able to attend.
Really we can do without the attacks of being "NATO-centric" Its not 
about that. Its about who can attend. And maybe if WM was in areas that 
people would be able to attend, people would go...at least more than 
from what I hear, 25% of the people not affiliated with WMF.

I don't know where you get a superior attendance from a place like 
Toronto or something else. Maybe the jury has money or is well off, but 
if you took into consideration the "cultural diversity" then you would 
realize that WMF contributers, a majority cannot dream of going there or 
Egypt.

What broader community exactly? Because the way I see it is the 
project's communities come first. My biggest priority would be to get 
contributers there first rather than seeing if we can appeal to people 
who have no clue what Wikimedia is.

Jason Safoutin (DragonFire1024)