[Foundation-l] Partecipation in Wikimania 2011

[Andrea Zanni]

>
> My opinion is simple. Israel is not a good place to have such an
> international event as Wikimania. I wouldn't vote for Israel, Saudi
> Arabia, Iran, UAE and other countries that are hard for many people to
> get into. Having such a conversation isn't the point of Wikimania. The
> fact that a team is amazingly active shouldn't be a reason to make
> this annual, exciting and useful meeting so complicated and dangerous
> for so many people.
>
> I can see why the Wikimedia Foundation may not be so interested in
> taking one side in any political/ethical debate outside its main
> mission. That's reasonable and understandable. But in my opinion the
> whole thing is about picking a place that is a 'good' host.
>

I sincerely  amdmit that I agree with this view: very likely, a bid for
Teheran, Ramallah or even Beijing would have had lots of critics, and
reasonable ones.

Nevertheless, alea iacta est, and I really appreciate the willingness of the
Wikimedia Israel team to help partecipation of Arab\Muslim citizens.
Somebody said that is better to focus on real people interested in going to
Haifa, and Harel too is right when he says that a ''bridge'' (as you, Osama)
to potential participants could be very helpful.
We have one year still to arrange initiatives (as a enhanced
streaming\virtual coverage of the event, with chats, skype calls and so on)
and succeed difficulties, so is better to try.

Aubrey