[Foundation-l] Partecipation in Wikimania 2011

[Bence Damokos]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Osama Khalid
Date: 2010. augusztus 12. 14:02
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Partecipation in Wikimania 2011


> I can't believe people complaining about getting the visa in their
> passports that will later prevent them to visit an Arab country; 20
> bucks and an hour standing in line and you have a new one!! (unless
> you live in Cuba, or Northern Korea).

I dunno about this. Yaroslav was talking about losing the passport.



If you can travel to Israel but then you are afraid of problems getting into 
a third country (that is not your home country and not Israel) than getting 
a new passport after you get back home is the obvious solution. (Obviously 
you have to calculate in the cost of the new passport – which is usually 
higher with "lost" passports than with expired ones – into your travel 
budget, but the fact that you can do this will boil this issue down to one 
of personal choice and financial standing. Travelling to third countries is 
also a personal choice, so obviously this extra cost shouldn't be seen as 
the organizers' or the Wikimania jury's fault in any way.)

On an other note I believe this thread is fastly losing its merit: Wikimania 
will happen in Israel in 2011 and it will happen in some other part of the 
world in 2012. Let's stop bemoaning the decision and start gathering the 
people who want to go to Haifa (a beautiful city, indeed) – I am sure the 
organizers will do their utmost to solve any and all travel difficulties of 
the people who actually want to participate in the conference.
The conference will only get better if we help achieve their goal of a 
diverse audience, instead of discouraging potential attendees by complaining 
even before any problems do surface.

Best regards,
Bence