[Foundation-l] Opening of Wikimania 2012 bidding

[Joseph Seddon]

The bidding process for Wikimania 2012 is now open for business!

==DEADLINES==
Timeline: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Bids
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Bids>

Important dates:
 * February 6, 2011 (0:01 UTC): Bidding creation ends. List of running
cities announced.
WHAT THIS MEANS: if you want to bid, create a page on Meta (see below)
and add your city to the list. Your bid does not have to say anything
beyond "we're bidding!" at this point. New bids will not be accepted
after this date, however.

 * March 18, 2011 (0:00 UTC): Bidding ends. All major information on
bidding pages must be finalized.
WHAT THIS MEANS: your bid must be complete! all information about your
proposed venue, accommodation, key team, etc. should be posted. Minor
changes (updated information, background information) will be accepted
after this date, but the critical parts of the bid should be finished.

* March 18 - April 3: Refining of bids and answering questions.
WHAT THIS MEANS: you can clarify unclear parts and add updated
information. Suddenly divulging a new venue is not ok, though.

* April 3: Question & Answer from jury ends
* March 18 - April 10: Jury deliberation.
* April 11, 2011: Announcement of host city to public.

The early timeline means that (if followed) hopefully representatives
of the winning bid will be able to attend this year's Wikimania in
Gdansk, which is very helpful for organizers.

==HELPFUL INFORMATION==

To file a bid, follow these directions:
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Official_requirements_for_bidding_cities
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Official_requirements_for_bidding_cities>

The criteria for bids, with a few minor changes from last year, are here:
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Judging_criteria
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Judging_criteria>

==UNOFFICIAL ADVICE==

Previous winning bids can be found linked on
Meta:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania

All winning bids have shared certain characteristics: a strong
community-based team with defined roles and leadership, a thoughtful
budget, careful consideration of the spaces Wikimania will be in, an
attention to detail and to all of the criteria, and a willingness to
improve on the last conference.

That page also has links to the suggestions for improvement that
people have made after each conference. These follow patterns too and
can be helpful to review.

As a bid team, it can be helpful to articulate -- both for yourselves
and the jury -- what you want Wikimania to be and what you envision it
being for the community.

All members of the community should feel free to discuss and analyze
bids as they are developed; this is not a sealed process. Members of
the jury have to carefully review each bid, and having any unclear
areas pointed out and discussed (and fixed) ahead of time can be very
helpful.

Finally, if you have any questions or suggestions or comments on the
bidding process, as always, post them to the talk
page:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2012

If you have any questions for the Wikimania jury specifically, please
email them to myself or to James Forrester and we will pass them along to
the private jury mailing list. All private communications with the
jury are confidential.

best regards, and good luck --
Joseph Seddon
Wikimania 2012 jury moderator (non-voting)
on behalf of the 2012
jury:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Jury
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Jury>