[Wikimania-l] CD

[Tomasz Ganicz]

2011/8/11 James Hare <messedrocker at gmail.com>:
> On Aug 11, 2011, at 9:49 AM, "church.of.emacs.ml" <church.of.emacs.ml at googlemail.com> wrote:
>

> While no one has the power to exempt anyone from security checks (in fact, whenever former Secretary of State Colin Powell travels, he gets the full check to show that everyone has to follow the rules), we can coordinate with TSA, tell them about our conference (including how tech-oriented some of the attendees are), and ask them for advice to make the security check process as simple as possible. My impression, though, is that while Israeli security focuses on you as a person, TSA mostly focuses on your stuff. Follow all their rules (take out laptop for separate x-ray scan, only small bottles of liquid, etc.) and I think you will be fine, but unfortunately I only have the perspective of a white US citizen.
>
> I actually think the bigger obstacle will be obtaining a visa, for those who don't live in visa exempt countries. As mentioned earlier, we will do everything in our power to make the process easier; we will even be looking into visa scholarships. It helps that the US State Department knows what Wikipedia is and that they have sent people to two Wikimanias, 2006 and 2011.
>

When entering to US via LAX airport in 2008 for scientific conference,
TSA authorities decided for some reasons that I am a susspicous person
and put me to something similar to a police station, where I had to
wait for around 2 hours after which I was interrogated by an officer
who asked me several personal questions (about family and religous
background, what I did in US before, the reasons of entering, if I
have credit card what is max. credit on it etc..). Anyway although not
that bad as Isreal border control it was also not very nice experience
:-)




-- 
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz