For 2012 and future Wikimanias I'm gathering this information on these holidays that might overlap with Wikimanias in the summer.
From this conversation I saw the view expressed that with Ramadan it's better to avoid overlap (as the 2012 dates do) and if there is an overlap there are some (not yet specified) actions to make it easier on observant attendees. For some, Ramadan means avoiding daytime food/drink/music/films it seems. Got it.
Regarding [[The Three Weeks]] and the Orthodox fasting period below I'm not getting a sense that there is a specific benefit from avoiding an overlap, or what actions the conference organizers should take if an overlap is going to happen.
If any of you have other specific action-oriented advice on what organizers should DO about potential overlaps, which has not already been expressed in the emails, please email me. (or post to the whole list, but the topic may have exhausted the interest of others).
We can't do all things perfectly but we can develop a list of the holiday conflicts and your collective advice about managing them in advance of facing the problem again.
Thanks to Haifa team for trying hard and making such a good conference! -- peter
________________________________ From: KIZU Naoko aphaia@gmail.com To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 6:14 AM Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] CD
Please remind Westerner friends, not only Muslims and Jews but also some parts of Christianity also observe Fasting either early- or mid-August, which is as severely observed as Great Lent before Pascha (Easter). East Christianity observes this summer fasting from August 1 to 15th, in honor of The Theotokos and her dormition, aka also Blessed Virgin Mary. On the other hand, however I didn't remember no Greek, no Serb, no Romanian or no Russian has complained the Wikimania conferences have been held in this season.
<POV> Personally it would be a challenge to decide how to observe the fasting while one attends principally festive events, but then the person he or she first counsel should their priests, neither the organizing team or fellow Wikimedians. It's quite personal things between the Lord and that person, even from friendly concern, with help of the church who is Corpus Christi herself and guided by the Holy Spirit, no other people can intervene.</POV>
I guess things might not be different upon our Jew or Muslim friends. Some has come, others not, and if I recall correctly no one has claimed the coincidental meeting of Ramadan and Wikimania. They have their tongue and wisdom, if they felt it unease, they could speak on their own behalf. I believe that our Muslim and Jew friends are not so weak as they need someone else criticize without asking for.
Last but not least I'd thank the organizing team specially for their kind treatment on Wednesday meals. Most of attendees might not have noticed, they had changed the catering plan of that day in last minutes, consequently which fulfilled Wednesday Fasting rule of Eastern Orthodox completely, if meals are rightly selected. As a person who was greatly helped by their attentive preparation to all addressed need, they did all their best, I would like to say.
Cheers,
On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il wrote:
Having Wikimania during Ramadan doesn't prevent people from attending. Out of memory, i can recall at least seven Muslim people, at least two of them from Israel, who attended Wikimania 2011. There were probably more. They had special requirements related to Islam and Ramadan and we fulfilled them. (Also, the driver of the tour bus on the Nazareth tour was Muslim and didn't eat or drink. It didn't seem like a big deal.)
That said, it is probably nice to try to plan Wikimania not to fall on the Ramadan, but it's far from being the biggest problem.
There was at least
one person from Iran (strangely enough i didn't
meet him myself, but other people on the team did). There were practicing Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews on Wikimania 2011, even though it fell on the [[The Three Weeks]]. At least two of them even attended some of the activities on Sabbath.
All in all, it is mostly a matter of motivation. Despite our best efforts, there were very few unfortunate cases when people didn't get visas or permits for Wikimania 2011 (not only from Muslim countries). Nearly all the people who asked to attend, did.
And please let me use this opportunity to personally salute the people who wanted to come and came in spite of the high cost, the political hurdles, the Israeli bureaucracy and their own country's bureaucracy. (The surprisingly weird bureaucracy of *commercial* travel agencies in some countries
deserves its own parentheses.) This good kind of
stubbornness is in our spirit.
2011/8/22 Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com:
Hoi, Having Wikimania during Ramadan will prevent people from attending. The dates for Wikimania next year are also likely during Ramadan.
One way of looking at the absence of the Muslim world is that in Alexandria there was a sizable group from Israel. In the end it is about taking the opportunity. The opportunity for most was there with the exception from for instance our Iranian friends who are expressly forbidden to come. Thanks, Gerard
2011/8/21 WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com
. . . . . However I don't think this was really a completely Global Wikimania. As some of us feared it would be, this was a Wikimania that largely missed the Muslim world. I don't think that this is the fault of the organisers, but clearly holding our annual conference in Israel during Ramadan was not the best
way to encourage people
from Islamic countries to attend. I hope that in future we can make sure that Wikimania is more inclusive than that. WSC