(giving a name to this thread, because I can ;) )
On Sun, Oct 4, 2015 at 10:03 PM, James Forrester <jdforrester(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On Sun, 4 Oct 2015 at 12:45 Lodewijk
<lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Michal's comments reflect part of what
I'm thinking - and I think the
exact splits of the regions may require some further discussions. Given the
notes I've seen elsewhere, I trust that this is a first draft of the exact
outlines of the regions, and not necessarily definitive?
As has already been stated in this thread, yes.
For example, I was also surprised to see your
definition of 'North
America' being US + Canada, and not to include Mexico.
False.
We explicitly a repeatedly used the term "Canada and United States"
because "North America" includes Mexico, and we didn't think that was
appropriate.
Then I must have seen that name being used elsewhere in this context.
Still, I'm not sure if it shouldn't be included - but as said, that is a
second tier discussion imho.
This is a discussion we seem to skip each year as a community - what do we
expect exactly of Wikimania, what do we want to
accomplish with it? What
are its goals?
If you re-read our call for input, you might see that this is precisely
the question asked:
We’ll also be asking in future for your thoughts about how to structure
the programme of each Wikimania to make it as
good as it can be for you,
for others, and for our community overall.
Ensuring that as many Wikimedians can come to Wikimania each year is of
little value if they event isn't as useful as it can be.
It was a bit snowed under in practical and regional discussions, I'm
afraid. My point is that somehow, we always say we should have that
discussion, but we never do. It is not that I 'blame' the committee for
this, but I remark that we really should have that discussion. I'm glad I
find you in agreement there.
But, I also think I would go a few steps further. I wouldn't only ask 'how
to structure the programme' but really go a few levels deeper. Why do we
want a Wikimania? What is its general purpose? What do we want to
accomplish. Not quite the question you quote - although I know from
experience that you do ask that question yourself.
I would have liked to see that discussion before deciding that we need more
than two years of preperation, before we even decide there should be a
rotational schedule (although I doubt that the outcome would be that we
should have it in the same city each year).
It has proven time and again that having such fundamental discussions is
difficult in our community, especially going beyond the usual suspects.
Maybe the outcomes of the Wikimania surveys (were those published yet?)
could be a good starting point.
Lodewijk
J.
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