[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2008 and reflecting on what Wikimania is all about

[Brad Patrick]

geni wrote:
> On 8/17/06, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> On the subject of size. I am personally not in favour of an
>> *international Wikimedia conference* (keywords international and
>> Wikimedia) that will hold more than 500 people, ever. The reason for
>> this were clear last year, but even clearer this year, ie. opening the
>> conference to 1000 people makes it, in my opinion, lose the
>> "Wikimedia" touch, by bringing many people in who have in the end
>> nothing to do with Wikimedia.
>>     
>
> With the number of contributers we have (heck we have well over 1000
> admins across the various project) 1000 does not seem to be an
> illogicaly high number in future.
>   
The barrier to entry to edit in your pajamas is far different from the 
barrier to entry of international travel for many, if not most, 
contributors or admins.  We also skew heavily towards students.  The 
difference among people from our different pockets of interest was 
obvious from this year's conference, and our international delegations 
were tiny.  We must do a much better job of international visitation, 
scholarships, and the like.