While everyone keeps looking at the cost thats not the question we should
be asking, because even if the costs were reduced to 500,000, 100,00 or
even 10,000 that doesnt reflect the value we get from the in person
contacts, the global connections the sharing of experiences, learning of
concepts, even the moral support and reenergization that occurs. When I
talk to people who have attended Wikimanias nobody says that was a waste of
my time, I learnt nothing, I wish I could get back those 5 days that is a
better indicator of its value to the community.
On 10 February 2016 at 17:13, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
From a US perspective, even here in the global north
we have plenty of
students and middle-class participants for whom $1500 in travel, food and
lodging plus 5 days away from work, family, or school amounts to a
significant or impossible sacrifice.
Perhaps someone could tell us the statistics for how many people have
attended Wikimania each year who were not WMF employees, FDC or WMF Board
members, scholarship recipients, or financially sponsored by WMF affiliates
or WEF. Of those people who pay 100% of their own costs plus the cost of
admission tickets, my guess is that many live within a day's travel time by
train, car, or bus.
I would hypothesize that thematic conferences also have a low percentage of
people who pay 100% of their own costs, but that regional conferences which
have lower travel costs for the average attendee receive modestly higher
percentages of unsubsidized attendance.
It seems to me that WMF finacial support for conferences, including
regional and thematic conferences, will continue to be the norm.
Whether $1 million is appropriate for Wikimania and whether a more modest
budget would be appropriate and feasable are different questions that merit
careful reflection.
Pine
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