If we want to talk about the cost of Wikimania it will be great if the WMF
and the local team will share the costs.
Until now Wikimania London didn't published anything:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Budget
And also Mexico:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015/Budget
Maybe I missed something, but it's strange that such discussion takes place
without a real budget breakdown. To summarize 2 huge event to "1$ million
USD" does not make sense.
Itzik
*Regards,Itzik Edri*
Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
+972-(0)-54-5878078 |
http://www.wikimedia.org.il
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment!
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 7:06 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I found this the most interesting part of the recent
IdeaLab discussion
about changing the Wikimania framework.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania
"*The total spend by WMF for Wikimania 2014 in London and 2015 in Mexico,
including all travel, accommodations, scholarships, staff support and
direct conference expenses, was ~$1 million USD*"
This is a pity. Small grants to support a con is one thing, but this is too
much.
Please let's stop encouraging conferences that do not cover their own
costs. A good conference series pays for itself, including its scholarship
pool. There are plenty of communities our size or larger with wonderful,
regular conferences of hundreds or thousands of people, which break even or
turn a small profit.
FUDCons are an interesting case in point. As I understand it, there was a
time when RedHat basically sponsored the events, with scholarships for all
active contributors and extensive grants. This was ok, but skewed
participation. Then the lavish sponsorship stopped. Attendance dropped;
community members felt unloved. Then after a time, this passed, and
everyone attended again. (Perhaps a core Fedora contributor can describe
this more accurately!)
SJ
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