[Wikimediaau-l] Wikimania 2010 bid idea: joint-bid with iSummit?

[Liam Wyatt]

well, with phrases like:
- "The Australian problem"
- Australians being " unusually over-represented on our projects"
-.au people are disadvantaged.

I can see where a society can start to develop an inferiority complex!

I disagree with them that it would be a good idea to have an
australia-specific scholarship fund - we are in no more need than New
Zealand or any other nation that happens to be far away from the wikimania
of that year. I can see us being looked down upon by the rest of the world
for being considered a special case (especially since we're a developed
country). I certainly not want scholarships to be given out as a consolation
prize or as hush-money to stop us from applying for the conference. Any
application - no matter where it is from - should stand or fall on its own
merits!

I personally do not think Australia will get it this year for one main
reasons:
- they've not been to either N.America nor Europe for 3 years (by 2010) and
the vast majority of regular participants to wikimania are from there.
- there are three bids from Europe lining up that look like they'll all be
very strong.
The rotation thing was never an official policy and in no way do we
"deserve" to have this. No country is "owed" a wikimania. - I'm not saying
that anyone has said this, but after a while we might start to think along
these lines. This is where Turin ended up, and Vancouver to a degree.

I would dearly love to see Wikimania in Australia. But I think we should be
pushing for 2011 instead. There, I said it. If we do indeed have a bid, I
will support it and help wherever possible - I'm not going to play the
spoiler like that. But if we spend the intervening year building our
capacity and experience - especially by hosting a national conference of
some sorts (where we invite the board etc. as suggested in that IRC
discussion) then we'd have:
a) a much better chance becuase we'd have "runs on the board"
b) better knowledge of where we are strong and relatively weak which would
make for an improved bid and ultimately improved conference.
c) a stronger Australian community. Starting with building the Chapter.

We need to work UP to wikimania, not start with it. I believe that Brianna's
3 step plan formulated last year is still our best model and, despite our
best efforts, I think we'll be barking up the wrong tree trying to justify
the costs of hosting wikimania here before we can show there is a demand,
local capabilities and skill capacity.

Like I said, I will support the consensus, but this is what I think.
Yours in Wikiness,
-Liam Wyatt

-- 
wikipediaweekly.com
Skype - Wittylama
Wikipedia - [[User:Witty lama]]
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaau-l/attachments/20080820/2aab7ebe/attachment.htm