[Wikimediaau-l] Melbourne Wikimania 2010

[Nick Jenkins]

> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/Melbourne
> 
> Are there plans to really turn this into a serious bid? If there are,
> I'd rather be involved in that and resign from the jury, but I thought
> the idea was always to have a smaller practice event in Australia
> first, which not only increases our chance of winning the bid but
> ensures we can do it and gives us some experience with getting
> sponsors on board.
> 
> Angela

I can't comment on the Melbourne bid or on juries, but my 2 cents as regards the
timing of a local conference and bidding for 2010 are as follows:

A local event is going to have a lower turnout and be harder to get sponsors
for, but it'll be shorter and probably much cheaper to hold, and it's good
practice, and it'd be a golden opportunity to have a big face-to-face Wikimedia
Australia meeting and agree on things / elect people / collect membership dues
(if not already done before then) / hold the AGM (if not already done before then),
etc.

Looking at the timeline for when Wikimania 2009, the first stage of bidding ended
on Feb 3rd the year before, so *if* they stick to the same timetable for the 2010
bids (that's a big if), then we have until start of Feb 2009. So if we want to have
a local conference, and want to be able to include that as plus in the Wikimania
bid, then by Feb 2009 we either need to be able to point to a specific date and
time and place and say "we are going to have a local conference on this date and
at this place", or we need to have already held it.

Having already held it is my preference, because then we demonstrate that we can
organise a small conference, plus we can get Wikimedia Australia to endorse a
Wikimania bid at the local conference, plus we can have a group photo of everyone
from the local conference smiling and holding a banner saying "We support city X's
bid to hold Wikimania 2010", and then attach that photo to the bid's page, which
I think is a good tactical move, because it demonstrates good grassroots local 
support.

So if we want to hold it on or before Feb 2009, then I'm guessing that probably
January 2009 or early February 2009 are reasonable times - since this is when the
Unis are out of session (which is both good for getting access to facilities, and
good for Uni students who would like to attend), and this is also a time when
the Christmas rush is past, businesses tend to be relatively quiet, and people
can usually take leave fairly easily.

As to where to hold a local conf, a number of cities have been mentioned
previously, and they'd all be great locations.

Lastly, I don't see any merit in delaying a bid for Wikimania beyond the 2010
event. The main things I personally wanted to see happen before considering
Australia to be suitable were a) the formation of Wikimedia Australia, and
b) more competition on the Australia to US air route to bring down airfare prices
for US visitors (the European air route is already quite competitive) - and
both of those things are happening now and will be well and truly complete by
mid 2010. So I don't see that waiting further really gains us anything.

-- All the best,
Nick.