Talk:Wikimania 2007/Bids

Coming soon to a city that may or may not be near you!

Wikimania 2007 planning

Season / Dates / Climate

How about holding Wikimania NOT in August, the highest price season of air ticket? - Takot 08:56, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

We could hold it in winter, but still in August, if Australia wins the bid. :) Angela 13:23, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Locations

Perhaps change of continents is an option (2005: Frankfurt (D.) in Europe and 2006: Boston (USA) in N.-America), so in 2007 in Southern Hemisphere ? and in 2008 in Northern Hemisphere etc. - Brabo 21:50, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm... 2005 in eastern hemisphere, 2006 in western... so 2007 in SW quartosphere (? ;-) and 2008 in SE ? Alvaro 13:26, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

What's the policy to be on redlinked locations? Do they have a certain length of time to get their bid in? 'Airship' and 'Jordan' were both added by an anon user back in April. nae'blis

Indeed; although it would probably be easier for me to a Wikimedia event in the U.S., I don't think the San Francisco, Chicago, etc. should host Wikimania 2007. Perhaps Australia, since it seems many editors call it home. -- tariqabjotu 20:34, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Oppose, per arguments below. Make it northern, US or Europe (or make fundations buy tickets for the visitors).--Piotrus 01:20, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Try to organise Wikimania 2008 either in Sydney (Aus.) or Beijng (China) (see below about other conventions/...). And choose for Wikimania 2007 a city not in the same hemisphere as the 'proposed' one for 2008. - (Brabo 21:27, 17 September 2006 (UTC))

Openness

Can it be a rule that all bid planning be done in public, on meta, linked to this page? There were surprise bids at the end of last year's competition, and I'm sure I wasn't the only person involved in a publicly planned bid that found that a little annoying. -- 70.26.123.156 16:08, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, this is me. -- Zanimum 17:27, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Planning should certainly be public. One way to address this is to set earlier deadlines for the initial bid submission, which we are doing this year. In future years, bids will hopefully be planned even farther in advance, making this less of an issue still. +sj + 13:26, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. To make sure the mishaps of last year do not happen again, I have made sure that no city will be accepted after September 10th 2006. notafish }<';> 15:33, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Suggestions

other conventions / international activities / sport championships

Possibilities to organise Wikimania adjacent (pre- and/or post- convention) to other major (international) activities such as w:World Social Forum or w:European Social Forum or Sports - Brabo 21:50, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

in 2007 is in January 2007: WSF in Nairobi (Kenia)

in 2007 is in June 2007: G8-meeting and also EU-meeting in ..... (Germany)

in July 2008 is in Sydney (Australia): World Youth Days (WYD 2008)

in August 2008 is in Beijng (China): Olympic Games 2008

...

==> Try to organise Wikimania 2008 either in Sydney (Aus.) or Beijng (China) and choose for Wikimania 2007 a city not in the same hemisphere as the 'proposed' one for 2008. - (Brabo 21:27, 17 September 2006 (UTC))

Note to the jury

Please take under consideration that, for better or worse, bulk of our contributors seem to come from the Northen Hemisphere, and of those most from US and Europe (this is an estimate based on my own experience and the existence of w:Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, but that's the best we have until General User Survey goes live). Further, I assume that for most Wikipedians, just like for most people out there, a plane ticket is rather expensive. Therefore if we hold an event outside those two continents, I'd expect our participation rates to drop significantly. A related issue: because the '06 event was held in US, not a single one of the editors from Polish Wikipedia has been able to afford the ticket, eventually one came due to a foundation grant, several people complained that because grants were made available relativly late and US visa procedure is long and difficult they had no chance of obtaining the visa even if they'd have gotten the grant. This leads me to another point: we should strive to increase the number of grants, and make them available as early as possible (if the target destination requires a visa), so more editors can be funded and come to the event.--Piotrus 01:19, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. We know scholarships came in awfully late this past year; that should be fixed in the future. Raw interest in participation may not be the most pressing concern -- it is quite possible that attendance will again have to be cut off next year. People had to be discouraged from attending the most recent Wikimania due to oversubscription, and next year's event is suggested to be of comparable size, while the projects continue to double more than once a year. A more pointed concern: *who* from the community attends, from which language and geographic subsets. Scholarships can only support travel for so many people; those living within 5000km of where Wikimania is held will naturally be more likely to attend. +sj | help with translation |+ 02:41, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you to the entire jury for their time and efforts and for considering Orlando, and congratulations to all of the planners of the (so-far) successful bids. I expected nothing to come out of this bid, realizing that it was highly unlikely to be chosen, but I continued, nevertheless, to give the jury the option of selecting this wonderful city. Unfortunately, at times I ran behind in creating this bid; I am simply thankful for the experience and for the jury for considering the location. I am already starting to contact other Wikimedia members in the Orlando region in preparation for a more realistic and (hopefully) more successful bid for Wikimania 2008. Thank you once again for all your dedication, and best wishes for the remaining four cities as well as a successful Wikimania, wherever it may take place. Flcelloguy (A note?) 14:05, 16 September 2006 (UTC)