The last time I spoke to Jim he told me his office probably considered the
idea "a bit too web 2.0", but he himself was interested.
2008/7/14 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
> Both Buenos Aries and Alexandria got their conference venue for free, so
> that was, and remains our target. If we can't then we're going to need
> fairly serious reductions on accommodation to be competitive. (And even then
> it's going to be hard, Alexandria got accommodation for $6 per person per
> night.) Or of course a major UK only sponsorship deal. Gary Kirk had some
> success last year with Jim Knight (junior schools minister), so I'm going to
> pursue that avenue myself unless Gary wants to volunteer to pick up old
> contacts. I'll also pester my google UK contact to see if he can give me a
> slightly better way in than he did last year. (Does anyone have any Amazon
> UK/Microsoft UK/Ebay UK/etc contacts?)
>
>
>
> Jonathan Zittrain is leaving the OII which marginally reduces our chance of
> getting anything serious from Balliol/them on the accommodation front but
> we'll see, he has promised to get some of his DPhil students onboard which
> should give us a voice on the inside hopefully. Balliol's master is away on
> holiday for the next week or so, so it will be a while before we hear
> anything on that front.
>
>
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> *From:* wikimediauk-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:
> wikimediauk-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *James Hardy
> *Sent:* 14 July 2008 17:51
> *To:* wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimania Oxford 2010
>
>
>
>
>
> 2008/7/14 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>:
>
> 2008/7/14 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
>
> > Second bit of news is that there's a 20% discount if we book all of the
> > public rooms, so on a 6 hour per day basis he's quoting £10569 (compared
> to
> > £2844 for just the main hall).
>
> I honestly don't know if that's a big number or a small number, does
> anyone have anything to compare it to? Either way, it's good to have a
> number!
>
>
>
> Not sure either. Last year an organiser for the previous year's wikimania
> offered to allow access to their budget[1]. I think it would be useful to
> look at that and see what sort of figures we are likely to be looking with
> regards to the various expenditures we would face in putting on such an
> event.
>
> I would further suggest that having the event run directly or indirectly by
> a charity would be a big advantage as I believe that having charitable
> status would mean sponsorship from corporations could have some form of tax
> relief for them as they would count as charitable donations. That is of
> course only if such conferences are included in the approved charitable aims
> of wikimedia uk, (I haven't checked the charter etc so am not sure if this
> is the case). If not then wmuk funds could not be spent on this, and
> donations would have to be made directly to whatever entity was organising
> the event.
>
> [1]
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-September/032997.html
>
> --
> James
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>
>
--
Gary Kirk
I'm very willing to support an Oxford bid in any capacity I can - especially
if we can maintain this level of activity on the discussion and building of
the proposal page.
--
~ Paul Williams
2008/7/13 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
> What are people's thoughts on recruiting additional people to help with the
> bid? I could easily fire off a few e-mails to student mailing lists I'm on
> and would probably get some response. Do you have strong "if they don't care
> enough about wikis to be on this mailing list..." or "too many cooks"
> thoughts?
I'd wait until we hear back from the London meetup but then well
numbers are useful in the bid process yes.
Hmm Pitt Rivers Museum is in oxford now that is an encyclopedic
museum. Pity about the light levels. Still would be something of a
selling point as far as commons is concerned. Don't really know enough
about the other projects to see what would be of special interest to
them.
--
geni
2008/7/13 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
> I've just fired off an e-mail to the most enthusiastic person in the OII to
> see what his thoughts are. I'll wait to hear back from him before
> contacting
> Balliol's master though as he's not someone we can really get away with
> messing around.
>
> I'm also going to send off a "will you sponsor us" e-mail to a contact I
> have at Torchbox, an Oxfordshire web-design for charities company. They
> sponsor the Oxford Geek Nights events so I'm optimistic they'll be
> persuadable to sponsor this.
>
> What are people's thoughts on recruiting additional people to help with the
> bid? I could easily fire off a few e-mails to student mailing lists I'm on
> and would probably get some response. Do you have strong "if they don't
> care
> enough about wikis to be on this mailing list..." or "too many cooks"
> thoughts?
>
> Tom
>
Well additional Wiki*edians would be nice :) I have asked people to sign up
to this list (Seddon is one) - I think most people who go to meetups
regularly in the UK would be interested. Though I would probably be able to
help, and Thomas has said he will. That's at least 3!
--
Al Tally
(User:Majorly)
(Changing subject line, since this is clearly about Oxford, not London!)
> We discussed Oxford last year, and the only qualm was accessibility.
> I'm still reasonably sanguine about this - it's a 1h40 bus ride from
> London, 1h on the train, regular buses from the London airports, etc
> etc.
I'm going to contact a few coach companies and see if we can put on
our own transport. It would be more convenient, probably cheaper (I'm
hoping they'll do it for free or at least heavily discounted, I've
known coach companies do sponsorship deals for university events,
hopefully they'll do the same for us) and possibly quicker (I'm not
sure how direct the public coaches are). An hour and a half on a coach
with a bunch of other Wikimedians shouldn't put anyone off coming.
2008/7/12 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
> I got an e-mail from Oxford's Lord Mayor today saying it was "an exciting
> idea" and she'd "make enquiries about how we can help", so we may perhaps be
> able to get Oxford's town hall at a very reduced rate, were we to go with an
> Oxford bid. I'll keep you informed.
That's great news. Is the town hall suitable? The requirements say:
"The venue must have seminar/conference rooms that can hold up to 100
people and no less than 30 people at one time for the sessions. It
should provide at least one main hall that can hold up to 500 people.
Count on having around 5/6 simultaneous tracks in the program. (i.e.
the venue must accommodate 500 people at any time in 5/6 rooms)."
Oxford's town hall is probably bigger than most, but will it satisfy
those requirements?
2008/7/12 Tom Holden <thomas.holden(a)gmail.com>:
> I got an e-mail from Oxford's Lord Mayor today saying it was "an exciting
> idea" and she'd "make enquiries about how we can help", so we may perhaps
> be
> able to get Oxford's town hall at a very reduced rate, were we to go with
> an
> Oxford bid. I'll keep you informed.
>
> Tom
>
That's good news! Oxford would be great!
--
Al Tally
(User:Majorly)
> 5.1 Coach connections to Oxford
>
> * Central London - Oxford Tube (100 mins) [4], Oxford Espress X90 (100 mins) [5]
> * London Heathrow Airport - The Airline X70 (80-100 mins) [6]
> * London Gatwick Airport - The Airline X80 (120-150 mins) [7]
> * London Luton Airport - National Express JL737 (110-130 mins) [8]
> * London Stansted Airport - National Express JL737 (190 - 230 mins) [9]
And those could probably be reduced, or at least made cheaper and more
convenient, if we hired coaches. We should have sufficient numbers to
warrant say, two coaches from Heathrow and one from Gatwick (that's a
total guess, but I'd expect it to be at least that), and hopefully the
flight times will allow for reasonable timings of coaches.
I'll withdraw my vote for London pending further discussion.
2008/7/12 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com>:
>> > Is it realistic to state as part of the bid 'our chapter will be
>> > running properly' by 2010 or not?
> Running properly? Speaks volumes.
*cough* Arkady and I (and the small child) plan to show at the
wikimeet tomorrow, with a particular view to how to make WMUK useful
(or indeed show evidence of life). I also emailed Thomas suggesting he
come along ... I really should attend wikimeets more assiduously.
- d.
2008/7/12 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com>:
> Is Wikimania London 2010 a topic for discussion at the Wikimeet??!??!
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/London_11
>
> Date and time: Sunday 13th July -- Pre-Lunch time meeting at 11:00 am N.B.
> Location: Penderel's Oak pub, Holborn WC1
Phoebe (Ayers) and I will both be there ('til 13:30 or so), and as
hardened Wikimania organising/Bid Committee veterans (;-)) we'll be
happy to answer any questions you have!
Yours,
--
James D. Forrester
jdforrester(a)wikimedia.org | jdforrester(a)gmail.com
[[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]