[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2007 - get ready for the third edition.

Wed Aug 16 21:44:17 UTC 2006

Damian Finol wrote:
> Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
> 
>>Kelly Martin wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On 8/16/06, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>>Wikimania 2006 just closed its doors a week or so ago, and it is
>>>>already time to think about the next edition.
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>
>>>Actually, it was time to do that about six months ago.  We really need
>>>to be planning these things more aggressively.  In my opinion, we
>>>should know where the next year's Wikimania is going to be before we
>>>start the planning for the current year.
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>
>>Good Point, 
>>
>>Greg mentioned this this morning as well this was a hot topic of 
>>discussion that needed addressing.
>>
>>A few suggestions I'll put on the main site:
>>
>>Polynesian Language Institute, Hawaii
>>Sidney, Australia. (great place but very expensive for a lot of folks)
>>Vancouver, BC (vansterdam)
>>Salt Lake City, Utah (UofU)
>>Mexico City
>>Cayman Islands
>>Dussledorf, FRG
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I love those cities a couple of comments though:
> 
> USA: Doing it in the USA is great, however there is a VISA issue when it 
> comes to people not from the WAIVER Program (Mostly non-europeans). This 
> year Berkman and Harvard where really good and provided an invitation 
> letter that helped many people get their Visa (Although in most of Latin 
> America appointments for Visa interviews are given within 5-6 month of 
> calling)
> 
> The one I like the most of all those cities, Is Mexico City, although I 
> think some place like Cancun would be better (Mexico City is a great 
> city and all but it's really, really overcrowded and maybe a bit 
> unsafe). Cancun has a lot of hotels and there are a lot of Flights 
> coming and going, plus it's in a central location for people in the 
> Americas and Europe (Most people from Europe will connect in Miami or 
> DFW). Not to mention, Cancun is Mexico's tourist city so many hotels and 
> locals can speak English.
> 
> I would love to say Rio De Janeiro In Brasil, but Americans will need a 
> visa to enter Brasil.
> 
> Either way, I think just like the World Cup and the Olympics, Wikimania 
> should jump continents, Last year it was Europe, this year was North 
> America, next year should be either Asia or Latin America.
> 
> Regards,
> 

Good point. Kelly is right as well that we should be planning ahead.

Ultimately, choices will depend a lot on the quality of the bid.
It will also help that the organisers of the first two wikimania are 
involved in the choice of next city, as they are primary sources of 
information to identify what was best in both locations.

Just after Wikimania, a discussion took place to identify the good sides 
and the bad sides of Wikimania 2006. Obvious important points to 
consider for the future are the visa issue, the cost of travel for most 
participants, the easiness to reach the city (international airport) etc...
More specifically, whilst Boston was identified as a very pretty place 
where it was real cool to hang out, it appears that the participants had 
less opportunities (or did not identified these opportunities) to hang 
out together than in Frankfurt. Amongst reasons, the fact the conference 
took place in two different buildings, the dorms were in yet another 
place, the "village pump" was not clearly labelled as such etc...
Good points were the common breakfast/lunch area, in that big room where 
people could chat.

Next Wikimania should be particularly careful to choose locations where 
people can stay together and have full opportunities to "bump" in other 
editors every minute. By the way, we suggested a wall where pictures of 
participants could be pasted as the conference proceeds (to facilitate 
recognition between participants).

A big point in any cases will be to identify the "size" of the audience. 
One does not have the same requirements and the same timeline for a 
conference of 400 people or 1000 people, or even more. We will need to 
see how we want that to evolve.

Last, as for the past two years, an important point in selecting the 
city was to check whether there was a local team of very motivated 
wikipedians on the spot, to help organising. It is not so obvious now 
that this should be amongst a primary motive to select a city. It may be 
that we choose to outsource more of the organisation (as opposed to 
heavily rely on volunteers).

In any cases, the organisation is not an easy task, kudos to those who 
did the job this year. But it all begins with bids :-)

ant