[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

Sat Oct 13 10:34:06 UTC 2007

Jason Safoutin wrote:
> foundation-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
>   
>> David, thanks for opening this discussion; it's an important and necessary one.
>>
>> I was not on the Wikimania jury, but I endorse its decision.
>>
>> To me, WMF is first and foremost about spreading knowledge, across
>> boundaries of language & culture. This means we should not isolate
>> countries that violate human rights through reactionary policies. We
>> need to engage them on a higher level, and confront them with the open
>> & diverse culture of sharing that we are building.
>>   
>>     
> They are not willing to build a diverse culture which included 
> homosexuals. So far I see nothing open and diverse about their 
> government or the way they treat homosexuals and women. If they wanted 
> us there, then they would welcome us and they do not welcome 
> homosexuals. Its not about policy. Its about whether or not a group is 
> being singled out.
>   

The "open and diverse culture" being discussed is *ours*, not that of a 
particular government. We'd like to include as many people and 
viewpoints as possible, and all locations have tradeoffs when it comes 
to that. Arabs are, worldwide, a large ethnic/cultural/linguistic group, 
but so far pretty underrepresented at our own international gatherings 
--- boycotting all Arab countries as conference locations would not be a 
very good way of solving that particular diversity problem! Reasonable 
people disagree over how exactly to weigh all the factors that go into 
choosing a location, including all the pros/cons of the sort of 
participant diversity that a particular location would or wouldn't 
promote. Having it in Alexandria promotes some sorts of diversity and 
hurts other sorts. I've personally been pushing for cost-accessibility 
of locations to enable wider grassroots participation, but that's 
obviously not the only important factor either.

-Mark