[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimedians at Wikimania in Alex...

Wed Mar 5 18:18:40 UTC 2008

Andrew Whitworth wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 5:55 PM, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
>   
>> Andrew Whitworth wrote:
>>
>>  > A single murder, or a single rape, or a single instance of any
>>  > other violent crime would have a massive chilling effect on
>>  > Wikimania, and possibly all of Wikimedia. We should never run
>>  > this risk, even if that means we have to abandon Wikimania
>>  > entirely.
>>
>>  I think you are being ridiculous.  A single murder at Wikimania in
>>  Boston or Frankfurt wouldn't have this all-chilling effect, and
>>  neither will a single murder in Alexandria.
>>     
> You're saying that a murder of a prominent wikimedian at a wikimania
> wouldn't have significant negative consequences. I may not be
> completely accurate here, but I doubt this possibility is
> "rediculous".
The negative consequences of having one of our own martyred would not 
turn people against us; it could certainly be spun into a positive.  Ifg 
one of our people were the killer that would be a different matter.  
Generally, however, I'm prepared to relegate either scenario to the far 
reaches of imagination.

Ec