[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimanians in Alexandria

Thu Mar 6 22:35:16 UTC 2008

On 3/6/08, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Danny,
>  When you understand that all the members of the jury are part of the WMF
>  community, what is so hard to understand that the Wikimedia Foundation, as
>  an organisation, does not determine where a Wikimania is held? This is imho
>  what you fail to appreciate in Mike's comment.
>  Thanks,
>      GerardM

The people on the Foundation and its advisory board strongly
influenced the decision. I think the question is why they didn't use
that influence to oppose this venue, given that parts of the community
were likely to feel uneasy there, whether justifiably so or not. I
would say probably not justifiably so, given the relatively liberal
nature of Egypt, but it's nevertheless easy to see where the unease
comes from.