On 4 October 2015 at 22:01, aude <[email protected]> wrote: > I am not convinced this is a good idea, given this definition of regions. > > Eastern Europe should definitely be considered along with western, > southern, ... It is pretty cheap to travel there from elsewhere in europe, > probably venue + accommodations are cheaper, and most important we have > significant communities there with track record of organising regional > conferences. > I would also be tempted to include north Africa and middle east with > europe. (after all, the next European hackathon is being held in Israel) > > I also think having wikimania in Canada + US every three years is too > often. The visa process for the US is hugely annoying, difficult and > results in excluding attendees. > > Also, while great and important to have wmf support for wikimania, imho it > is important that ultimate leadership for wikimania each year is from > volunteers. I am not sure the volunteer community in the US + Canada has > this capacity to be lead organizer every three years. Maybe once every four > years is reasonable, imho. > > Also, stuff like accommodations tends to be a bit expensive in the US > compared to elsewhere, and flights within north America (especially Canada) > are also somewhat pricey in my experience. > Likewise, accommodation in western, northern and southern Europe is also pretty expensive.
I'll agree that having US/Canada hold the conference every three years is a bad idea for the community, even if convenient for the WMF and their staff. > Cheers, > Katie > > Beyond the first two areas, we may not visit some as often as others. (I > have not listed Antarctica as an area to which we will rotate, which may > well be a disappointment to members of the British Antarctic Survey and > others in that location.) > > > > > > More widely, we would like to encourage Wikimedia conferences as open, > engaging and fun community meetups, alongside the annual Wikimania > conference. I know that several chapters run country-specific conferences > each year, which is a good move. I think that there should be at least one > annual Wikimedia conference in each of these areas. This would help newer > editors know that there are people like them nearby without requiring the > existence of, or putting too great a demand on, every national chapter or > other local affiliated body. In some areas like Africa where the distances > are great, multiple regional conferences may make sense. > > > > > > As part of the new system of location selection, we will no longer have > a 'bidding' process. Instead, the Committee invites people interested in > leading or helping to run a Wikimania to contact us on-wiki, or via the > wikimania-l list. If you think that you know a great team, venue or concept > for holding Wikimania, in your area or anywhere else, please discuss the > possibilities with us. We will work with interested community members to > narrow down the selection to a particular venue. > > > > > > Our next few locations will thus go like this: > > > > > > * 2016: Western, Northern, and Southern Europe – Esino Lario in Italy > > > > * 2017: Canada and United States – TBD > > > > * 2018: TBD – TBD > > > > * 2019: Western, Northern, and Southern Europe – TBD > > > > * 2020: Canada and United States – TBD > > > > * 2021: TBD – TBD > > > > > > As you can see, as well as picking the 2017 venue in Canada or the > United States, for which we have a candidate lined up, we need to select > very quickly the area for 2018, and after that, 2019 and beyond. There are > several areas we’ve outlined above that have never had a Wikimania, and > others where we have not visited for some time. We would love your thoughts > on the areas on which we should focus for 2018 and beyond. We’ll also be > asking in future for your thoughts about how to structure the programme of > each Wikimania to make it as good as it can be for you, for others, and for > our community overall. > > > > > > Thank you. > > > > > > Yours, > > > > -- > > > > James D. Forrester > > > > Chair, Wikimania Committee > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimania-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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