Hoi,
There is only one argument that I cannot refute about American money. It is
American money that gets us the bulk of our funding. The one obvious reason
is that the fund-raising is targeting the USA. When money is spend, it is
spend predominantly in the USA and targeted for Wikipedia and English
Wikipedia at that.
Arguably the WMF is a global organisation and spending is best allocated
based on where people live. When money is targeted on where we grow, we
would not spend as much on the needs of Wikipedia. We would recognise the
importance of projects like Wikisource and finally give it some attention.
It would benefit particularly benefit India. When the model they have
adopted is introduced elsewhere, it will make many, many more books
available. THAT would have a real impact educationally speaking.
Given the small size of many communities, it is important that they benefit
from the things we already have but the thing that is so easily forgotten
is the road to get there. That road is not a universal given and it is
dominated by the road English WIkipedia has taken. What I find is that
people are happy where we are at. Never mind the nay sayers.
You mention chapters and we have good chapters in Europe. Sadly their
impact on Wikipedia is neglible because they are "not part of the
community" and what they do is largely fringe.
Really English and Wikipedia is over served. IMHO the law of diminishing
returns applies.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 10 February 2016 at 16:43, Andrew Lih <[email protected]> wrote:
> GerardM,
>
> As much as I agree with you on many things related to Wikimania, your
> statement about en.wp and USA being “over subsidized” is off base.
>
> For the last few years I’ve held my tongue as American applicants get a
> fraction of 10% of all the funding for Wikimania scholarships. That’s
> because 10% is allocated to all of North America, so US based folks compete
> with Canadians for that small slice of the pie. Indeed, key community
> members from the US could not afford to go to Wikimania, and did not,
> because of the limited funding. We also do not have a strong chapter system
> to make up for that shortcoming, where European chapters can, and do,
> underwrite their local members with other funds.
>
> I am not against the bulk of the scholarship money going to
> underrepresented developing markets and giving new voices a chance to
> attend. But I wanted to dispel the myth that Americans are always gorging
> at the trough.
>
>
> https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Scholarship_selection_process
> https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships#Selection_process
>
>
> -Andrew
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 6:49 AM, Gerard Meijssen <
> [email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > Hoi,
> > Pine with all due respect, the USA is not the problem and English
> Wikipedia
> > has been overly subsidised, given way too much attention. Indeed having
> > more people from the USA attend Wikimania is not a good value
> proposition.
> > The USA and Britain is overrepresented as it is.
> > Thanks,
> > GerardM
> >
> > On 10 February 2016 at 10:13, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > From a US perspective, even here in the global north we have plenty of
> > > students and middle-class participants for whom $1500 in travel, food
> and
> > > lodging plus 5 days away from work, family, or school amounts to a
> > > significant or impossible sacrifice.
> > >
> > > Perhaps someone could tell us the statistics for how many people have
> > > attended Wikimania each year who were not WMF employees, FDC or WMF
> Board
> > > members, scholarship recipients, or financially sponsored by WMF
> > affiliates
> > > or WEF. Of those people who pay 100% of their own costs plus the cost
> of
> > > admission tickets, my guess is that many live within a day's travel
> time
> > by
> > > train, car, or bus.
> > >
> > > I would hypothesize that thematic conferences also have a low
> percentage
> > of
> > > people who pay 100% of their own costs, but that regional conferences
> > which
> > > have lower travel costs for the average attendee receive modestly
> higher
> > > percentages of unsubsidized attendance.
> > >
> > > It seems to me that WMF finacial support for conferences, including
> > > regional and thematic conferences, will continue to be the norm.
> > >
> > > Whether $1 million is appropriate for Wikimania and whether a more
> modest
> > > budget would be appropriate and feasable are different questions that
> > merit
> > > careful reflection.
> > >
> > > Pine
> > > _______________________________________________
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