I've not been part of either team, though as someone who has been to three Wikimanias I've given some help to both. But then I've read most bids from the last couple of years and made suggestions or copyedits to practically all of them.
I'm not convinced that it is good for a chapter to host Wikimania, I think there is a significant risk of volunteer burnout and of costs falling on the chapter - though as things stand the UK can afford the latter. There's also the geographic argument, of the five venues 2008-12 two are in the Americas and the other three - Alexandria, Gdansk and Haifa, are all in this part of the world. So there is a strong argument that in 2013 Wikimania should go to the Far East, which is one reason why Hong Kong has frontrunner status. Hence my preference in the discussions last year that if we were to bid we should do so for 2014. As for using chapter resources to win a bid against other chapters, we should remember the arguments going on about funds dissemination and centralisation. If the UK as one of the few chapters allowed to take part in the fundraiser were to use its extra financial resources to win a bid against other chapters, then there is a risk that some chapters, especially the losing chapters, would see more merit in a globally centralised fundraising model. But this is pre-empting the discussions scheduled for our AGM - by then we will know if either UK bid has succeeded or if Wikimania is going to the Far East in 2013. If we don't win this year, and assuming Naples won't either, then if we want to bid for 2014 we should be in a position to put in at least one strong bid as strong as this year, and maybe stronger if the team can be kept and we can learn from the process. WSC On 1 April 2012 02:27, Richard Symonds <richard.symo...@wikimedia.org.uk>wrote: > It's the Chapters role to support a successful bid - but the bids > themselves should, we feel, be community-driven, not chapter-driven. The > chapter has a policy that says we cannot do anything that a volunteer will > do - we're here to support a volunteer-run bid with funding, advice and > staff. > > Richard Symonds > Office& Development Manager > > Wikimedia UK > +44 (0)207 065 0991 > > > On 01/04/2012 02:20, Anthony (AGK) wrote: > >> On 1 April 2012 01:11, Thomas Dalton<thomas.dal...@gmail.com**> wrote: >> >>> Paid employees of WMUK haven't been involved in either bid, that's >>> part of what I'm complaining about. (Richard has been working on the >>> London one in his spare time, but not as a WMUK employee). >>> >> Should WMUK not be involved in developing a Wikimania bid? (I don't >> follow WM governance very closely, and may misunderstand that aspect >> of the Chapter's purpose.) >> >> > ______________________________**_________________ > Wikimedia UK mailing list > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org > http://mail.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l<http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l> > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org >
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