Hi all, For what it's worth, Wikimedia has many of these same discussions around Wikimania each year :-). There is a tacit (not sure how explicit) rotation policy of trying to shift between continents - so Europe won't get two years in a row, for example - but otherwise basing it on local bids. We have now had ten (plus one more selected) - three North America, one South America, two Asia, two Middle East, three Europe. They've been a mix of major cities (London, Hong Kong, DC) and a couple of smaller places with good connections (Haifa, Gdansk) - it's always worth thinking about somewhere other than the biggest city.
The not-explicitly-ranked criteria are here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_judging_criteria#Selection_Criteria The best location we found for visas was IIRC Hong Kong, which lets (almost) everyone in without too much fuss. However, you're always going to have problems for some number of people. A rotation policy can help to alleviate visa/travel worries, as can actively seeking the involvement of the local government and being proactive with things like letters of invitation. And, of course, it has to be balanced against travel being practical for most people - as you say, ideally you wouldn't want it to be Svalbard! (But I am told it's lovely there, and they have a recently refurbished university campus, so maybe we're being too harsh...) Rufus - I don't know if you're in touch with any of the Wikimania people from London this year, but if not let me know and I'll put you in contact with them. Andrew. On 14 October 2014 11:24, William Waites <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 09:39:19 +1000, Anna Daniel <[email protected]> > said: > > > fyi visa requirements per country: > > http://www.projectvisa.com/fullcountrylist.asp > > I have half a mind to scrape those web pages to make a queriable > database... In fact this whole question smells like a possibly > nonlinear optimisation problem... If we can get a good list of > criteria like Rufus is asking for, it might be an interesting exercise > (or at least thought experiment) to use what data we can get and ask > the computer to tell us the best place... > > Brazil does seem to have a "we'll treat you the same way you treat us" > policy which at least is fair... > > Svalbard apparently has no immigration control at all but it's hard to > get there... > > -w > _______________________________________________ > okfn-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss > Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss -- - Andrew Gray [email protected] _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
