That's an interesting thought, and I would be curious to know if it had ever
been explored by the Foundation.
However, there's a limited amount one person based remotely can do. As Richard
says, somebody in San Francisco isn't much use to a team in London. There are
things that they could do, like offer advice, and maybe build a network of
contacts at embassies , maybe even help with coordination of efforts, but
that's a part-time job for a few months, not a permanent full time job.
What would be useful would be having someone with relevant experience on the
ground who was paid to help deliver Wikimania, but that would be impractical,
expensive, and possibly not much more use. Certainly in the UK, we've assembled
a brilliant team, and some us have quite considerable experience organising
events (though nothing quite on the scale of Wikimania), and we have the
support of an excellent chapter, many of whose trustees are themselves
experienced in events organising, with a core group of staff for whom I have
the utmost respect, and whom I suspect will be invaluable in helping us prepare
the London 2014 bid.
I suspect what Wikimania lacks is a permanent knowledge base that's there year
on year. Perhaps employing a member of one Wikimania's organising committee to
support the next year's might solve that. But it might not, and the next step
is to have Wikimania organised by a permanent group of Foundation staff, and I
don't think that would be good for Wikimania or for the Foundation.
Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
Phone: 024 7698 0977
Skype: harry_j_mitchell
________________________________
From: Theo10011 <[email protected]>
To: Wikimania general list (open subscription)
<[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, 5 July 2012, 12:45
Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] visa denied ... what to do?
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 4:16 PM, Richard Symonds
<[email protected]> wrote:
I suspect that there may be pushback from the community about it being "taken
over" by the WMF, if it were run by staff. There's also the issue with other
countries - if we hold Wikimania in London, the WMF would not really be able to
help, as they'd have no contacts and would be running the whole event at a
year's notice, which isn't very long at all in conference terms.
>
>
>The UK chapter has an events organiser who handled all our scholarships this
>year. People had their hotels, hostels, and flights booked for them, and she
>sent out the details to everyone. Having a WMF person in charge of some of the
>process would be very useful, but having the WMF run the entire event may not
>be an ideal solution.
>
>
>Personally, I'd like to see a core WMF events team who help all major events
>(Wikimania-sized), but liaise with volunteers on them. Very difficult to do in
>practice, but better than the current system of unsupported volunteers running
>a conference. James Hare is doing a wonderful job, but running a conference
>AND being a student is a very, very difficult thing to do, and I fear we'll
>start to burn out valuable volunteers if we're not careful -
>or adversely impact their studies.
>
>
>I'd also like to see Wikimania moved to a two-year-in-advance system, rather
>than a one-year-in-advance as we have now. One year is not enough time to plan
>a conference.
I never suggested a take-over.
The problem is majority of the framework, or lack thereof, has remained the
same years after the first Wikimania. Every year someone from the community,
most commonly James, takes a lead to announce a jury, and wikipedians with no
experience organizing international events, bid, the jury picks and they are on
their own from that point onward. Every year, there are more or less the same
problems with visas, accommodations. And every year a discussion ensues after
the event with the suggestion of adding a gap year or de-emphasizing Wikimania
for local event. I don't think a two-year-in-advance system will change
anything, as long as its the same embassies, the same visas, and the same
issues. One year is plenty of time, most countries don't permit visa
application more than 3 months before the departure date, many venues don't
allow booking 2 year in advance, same for caterers and hotels. Whatever quote
you receive that far in advance is likely to
change months before the actual event.
In the mean time, Wikimanias have become larger and larger with more people
from more countries attending. There are issues that need professional help at
this point, even partly would help. At the end of the year, we don't have to
throw away the know-how acquired, and then start fresh the next year. I never
suggested WMF should organize the event, the organizing team should, but that
is all they should be expected to do - organize the event in their city, the
rest of the administrative tasks before the event should be shared by someone
more experienced.
Certain administrative tasks, things like bulk-bookings, paper-work, visa
issues can be handled centrally. They can even generate a lot of cost-savings
in the process if done right. This doesn't mean de-emphasizing or taking away
anything from the ground team, but facilitating them, giving them options, or
taking care of the tasks they don't want, so they can focus on the actual event
itself, not the pre-event arrangements. I'm not even talking about an events
team, just a single person to begin with.
Regards
Theo
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