On Tue, Nov 8, 2016 at 5:08 AM, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijs...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi, > Not going to North Corolina is absolutely fine with me. We do not gain > anything by going there arguably not to any state in the United States. > What Wikimania is, is a platform for propaganda for what we have, what we > do, who we are and how we do what we do. In many countries Wikipedia is not > the house hold name it is in the USA. > > Wikimania is not aimed for the English Wikipedia, it is aimed to further > our movement. Not going to places is similar to saying that those other > people, speaking other languages, with an other culture do not matter. They > do. > > We should go to Russia, India, South Africa, China. The people of those > countries should matter to us, the people we could share the sum of all > knowledge with. > > THAT is what we do, sharing the sum of all knowledge. > > When the choice of the venue is only about being safe, we should not go to > the USA (I do not feel safe there), we should go to Germany, to Switzerland > and move the office as well. It is not likely to happen, not what I want > either. > > If there is one thing about LBGT, it is that that struggle is still being > fought. Hiding and keeping away does not work. It does not help the LBGT > community. More importantly in this context it does not help the Wikimedia > community. For the latter it is vital to make our message heard.We aim to > share the sum of all knowledge and many people have not even heard of us. > Thank, > GerardM I agree with Gerard. I would rather see the WMF spend $200k on security arrangements to ensure the safety of all participants than only ever schedule Wikimania in cities subjectively determined to be "safe". Wikimania has been in China, in Egypt and in Mexico City - these are not places most would consider "safe" or deeply observant of human and civil rights. One of many values of having the event in areas with troubled environments is to contribute to improving those environments - giving more people access to more knowledge and the values of the Wikimedia movement. Repeatedly having the event in Frankfurt or Montreal will never accomplish that goal as effectively. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
