Talk:Wikimania 2009/Philadelphia

As a denizen of Pennsylvania, I hate to say this, but I am not sure if it is such a good idea to go through with a Wikimania bid for Philadelphia, at least not at this point in time (and by this point, I mean that stretch of time between now and 2009).

The second Wikimania, Wikimania 2006, was held in Boston (not far from Philadelphia). Atlanta is also in the final bidding stages for Wikimania 2008. The Wikimania Jury has expressed that they will take "Rotation of location" into account. We don't have a very strong chance of getting picked in that regard, with there already having been a Wikimania and there being a strong bid for another one.

Another problem is that the current crime rate in Philadelphia is, in my opinion, way too high for a Wikimania city. However, there are some programs that should be put into effect soon that will hopefully reduce the number of crimes. Therefore, we can still consider Philadelphia for a future bid.

This goes along with rotation of location, if we were to have another Wikimania in the United States, I would like to see it spread out to other parts of the country, preferably the West coast.

Some positives I can see about having a 2009's Wikimania in Philadelphia are:

• We have a Wikimedia chapter that should be up-and-running by 2009. (Wikimedia Pennsylvania)
• Philadelphia has a very large amount of Wikimedians who love to meet up with each other.
  • We currently have the most number of Wiki-Meetups in the United States and are pretty high-up there in the world.
  • We have a very productive WikiProject on the English Wikipedia that does very good work.

If we do decide to get ahead with a bid for Wikimania 2009, however, I would be available to help in whatever ways necessary. I'd even help write the bid! :-) Cbrown1023 talk 22:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Carbon neutral?

Will the conference and the flights to it be carbon neutral? -- Jeandré, 2007-10-24t20:41z

Initial thoughts

Like Casey, I am skeptical of the odds of Philadelphia being selected for Wikimania 2009; I am less concerned with crime and our proximity to Boston than with the onerous visa requirements for foreign nationals to enter the United States. All current and future US bids will be handicapped by that until the customs and immigration laws change; unless and until that happens, Toronto will be odds-on favorite for the next Wikimania in North America.

I certainly agree with you here, I have heard numerous not-so-good stories from international travelers who came to the Boston Wikimania. Items like those will certainly be a drawback. Cbrown1023 talk 21:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

However, I would like to try and put together a serious bid, just because giving up entirely rubs me the wrong way, (Philadelphians are suckers for underdogs), and it would be good to see what our potential resources would be for hosting the 2009 Conference of the Americas or Wikimania 2011, either or both of which would be excellent courses of action should we lose Wikimania 2009.

I was thinking about this as well. If COTA works as well as Mike and the team hope, we will probably see a want for another Conference of the Americas. The only problem with this, however, is that that is harder to reproduce exactly (no "mother" group organizing it all, just a bunch of local Wikimedians). A future Wikimania would also be great, a bid right now would help lay the groundwork for a future bid and get a hold for the drawbacks and positives that Philadelphia would have as a (any) conference location. Cbrown1023 talk 21:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Our first order of business should probably be identifying a college or university that can provide a venue; commercial sector options likely also exist, but I imagine that the .edu route will be easiest given our demographics. Penn and Drexel have very strong locational advantages in University City, but we shouldn't rule out Temple, St. Joe's, Bryn Mawr, or Villanova, if they can offer good spaces. Especial attention should be paid to securing a location with sufficient space for the plenary sessions.

I agree that this is our first order of business and agree with you that an educational institution will probably be the best route. Cbrown1023 talk 21:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Something else to think about might be sponsors, but that might want to wait until we see how serious of a bid we can mount.

I'm going to go ahead and steal the templates used by some of the other bid cities, if for no other reason than it will be good to visually see how much work we have to do. –CComMack 21:13, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

:-) Cbrown1023 talk 21:46, 26 October 2007 (UTC)