12 September 2006

I'm psyched that the 2007 Wikimania bids are in, and that wt:Alexandria is one of the cities that's got an official bid. I had a great time at Wikimania 2006, the 2nd Annual Wikimedia Conference, in wt:Cambridge (Massachusetts) this year, and I think it'll be great to go somewhere new next year. I actually proposed the Alexandria bid based on some discussions on the #wikimania freenode channel. People were talking about Jimmy Wales's announcement of a renewed commitment on the part of the Wikimedia Foundation for providing reference and learning materials in Africa and Asia. It was suggested that maybe having Wikimania 2007 in Africa, we could further highlight this commitment. In thinking of sites in Africa that might be appropriate, I remembered Brewster Kahle's talk about universal access to knowledge. He talked quite a bit about the Biblioteca Alexandrina, the "new Library of Alexandria", created to be a 21st-century center of knowledge for the entire world. What better place to have a Wikimedia conference? A multilingual, user-driven Internet of the 21st century is going to depend heavily on participation from formerly marginal groups. Reaching out to the Middle East, to Africa, and to Asia is going to be crucial for the success of the Internet, of Open Content, and of Wikimedia for the coming decade. Taking the Open Source and Open Content story outside the traditional box of Internet culture -- North America, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia -- is a big step, but I think it needs to be taken. A Wikimania 2007 in Alexandria would literally shift the centre of gravity for Wikimedia. I put together a sketchy bid on the Wikimedia meta wiki site, and then I solicited some input from Egyptian Wikipedians. The result was spectacular; people have been coming out of the woodwork to add information, contact local authorities, and negotiate with the Bib. Alex. conference centre. Now that the BA has offered to host the event gratis, I think that the Wikimania 2007 bid for Alexandria is one of the strongest of the Wikimania 2007 bids. The shortlist comes out in a few days; I hope that Alex is on it. tags: alexandria wikimania wiki conference

Esperanto Wikitravel Under pressure from Chuck SMITH, the founder of Esperanto Wikipedia, I've tried to revive the wt:Wikitravel:Esperanto Wikitravel Expedition. It's been fun; I haven't done a lot of Esperanto in a while, since my new love in the conlang world is Sona. But the chances of having a Sona Wikitravel version any time soon are slim. tags: esperanto wikitravel chuck smith sona