To the extent that it can be done in good spirits by people who are not exhausted, I would enjoy reading any comments about the bidding process this year, perhaps from the bid leads. Do Cape Town's Discott, Mexico City's ProtoplasmaKid, Monastir's Vivaystn, Dar es Salaam's Francis Kaswahili, or Bali's Aldo samulo have any comments? Was the bidding process informative and enjoyable? Will those in your area participate in developing future bids? Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:23, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I feel like I am going to need some time to properly digest this question so I can properly articulate an answer. I guess that's a wordy way of saying 'I don't yet know.' But let me take a stab at it anyway. I found the process both useful and invigorating for a number of reasons. First was that in the process of making connections and getting support for the bid I met many people and organisations in Cape Town that have been helpful in other ways out side of our Wikimania bid. For example the Open Society Foundation of South Africa invited us to apply for funding and out of that we got a grant from them to allow Wikimedia ZA to hire an administrator. A person who has been very helpful to us getting more properly setup and greatly increased our capabilities. As a chapter we also connected with supportive people in local universities and the technology sector here. People we would never have met otherwise. Although Cape Town was unsuccessful this time the bid did give us a cause to focus on and rally around as a chapter. The down side is that it was a lot of work and took up a good six months of my off time organising the ground work and getting quotes, making bookings, investigating options. This is time that could have been used doing other projects or running edit-a-thons. On balance I feel the process was more of a positive than a negative experience, both for the organising team here in South Africa as well as for myself personally. It is some thing I would consider doing again.--Discott (talk) 15:34, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
That is very insightful. I commented more on your user page. Thanks for sharing. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:23, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Was the bidding process informative and enjoyable? Absolutely yes! Initially it was just an idea, then the bid was supported by JCI-ENIT and many people joined and worked with enthusiasm, then we got a lot of encouragements from organisations... But at the end the dream was broken into pieces. It was so severe to know that we didn't win for reasons that we cannot control. I share many ideas mentioned by Discott, including the advantages of networking and our off time that we oriented for preparing the bid. Many got to know Wikimedia projects thanks to the bid. We didn't win, however we lived the experienced and we made a lot of changes though it. Now there is a concrete effort to establish a user group and a chapter later on in Tunisia. Will those in your area participate in developing future bids? The bidding team will meet this week and share thoughts about the future. Personally I will not lead a bid in 2016 and my focus will continue on edit-a-thons and the promotion of wikipedia Arabic (and maybe wikivoyage) Vivaystn (talk) 12:34, 24 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. I regret to say that in the United States I hardly know anything about Tunisia and I worry a lot about the fair treatment of Wikimedia participants in other countries. To the extent possible I would prefer that all help and resources go to anyone prepared to manage them in whatever places are less represented, and if the community in Tunisia could manage a conference, then I want them to have all support at all stages of their planning. I hope that in the course of doing edit-a-thons you continue to identify good people who will make another bid in the future and continue to participate in the annual Wikipedia conference and other international events. Thanks for looking to Wikivoyage also. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:29, 24 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
