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Wikimania 2008 place announced

Ladies and gentlemen ,

WE WON

 

The Jury for Wikimania 2008 bids have met and are pleased to announce
that Wikimania 2008 will be held in Alexandria, Egypt.
The Bids were assessed by a Jury[0] which included community members

representing various geographical areas, and organisers of the previous

conferences. The Jury used 12 criteria[1] to judge the bids, which were

drawn up based on the Jury’s previous experiences organising the

conference and with input from a wide range of community concerns.

Alexandria was found to be particularly strong in the areas of

reflecting the Wikimedia Foundation’s roots in geo-diversity and

multi-lingualism, of the very exciting nature of the proposed venue

and its local facilities, and of the particularly advanced nature of

the financial planning.

All three Bids were very strong in differing ways, each with stronger

and weaker points. We would like to draw particular attention to the

efforts of the team behind the Atlanta bid, which came in second place

and was particularly commendable in the areas of providing in-facility

accommodation and social space, and for doing great outreach to local

Wikimedians. Their efforts could serve as an example to any team

hoping to get the local community involved. The Cape Town bid was

marked strongly by the Jury for cultural diversity, a particularly

benign local environment, and efforts to secure local recognition and

facilities. We’d especially like to congratulate Cape Town on

providing our very first strong bid from the Southern Hemisphere.

A table of the results is given below. Each member of the jury had up

to 60 points to allocate to the bids in each of the 12 categories,

which they did after a period of discussion and careful deliberation.

Category         Alexandria  Atlanta     Cape Town
Accommodation       251         298          71

Funding             264         224         152

Location            294         154         182

Internet Access     204         263         133

Local Laws          155         253         222

Press               232         235         153

Organizing Team     244         206         163

Rotation            305          55         260

Social Areas        222         258         140

Cost                289         206         125

Venue               323         158         139

Visas               243         109         263

Total              3026        2419        2003

Note that a 13th category, on personal preference, was polled but is

not included as it had no significant effect on the result.

The Jury would like to thank all of those involved in bids, including

those whose bids did not go forward to the final selection, for their

efforts which combined to produce a competitive field.

We strongly encourage all those who bid this year, and those of you

wondering whether your city could have done the same, to consider

bidding for Wikimania 2009, for which the decision will begin very

shortly. See the Wikimania 2009 page on meta[2] for further updates

within the next few days.

We are especially looking forward to the Wikimedia Foundation

collaborating with one of the most famous repositories of knowledge in

the world, and emphasising the newly developing Wikimedia projects in

Africa and the Middle East. We would like to encourage the entire

community to support the Alexandria team over the coming year in

producing an outstanding conference, and look forward to meeting as

many of you as possible there.

On behalf of the Wikimania 2008 bid Jury.

[0] – http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2008/Jury

Sue Gardner and Jan-Bart DeVreede abstained from voting.

[1] – http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania 2008/Judging criteria

[2] – http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009

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As a member of Alexandria team i assure every body that we will make our best in order to make this even a remarkable and spectacular experience to the entire Wikipedian Universe