Wikimania 2007 to be held in Taipei
Wikimania 2007 will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, after the city's bid prevailed over three other finalists: Alexandria, London, and Torino.
Phoebe Ayers, a key organizer of Wikimania 2006 in Boston, announced the results of jury deliberations on Monday. Among other strengths, Ayers praised the bid's strong sponsorship (in all, the Taipei team estimated sponsorship of more than US$100,000, including accidental medical and death insurance, wireless LAN coverage, catering, and alcoholic drinks for evening cocktail parties), a great venue, and the opportunity to focus on Asian language projects.
Ayers also noted the quality of other bids. The Torino bid, which was a close second to Taipei, offered catering, conference halls, hot-spot access, and free phone calls, as well as two possible venues. Alexandria's bid was praised for its partnership with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and London's was recognized for its partnership with Wikimania UK and focus on education.
In response to worries that bids from outside Asia were not given a fair chance, Angela Beesley replied, "No it wasn't and I wish people didn't have this misconception. All of the bids were considered against a range of criteria, not only location. Amongst many other factors, Taipei offered the venue and accommodation on a single site, and their organizing team had prior experience from running the Chinese Wikimania this year ... If Asia was a sure winner from the start, we wouldn't have needed a meeting lasting more than 4 hours on Saturday to determine which city would be successful."
Those interested in submitting a bid in 2008 should start an unofficial bid, Ayers said, because a decision on the location of Wikimania 2008 will be made this winter (northern hemisphere).
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