OK well I’m not going to fight too much for Oxford if I’m
the only one who thinks London isn’t that great an idea, but before I
shut up I’ll just make a few points:
·
Wikimania has been in cities other than the capital or largest one
more often than not (Frankfurt not Berlin, Cambridge not DC or NY, Alexandria
not Cairo).
·
We have tried London before. Many times. Even with very active
bid leaders (Alison, Gary) we had no luck.
·
London is spread out over a massive area. This either means
significant journeys from accommodation to conferences to restaurants, or doing
basically everything in one of the university’s campuses, making us very
dependent on that university for everything and giving a rather claustrophobic
feel.
·
London is expensive and is globally perceived as being even more
expensive than it actually is. Being firmly rooted in a university campus would
ameliorate this, but it’s always going to be an issue when it comes to
evaluating bids.
·
The transport advantages are illusionary. Getting into the
centre of London from Heathrow does not take significantly more time than
getting into the centre of Oxford (there are shuttle busses). (Oxford is of
course not unique in this: Reading, Guildford, Cambridge etc. all have similar
services I’d imagine).
The strongest arguments for Oxford in particular are:
·
The presence of the Oxford Internet Institute. A ready source of
speakers and a unique selling point (would be particularly useful in ensuring serious
press coverage).
·
Oxford’s popularity as a tourist destination.
·
Its compact city-centre.
·
Fairly high tech population. 3 games companies off the top of my
head, major web design companies. Regular “geek nights” meetings.
Do we have any contacts in UCL/LSE/Imperial anymore? If not then
my contacts in Oxford university would be another advantage.
Tom
From: wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Al Tally
Sent: 07 July 2008 16:18
To: wikimediauk-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimania London 2010
2008/7/7 Paul Williams <paul <at> skenmy.com>:
We also need to decide fast and early where we are going to
bid to host, as trying to maintain 2 or 3 bids is highly detrimental to the
quality of them. We want one, hard working team working on a single bid.
My personal vote is in for London.
Yes, the page was originally for a Manchester bid (closer to me), but London is
what we should go for. We should stick with one, and work on it together.
London is the most suitable, as has been said, flights tend to go to London
airports more than others.
--
Al Tally
(User:Majorly)
I'd say London too due to good airports etc.
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