Hiya, thanks Muhammad for taking our all criticism positive. I'd like to quote a Japanese saying among Japanese merchants: a criticizing customer is your treasure; most people complain to their friends and they'll never show.
Hope our input will help your country, and we'll make a better and greater visit, if someday we have another chance to get in. Cheers, On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 2:53 AM, Muhammad Abdul-Mageed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I do agree with almost all what you said, Austin. I can understand all the > complaints and I think our friends who brought such complaints had enjoyed > the conference and maybe some places they may have visited in Egypt. Also, I > guess many of them were trying to help by bringing such things up, rather > than criticize. After all, we are to do our best to help get the message > across to everybody and everywhere and in the process we know we will face > difficulties. Lately, I have been traveling extensively in the US and Europe > and, even in these first world countries, I have come across some stuff that > did not meet our expectations. > > Yesterday, I have been talking to a friend who just came back from a > charity visit to Mauritania and she has been telling me how poor the country > is. She is American and she is rich and she did it out of good well. She > lost weight and had to sleep on the floor, etc. But she enjoyed it, since > she felt she was helping people. We Wikipedians, I guess, share the same > spirit: helping the unprivileged by providing info. for free. It is a good > thing and I am sure that most of us are ready to offer some sacrifices in > the way. > > What I will really like is to have some of our local group in Egypt > summarize the complaints so that we can send them to the BA director. The > man is enthusiastic and maybe he can get these to some minister, media, etc. > I know for sure he is aware of many of the problem and I know how difficult > change maybe, but I also met many zealous, friendly youngpersons in Egypt > who made me believe in their power to change. Look what Egyptian activists > are doing over the Internet to change the country to the better. A > successful national strike was organize almost exclusively on Facebook, for > those those do not know. If such complaints get summarized I will do my best > to get to the media, with an intention to improve rather than negatively > criticize. > -- > Muhammad Abdul-Mageed, > PhD Student > Dept. of Linguistics, > Indiana University, Bloomington, > USA > www.mumageed.blogspot.com > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 13:33:39 -0500 > From: "Austin Hair" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Comments > To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)" > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > I've been busy all week, so when I finally caught up with this thread > I found myself marveling at the complaints of > inexperienced travelers, > acknowledging several fair gripes about this year's venue, > appreciating the more insightful points by some posters, and being > particularly encouraged by Patricio's post. > > As a veteran Wikimania organizer, and having participated in the > selection process for every Wikimania to date, I could write an essay > on what I think about our annual conference (which, despite the > inevitable problems, people still attend). I'll try to be brief here, > though. > > No conference venue is going to be perfect. One year there won't be > enough snacks; another venue won't have adequate power ports in > certain areas; a country might have too many poor people. (Read up, > these are actual complaints cited in this thread alone.) No > conference venue, period, is going to have adequate WiFi?I do this for > a living; I taped access points to walls in Frankfurt, and the fact is > that it's not a perfect technology. > (It's not even a particularly > good one, actually, but we manage.) > > Every year those involved learn from the previous year's mistakes, and > we make new ones. Because every venue is different, new problems will > occur that were never anticipated in the past. What makes Wikimania > great is just getting everyone together in one place, and though I'm > not going to say "kwitcherbitchin," I will say that some of the > complaints I've seen simply aren't helpful. This said, I hope people > keep posting, because I'd rather roll my eyes at a noob comment than > risk missing out on a good point. > > I'm looking forward to Wikimania 2009. Patricio and his team are > impressively dedicated to doing this right, and have practically > treated the last two Wikimanias as a case study?and good thing, since > each one gets harder and harder to top. I have no doubt we won't be > disappointed. > > Austin > > P.S. Since all we've seen > are the unpleasant arrival stories, I want > to relate mine: I arrived in Cairo at 3:55 a.m., spent a mere 30 > minutes buying a visa and getting through passport control, got a cab > to the hotel my friends had checked into a few hours before, got a key > from reception, crashed for a few hours, had a leisurely breakfast, > got a cab to the train station, took a train to Alexandria, and got a > cab to another hotel. All it takes is a little prior research and > planning, and a little bit of savvy. Yes, along the way I was waylaid > by unscrupulous cab drivers in the airport, had my driver disrupt a > wedding, waited an hour in the heat of the Cairo train station, had to > negotiate a seat swap with another passenger to sit with my friends, > watched as a cab driver spent five minutes banging on his engine with > a pair of pliers to get his '72 Lada running again, and overpaid for > most everything, only to spend the next two nights with > three beds > crammed into a particularly small room of a colonial hotel; although I > realize not everyone finds this sort of thing fun as I do, you have to > manage your own expectations. There are no golden carriages in the > developing world. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > -- KIZU Naoko http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Britty (in Japanese) Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD _______________________________________________ Wikimania-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
