I think it is totally fair to count this as costs - however, you're right that you should also try to estimate the other side of the equation: gains. The conversation between two staff members is a gain, as is community liaison work. Improved networks too, etc. But this is all much more subjective and harder to measure or even estimate.
Lodewijk 2013/8/26 WereSpielChequers <werespielchequ...@gmail.com> > Be careful how you measure things, sometimes there will actually be > savings here, often there will be costs that would have been incurred > regardless of Wikimania. For example two chapter staff members at Wikimania > discuss something in person that they would have discussed by phone. If you > count the cost of their time at Wikimania then you might cost it as 3 days > of each of their time for Wikimania. But if a staff member is using part of > their time at Wikimania to meet people who they would otherwise have called > then it would be wrong to count their full salary cost for those three days > against the Wikimania budget. There may even be a saving on international > phone calls. > > This could be quite significant as there were many WMF and Chapter staff > at Wikimania. Some of their time will be because of Wikimania, but I > suspect that much, hopefully most of their time will have been spent on > things that Wikimania enabled. So a panel of developers taking questions > from the community at Wikimania should in my view be counted as part of the > community liaison work of those developers. To some extent this is an > accounting exercise. There is a natural desire to get a "true cost" of > Wikimania. But it would be easy to get a false picture of that cost if you > simply count the cost of employing all those who are staff and also the > travel and accommodation. > > > Regards > > > > On 25 August 2013 20:31, Lodewijk <lodew...@effeietsanders.org> wrote: > >> Hi Itzik, >> >> probably staff time spent on preparing/attending the conference should >> also be included. >> >> And perhaps also how much volunteers spent on attending from their own >> budget (this necessarily would have to be an estimate based on flight & >> accommodation). While this is no 'donor money' it is definitely cost to >> the movement. >> >> Lodewijk >> >> >> 2013/8/25 Itzik Edri <it...@infra.co.il> >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> I know it may be too early to ask that, but I promise to send another >>> notification related this issue in the coming months :) >>> >>> We started last year to make the Wikimania costs more transparent. >>> Wikimania is our biggest and the most expensive project. To ask our self >>> "how much Wikimania costs" we can't only look on the project budget, as the >>> total cost involve also scholarships (from WMF and chapters) >>> and delegations of the chapters and the WMF. >>> >>> We have tracking pages on Meta about Wikimania >>> 2011<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Budget>and Wikimania >>> 2012 <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Budget> (sadly the >>> organizer team of 2012 didn't updated their costs till now...), and I >>> opened a new page for Wikimania >>> 2013<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Budget> >>> . >>> >>> So again, I know to some of you this is too early to put the costs >>> (although the size of the chapters and WMF delegation is known and could be >>> update also now) - but if you can, do it now. If now, remember to do it >>> what you have the numbers. >>> >>> The data requested is your chapter\wmf >>> delegation<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013/Budget#Delegations> >>> and >>> the number of >>> scholarships<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships/2013>your >>> chapters gave. >>> >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Itzik >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimania-l mailing list >>> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimania-l mailing list >> Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > >
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