On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Samuel Klein <[email protected]> wrote:
> Chris & Ellie: I don't think I would include 'WMF Travel/Accomodation' or > general Wikimedia PR in the Wikimania overhead. > It usually isn't but this was prepared in response to people in earlier threads wanting to know the total WMF cost for Wikimania. When I get the detailed breakout for Wikimania direct expenses done, I will reformat/note this. > * Staff have a budget for travel to events of all kinds; the Board has a > budget for its meetings wherever they are held; and similarly the few > committees that meet in person have a budget for those meetings. > * The fact that these things happen to take place at Wikimania is, if > anything, a slight cost savings: some of the logistics of scheduling and > finding venues can be shared, it allows coordinating press events, &c. > > > Lodewijk, I agree: we should be able to find ways to limit direct > expenses, and increase sponsorships. We could also increase the number of > people who benefit from scholarships, or are otherwise able to attend. > > Focusing on direct expenses from recent Wikimanias: > * 2014 budget: $250K revenue + a $150K WMF grant. Actual: $280K revenue, > needed $320K from WMF to cover direct expenses > * 2015 budget: $150K revenue + a $300K WMF grant. Actual: $100K revenue, > needed $380K from WMF to cover direct expenses > * 2016 budget: $290K? revenue > I think the Esino Lario team is projecting about $100K in other sources of revenue (but this will be updated I'm sure since the information on the bid is preliminary). > + a $250K WMF grant. > > > Itzik, what were the equivalent budgets for Haifa? From the post-mortem > on Meta it looks like a $280K budget, and a $100K WMF grant. This included > paying for the event coordinator, which is now budgeted separately. That > was for the finest event one could hope for. > > > Lodewijk writes: > > 'wikimania direct' is quite expensive, to be honest, and much more than > I > > would have expected. However, it does include catering, which is always > > an expensive chunk... > > Registration fees should at least cover the marginal cost of the event: > catering & materials per person. > I could pitch that to WMF when we set fees/budget for future Wikimania's.... > > > > > looking at these figures, I can agree that it should be possible to do it > for > > less, I'm less certain though whether the proposed splitting up would > > significantly reduce the total costs for everything that is included > here. > > The greater part of money spent on attending Wikimania is the > out-of-pocket cost of flights and hotels. The cost of this for non-local > attendees is 10-50x the cost of registration. Running many simultaneous > local events has a greater total budget, if you look only at the budgets of > the organizers; but a much lower cost per person. There are many more > options for free venues and low-cost lodging when you're not scrambling to > fit 1000 people in a small region of a city. And a smaller fraction of > money spent goes towards jet fuel. > > For this reason, the same pool of scholarship funds would go farther. > > Finally, I don't think we should oversell the current Wikimania as a > universal connector. I too want there to be a community thing that > builds interpersonal connections and is accessible to every community > member at low cost. But that thing cannot be a $2,000-net-cost week-long > conference. Many people could never attend such an event, even if it were > free. It is a long time commitment, and is inevitably mono or bilingual. > > Sam > (who loves the current Wikimanias, and thinks they should continue! but > doesn't think they are the pinnacle of what movement-gatherings could be) > > > On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 5:52 PM, Sam Klein <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> That's most helpful, thank you both. >> >> On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:14 PM, Pharos <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Thanks, Ellie and Chris, this historical experience should be very >>> helpful >>> for future discussions! >>> >>> Best, >>> Pharos >>> >>> On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Chris Schilling < >>> [email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> > Hey folks, >>> > >>> > Ellie has put together a summarized budget including revenue and >>> expenses >>> > from Wikimania 2014 in London[1] and Wikimania 2015[2], which I've gone >>> > ahead and posted to the summary pages of these conferences on meta. >>> > >>> > Thanks, >>> > >>> > Chris >>> > >>> > [1] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014> >>> > [2] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015> >>> > >>> > On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Samuel Klein <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> > >>> > > Itzik writes: >>> > > >>> > > > If we want to talk about the cost of Wikimania it will be great if >>> the >>> > > WMF and the local team will share the costs. >>> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014/Budget >>> > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015/Budget >>> > > > Maybe I missed something, but it's strange that such discussion >>> takes >>> > > place without a real budget breakdown. >>> > > > To summarize 2 huge event to "1$ million USD" does not make sense. >>> > > >>> > > Agreed 1million%. It would be important to see a rough cost >>> breakdown, & >>> > > compare that to the best-budgeted Wikimanias. >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Tomasz Ganicz <[email protected]> >>> > > wrote: >>> > > >>> > > > 2016-02-10 6:06 GMT+01:00 Samuel Klein <[email protected]>: >>> > > > >>> > > > > FUDCons >>> > > > >>> > > > Also it is hard to compare Wikimanias with FUDCons as it is >>> > > > a) much smaller (usually bo more than 200 attendees) >>> > > > b) divided by regions - for example in 2015 there were 3 FUDCons >>> > > > (Argentina, India, Spain) and 2 Flocks (NY and Kraków) - so they >>> are >>> > > > rather like our Iberecop or CEE meetings than the global >>> conferences. >>> > > > >>> > > >>> > > Thanks. Similar to regional events perhaps, not Wikimania. Still >>> worth >>> > > comparing budgets perhaps, if available. >>> > > >>> > > But I was wondering about the trend over time: whether extensive >>> funding >>> > > during the RedHat days made the events less useful, in the years >>> after >>> > that >>> > > funding was reduced. >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > > And also Fedora developers have many potential sources of external >>> > > funding >>> > > > - mainly from IT companies which uses free software and want to >>> apply >>> > for >>> > > > their specific needs and for whom they quite often work. >>> > > > >>> > > >>> > > True. But attendees to GLAM or education conferences also tend to >>> have >>> > > many potential sources of funding - mainly from archives or >>> educational >>> > or >>> > > technical companies who curate knowledge or develop education tools. >>> And >>> > we >>> > > have IT industry partners who are similarly willing to support >>> > Wikimanias. >>> > > Not entirely dissimilar. >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > > But anyway, Fedora offers scholarships for attendees, see: >>> > > > >>> > > >>> > > Yes, wiki conferences should as well - that part of conference >>> funding is >>> > > important. Even early Wikimanias with almost no WMF support had >>> > > significant scholarship pools. >>> > > >>> > > S >>> > > _______________________________________________ >>> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >>> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >>> > > New messages to: [email protected] >>> > > Unsubscribe: >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >>> > > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > -- >>> > Chris "Jethro" Schilling >>> > I JethroBT (WMF) < >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:I_JethroBT_(WMF)> >>> > Community Organizer, Wikimedia Foundation >>> > <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home> >>> > _______________________________________________ >>> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >>> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >>> > New messages to: [email protected] >>> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >>> New messages to: [email protected] >>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 >> > > > > -- > Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 > -- Ellie Young Events Manager Wikimedia Foundation [email protected] c. 510 701 8649 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
