Talk:Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town

Wiki projects

Copied over from Talk:Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Vision, which is now a redirect to this page. harej (talk) 08:20, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Wiki projects? What are those? --Nemo 13:32, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I believe it was referring to Wikimedia projects, e.g. Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, etc. harej (talk) 20:02, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Southern Hemisphere

Copied over from Talk:Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Vision, which is now a redirect to this page. harej (talk) 08:20, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Wikimania has been held in the Southern Hemisphere before, in 2009 (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Mel 23 (talk) 21:59, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

The text of the bid has been updated to reflect this. harej (talk) 20:02, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Bid page promotion

Good idea,

Places to find supporters would be WikiProject South Africa, WikiProject Africa, and any local language editors (last I looked there were not that many that had put in personal links but a few of the local languages were represented), there might be a way to check out who has edited pages in local languages or area. Perhaps a search in the user-space (wikipedia and wikicommons) for local addresses or names and then sending the short list an invitation. After all people who have already edited are likely to be automatic supporters.

Also the other contenders pages look very slick with all the population and visa data.

Important would be to indicate language choice of English, Afrikaans and almost Dutch for visitors from abroad for tourist applications, perhaps even translate some of the data into the most common local languages and Dutch.

A neat way to promote Wiki Editing would be to prepare a simple school project or duplicate an existing program if such is available, that a teacher can set with step by step instructions on creative commons licensing how to find a missing topic, how to register an acceptable user-name, study editing rules (NPOV etc), create a page in the sandbox, proofreading and media uploads and copying page to live site. It could form part of an IT and/or language course and you could make it a quick project with a prize for the best page every week that some sponsor would likely offer (e-bookreaders or tablets might be available in exchange for exposure). A county wide program could make a lot of editors and supporters. You could have categories; best new page, best local language translation of more than a stub class page, best local living person biography page and best local dead person biography page.

Kalle - Idyllic press (talk) 14:08, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

edit: I found the country data in the 'tabs' Not a very good idea to hide information in such a promotion I did not even dream that it existed until l I lost this talk and went looking for it. Idyllic press (talk) 14:12, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Kalle, I think I will put it up on the Africa and South Africa Portals now. I remember looking into doing that last year but it must have slipped my mind in all the busyness to get things done this year.--Discott (talk) 14:42, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Visa Friendly?

Copied over from Talk:Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Self-evaluation, which now redirects to this page. harej (talk) 08:21, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

You've said that South Africa is a Visa Friendly location, but an often reliable source paints a more complex picture, and doesn't explain how difficult and or expensive it is for people from countries that do require visas to get them. WereSpielChequers (talk) 19:43, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for raising this issue, WereSpielChequers. There are countries that require visas for short visits to South Africa, however the majority of developed nations have no-visa access for up to 30 or 90 days depending on the country. The few that are not exempt will have to apply for a visa using the detailed requirements for which can be found here. Costs range from country to country, as do issuing times. To give you an idea, a delegate at the recent #OpenAfrica14 course in Cape Town was charged US$61 in Uganda, and it took 3 days to be issued. I will add more detailed information to the site about this. Islahaddow (talk) 11:52, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

diets

Copied over from Talk:Wikimania 2015 bids/Cape Town/Cape Town, which now redirects to this page. harej (talk) 08:21, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Many wikimanians are vegetarian, some vegan, some eat Halal, some Kosher, some just avoid pork. How d you plan to cater for that? WereSpielChequers (talk) 19:53, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for the question. South Africa, and especially Cape Town, is an intensely multi-cultural city where diversity is celebrated. There are significant Muslim and Jewish populations, as well as other religions happily living side by side. Vegetarians and vegans are common. Luckily, Cape Town's fresh food choices are delicious, varied and vast, with a range of cultural food that are specific to the Cape. We didn't think to include this in our bid as catering for halal, kosher and other dietary sensitivities is an every day consideration of conference and event planning in Cape Town (just as it is everywhere else). That having been said, a question to specify dietary preferences will be included in the registration application process so all the bases are covered, and the full variety catered for. Islahaddow (talk) 08:32, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

We have had at least one Wikimania where this was a problem, not every community is used to certain issues that come up with a diverse global group. If it won't be a problem for you then I would suggest making that clear in your submission. WereSpielChequers (talk) 18:37, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Noted, and thank you for the suggestion. Islahaddow (talk) 10:45, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Carbon footprint.

The 2010 Fifa world cup had more than 8 times as much greenhouse gas emissions as the previous one in Germany because of all the long distance international flights to South Africa (flights made up over 67% of the CO2e, stadia constructions and material was less than 1%)[1]. -- Jeandré du Toit, Capetonian, 2014-01-24t17:31z

Thank you for the facts and raising the issue of the environmental impact, Jeandré du Toit. By their nature Wikimedia projects are international, and therefore Wikipedians hail from around the world. It would be impossible to host Wikimania anywhere without this being a very real issue. While we cannot hope to equate the global impact of the World Cup with Wikimania, we will definitely take the environment, and especially the carbon footprint of this event, into account. We are watching the current #welovecapetown campaign with anticipation to see what environmental projects we can align with in order to reduce the action of hosting Wikimania in Cape Town. At the bare minimum we will be asking delegates to offset their air miles with inventive and effective local initiatives, one example being Greenpop's Trees for Schools. We are also looking for a Wikimania legacy project so that there will have a lasting impact on the Cape Town community. We are not sure what this project is yet, but will be something to do with education and environment. We would be delighted to consider any ideas you have! Islahaddow (talk) 11:27, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Link to the Arabic article about Cape Town

You provide links to several articles about Cape Town in different languages. They all indicate the language and embedded in them is a link to the article in that language. For Arabic, you should have the word "العربية" to indicate the language and have the wiki link as "ar:كيب تاون" not "ar:واشنطن (توضيح)" which links to the disambiguation page concerning Washington. Asaifm (talk) 19:24, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Hey Asaifm, I've been looking for the text "ar:كيب تاون" so I could replace it. Have not found it though. Can you help me by stating the pages? MADe (talk) 13:59, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

An Arabic contributor has fixed the issue on the 20th of March. Thank you for your concern. Asaifm (talk) 13:28, 31 March 2014 (UTC)