Wikimania 2016 bids/Esino Lario/FAQ

Location

Why Esino Lario?

Esino Lario is at the same time an unexpected and possible location for Wikimania. Unexpected because of course it is not a major city; possible because it is 100 km from Milan, it is served by three airports (one of which is Malpensa Airport, a major European airport), it is reached by optical fiber, it is connected by two electricity lines, it is relatively closed for a group of volunteers of Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia CH, and for Wikimedia Italia staff and it is in the world-wide renewed beautiful area of Lake Como. Furthermore, Esino Lario has being using open licenses since 2006, it has received a Wikimedia Italia prize in 2009 for open content, it has contributed to the Wikimedia projects with its historical documentation, it has served as pilot experience for the project Share Your Knowledge: Creative Commons and Wikipedia for cultural institutions and it is currently involved in the project The Alps on Wikipedia, a project in partnership with Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia CH.

Why not another place?

The aim of this bid is exactly to prepare Wikimania to be hosted in many more and many other places. Esino Lario is the right place to build the necessary experience, because – differently from other places – it can take advantage of the support of an existing and strong chapter (with an office, some staff and the experience of Wikimedia Conference Milan 2013), the presence of an engaged group of volunteers with different skills and backgrounds, a history of interactions between Wikimedia and the local community, and a location which presents a manageable complexity. Testing a new format for Wikimania would be much more complex without those four essential assets. We have no doubts that there are other beautiful and great place where Wikimania can be hosted, but Esino Lario is the right one to test a new format and to allow a broader range of places to be selected in the future. This is why Esino Lario and not another place.

What is the plus value of organizing Wikimania in Esino Lario?

Esino Lario offers to Wikimania:

Proximity. In a small mountain town, the event occupies the entire territory. Venues, restaurants, bars, and the large majority of the accommodation is all in one place. Participants can enjoy the sessions, the evening program and the excursions together and the location facilitates interaction, exchanges, formal and informal meetings during the day and in the evening. The advantage of a large city is that participants can be dispersed (which makes it much easier to manage them), but it does not facilitate interactions and a full involvement of people in the event.
A new format. The specificity and the complexity of Wikimania Esino Lario is a challenge and a chance to rethink Wikimania. The planning of the event has required a review of the existing documentation and Esino Lario is a change to consider new locations and the capacity of the program to fit and be triggered by the specificities of those new locations (location, participants, objectives, financial plan and evaluation).
Legacy. Wikimania Esino Lario will not only produce an event but also a territorial development. This legacy is not produced with fundings from the Wikimedia movement but it is triggered by Wikimania. This strategy can be implemented in new locations and it can produce with the effort and the investment of Wikimania a larger and permanent impact.

How long does it takes to get to Esino Lario?

Esino Lario is 1h 40 minutes from Milan central station by train and bus; the bus waits for the train.
From the airports by public transport you basically need to reach Milan central station (+ above). To reduce the inconvenience of having to take 3 different transports and to wait for connections, we have planned a direct transport from the airports. Direct transport takes 2 h from Malpensa, 1 h 30 min from Linate and 1 h 40 min from Orio al Serio; busses can accommodate up to 50 people and if we consider only 20 people per bus the cost is 25 € per person (the cost of public transport from Malpensa is 18.85 €). For further details please refer to traveling to Esino Lario.

Is there anything to do in Esino Lario?

Yes. Wikimania Esino Lario will organize specific special events and excursions, and Esino Lario is located just above Lake Como, a well-known touristic location with villas, botanical gardens, monuments and lovely villages. Program of Wikimania Esino Lario.

Numbers

How many people can participate in Wikimania Esino Lario?

We are planning the event for 1'000 people. This is the number we have used to plan venues, food, technology, transport and accommodation. According to previous experiences, 700 people seem the reasonable expected number of participants for a Wikimania in a non-English speaking country. For further details please refer to participants.

Why are you limiting the number of participants?

Setting the number of participants to Wikimania Esino Lario to 1'000 (with the objective of welcoming 700) is meant to assure that the event is manageable and pleasant. This number was set during the feasibility study and it is to a relevant number of participants compared to other Wikimanias in non-English speaking countries. For further details please refer to participants.

	Frankfurt	Cambridge, US	Taipei	Alexandria	Buenos Aires	Gdańsk	Haifa	Washington DC	Hong Kong	London	Esino Lario proposal
Date	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Population of the hosting city	687.775	105.162	2.652.959	4.546.231	2.890.151	460.276	63.666	646.449	7.184.000	8.308.369	772
Conference attendees (including volunteers)	380	400	440	650	559	500	726	1400	1000	4000	1000
Attendees compared to the population	0,06%	0,38%	0,02%	0,01%	0,02%	0,11%	1,14%	0,22%	0,01%	0,05%	129,53%
# beds planned at a low price	434	690	889	650	559	622	180	250	100	1241	700
Percentage of beds at low price compared to the number of attendees	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	25%	18%	10%	31%	70,00%
Note about the beds								plus local participants (inhabitants)		plus local participants (inhabitants)	700 is the number of available beds (confirmed) in Esino Lario.
Number of attendees planned in Esino Lario compared to previous Wikimania	263%	250%	227%	154%	179%	200%	138%	71%	100%	25%

Shouldn't we get the largest possible number of people at Wikimania?

This is a choice. If you think Wikimania should involve the largest possible number of people, Wikimania Esino Lario is NOT the right place to do it. Wikimania Esino Lario can offer something different: an event characterized by proximity which allows to experiment a format of Wikimania.Let's also consider that a large cultural event is not an event with 2'000-4'000 participants/visitors, but an event with 70'000 participants/visitors (this is the number of attendees of Art Basel, the festival of literature in Mantua - quite specialized cultural events). If we aim at making Wikimania the largest possible event, then we should maybe head directly toward 70'000 people. Something we should also consider.

Where are you going to put all those people during Wikimania Esino Lario?

We are going to accommodate the majority of people in Esino Lario in hotels, dorms and private apartments. This is possible because Esino Lario has a century of touristic economy which reached 12'000 summer presences in the Sixties and Seventies. People can also take advantage of the available accommodation in the near-by villages of Perledo and Varenna and Lake Como (Lecco, Abbadia Lariana, Mandello del Lario, Lierna, Bellagio, Menaggio, Bellano, Dervio, Colico). For further details please refer to accommodation.

How are you going to manage all those people moving around?

We are going to intensify busses between the railway station Varenna-Esino and Esino Lario (5 busses rented for 7 days), and we will have small 8-people vans to manage local transport in Esino Lario (4 vans for the week). The plan considers local transport also for volunteers, occasional visitors and participants with accommodation in Varenna. For further details please refer to moving around.

Technical

Are we going to have the Internet?

Yes. Optical fiber reaches Esino Lario. For Wikimania we will take advantage of it and distribute it properly. For further details please refer to technical.

Do you have enough electricity?

We are going to increase the electricity supply for event. This is possible because Esino Lario is connected by two electricity lines (from Varenna and from Valsassina); we have evaluated the necessity for each building to manage the increase of electricity and estimated the price in collaboration with the regional head of a major electricity company. Technical implementation of Wikimania Esino Lario.

How about blackouts?

Short blackouts can happen during big storms; normally they last few seconds. We are planning to use an uninterruptible power supply to protect servers and video recordings will take advantage of each camera battery. We considered having generators, but the efficiency of such a solution has a disproportionate cost compared to probabilities and to the real capacity of generators to provide backup for an event of our size. According to safety regulations we will equip rooms and we will obviously provide each working space with banal - but timeless - chart-sheets and markers.

Support

Is Wikimania Esino Lario supported by a chapter?

Yes. Wikimania Esino Lario is supported by two chapters: Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia CH. Wikimedia Italia general assembly has expressed its support in October 2013 and in April 2014 it has confirmed it; Wikimedia CH has supported it with a board resolution. Please refer to our history and to Wikimania Esino Lario support.

Miscellaneous

Wouldn't it be easier to organize Wikimania in a large city?

Yes. But we are Wikipedians: we built the greatest encyclopaedia on the planet, and we can manage a conference like this one.