Is there a boycott of Wikimania 2008?

Like just about everything else having to do with Wikipedia, planning for this year's Wikimania Conference has been a long and drawn-out process, full of discussions about grammar, location and even the conference's website ("the bright colors hurt my eyes," one poster complained). But this year's conference, which takes place next week, has stirred more than the usual controversy among Wikimedia's army of volunteers.

That's because it is being held in Alexandria, Egypt, which beat out Atlanta and Cape Town in a process, that, much like the Olympics, was voted on by a panel, and whose decision, again much like the Olympics, angered many.

What riled the feathers of the Wikipedians this time? The allegation that Egypt is a country that censors and imprisons bloggers and restricts freedom of speech. One poster wrote that Egypt imprisoned a blogger in 2007 for insulting Islam and defaming the president of Egypt. Lesbian and gay Wikipedians expressed concern about Egypt's treatment of homosexuals. On the Wikimania talk page, others detailed instances of the Egyptian government censoring the Internet and accused Wikimedia of taking "a step backwards in its core philosophy."

One person summed up the objections: "Why hold a conference of a foundation that is based entirely on FREE media when that country and the government don't even support free speech?"

The nonprofit Reporters Without Borders indicates some of the accusations aren't far from the truth. It reports that ...

...a blogger named Abdel Nabil Suleiman was sentenced to four years in prison for inciting hatred of Islam; a blogger named Abdul Moneim-Mahmud was also imprisoned, likely for posting text and photos exposing torture.

Some called on Wikipedians to boycott the conference. Others encouraged participants to protest or speak out against Egypt's human rights record while in Alexandria. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales promised to speak about freedom of speech, human rights and free culture at the conference in response to the concerns.

Wikimedia spokesman Jay Walsh said that about 600 people will be attending the conference this year:  a bit fewer than usual. High airfares and the economy are likely to blame. But is it evidence of a massive boycott?

Maybe, but not necessarily for the reasons mentioned above, said Andrew Lih, who is currently writing a book about Wikipedia and online collaboration. He suggests low attendance is less of a boycott and more of a "malaise in the community." Participation in the English-language version of Wikipedia is flat, and people don't seem as excited as they do in the early stages, he said. At the conference, he'll be talking about whether Wikipedia is a "community in crisis."

We've written in the past about Wikipedia's growing pains, but it looked like the nonprofit was getting back on track, hiring a major gifts officer and head of community giving and hoping to actually make some money. Executive Director Sue Gardner has said she hoped this is the year Wikimedia will grow up and become a sustainable organization.

Perhaps by the next Wikimania, things will have settled down, especially if volunteers pick a less controversial place for a conference. Anyone up for Wikimania Tulsa 2009?

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers marketing and the L.A. tech scene.

Photo: Bibliotheca Alexandria, the location of Wikimania 2008. Credit: Amr Nabil / Associated Press

Comments

[Mathias Schindler]

Hi,

2009's location has already been chosen. Wikimania 2009 will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mathias Schindler
Wikimedia Germany
(with a booked flight to Alexandria, Egypt on Tuesday along with 5 friends)

[Dr Saqr]

Alexandria has been always a place where cultures meet and live, from romans to greek, arabs, lebanese. It should not be punished because of what others do. on the contrary we shall celebrate the thousands of years as the library of the world. and this is symbolic you know.

[Domingo A. Trassens]

Why a boycott of Wikimania 2008? Independently of the current politics of Egypt, this country has rich cultural and historic roots.
We have to give Egypt the opportunity to be the host of this conference and others
China has also censor, and who really care...
We have to learn the world is not only Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin o Tokio, and each country has positive and negative sides.

Domingo
http://www.comlab-corp.com
http://spaengclub.blogspot.com

[Dr. Zee]

A few angry contributors is not a boycott. Tens of thousands are with the concept of having wikimania 2008 in Alexandria.

Please try to show the actual truth in your next report.

[Danny Wool]

While I was critical of the decision to host Wikimania in Alexandria for all of the aforementioned reasons, I think that the remote location, coupled with the absence of a sizable, hardcore hub of local Wikipedians (such as in Frankfurt or Boston) was a key reason why so many people are not attending. Airfare alone makes it prohibitively expensive for a group that consists of so many students. Nevertheless, I think Andrew hit the nail on the head when he spoke about community malaise among the English-language projects--by far the largest projects. While there are obstacles, these might have been better overcome had there been genuine enthusiasm among the potential attendees.

[Gregory Kohs]

How quaint that Jimmy Wales will speak out about "freedom of speech, human rights and free culture", but when the second paid employee of the Wikimedia Foundation spoke out this year about his dissatisfaction with being used by Jimmy Wales to book personal paid speaking engagements, and being requested -- TWICE -- to reimburse expenses like $600 wine tabs and a Moscow massage parlor visit, Wales' and the Foundation's response was to send out attack dog Sue Gardner onto CNET television to discredit and dismiss the (presumably TRUE) allegations. Sue's comment was (and I quote), "Jimmy has never done anything wrong." She blithely labeled the whistleblower as "a disgruntled ex-employee" and washed her hands of it.

Yeah, we'll listen very carefully to Jimbo's thoughts about what it means to have freedom of speech and respect for human rights. That should be really interesting.

[DL]

A couple of comments.

First of all, Egypt is (unfairly) seen as "scary" to visit, for most Americans. Sad, because Egyptians do their best to take care of tourists - bending over backwards to make sure they are safe (my hotel kept a record of what time guests came in, and if they don't come in, the police are called. I call that "concerned" - and most guests are pretty safe).

Fear. I think that's more of a factor than money. For Europeans (considerably less spooked in general by the Middle East, which is a normal vacation spot for them) flights to Alex are relatively cheap, as is accommodation.

I think the idea was good, to hold the conference there, if Wikipedia intended to be more international. But Wikipedia is preponderantly US-centric, and many Americans fear visiting such places - pity, but true.

As for free speech and human rights, well, well.

After habeus corpus went down, and after rendering to Eastern European prisons became a normal occurrance, and then there is that island south of Florida that everyone seems to have forgotten...

Glass houses, and all that.