Wikimania Bid/2010/Press/prewin

This page is kept as an archival reference.If you want to raise a point about it, please start a discussion thread on the community forum.

AN attempt is being made to hold an Oxford-based high-tech international conference for the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the Wikipedia free encyclopedia on the Internet.

The Wikimania conference, which brings together hundreds of "Wikimedians," has been held every year since 2005, with the 2008 event taking place in Alexandria, Egypt, last month. This year the conference is taking place in Beunos Aires, Argentina.

Now a bid is being made to bring the 2010 conference to Oxford, with organisers hoping to involve local and international firms to support the attempt. Other cities competing to hold the event include Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Gdansk, Poland.

The deadline for bids is March 29 and it is believed that approximately £150,000 will be required in sponsorship and admission fees to run the conference which receives no funding from general Wikimedia Foundation funds.

If successful, the aim is to hold the event in Oxford Town Hall, the only venue considered big enough to accommodate up to 700 people.

Anyone interested in becoming involved can see the bid page at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/Oxford