Wikimania 2015 bids/Mexico City

Mexico City (officially known in Spanish as México, D. F. or else México, D.F., or simply DF) is the Federal District (Distrito Federal), capital of Mexico, the country's largest city as well as its most important political, cultural, educational and financial center. Mexico City is among the world's largest cities and the most important financial centers in North America. It's also one of the most prominent cities in Latin America and the most visited destination of the country. Mexico City was traditionally known as La Ciudad de los Palacios ("the City of the Palaces"), a nickname attributed to Baron Alexander von Humboldt, who said Mexico City could rival any major city in Europe. Mexico is one of the most popular tourist countries on the planet and its capital is the heart of a country with strong cultural traditions as well as a contemporary and vibrant face, plenty of options to see, taste and visit. Our city has more than one hundred museums and micro-cities to see and visit in a variety of architectural styles: from Aztec zones to contemporary designs.

It lies at 2,200 meters above sea level. Mexico City proper has 9 million inhabitants, and Greater Mexico City has 22 million. For these reasons, Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in the Western hemisphere and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world. The city is very affordable in general terms for visitors, but has all the services found in any other global city.

This bid is presented by Wikimedia México, the local chapter of Wikimedia Foundation. Composed by a community of 40 people and 14 memberships, Wikimedia Mexico was recognized as a chapter in Wikimania 2011 in Haifa, Israel on August 3, 2011. It was formally established as a Nonprofit organization in February 2013. Is a highly dynamic Wikimedia chapter with steady growth and one of the most active chapters in the Spanish speaking world. For that reason, Mexico was recognized as a strategical country in the Global South by WMF in 2013. The organization made a successful Iberoconf 2013, the meeting of Iberocoop initiative and more than 120 Wikimedia activities only in 2013.

The bid of Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City has the support of the National Council for Culture and Arts and the main higher universities National Autonomous University of Mexico, National Polytechnic Institute and Ibero-American University. In addition, the Wikimedia Mexico team for the event have advanced talks for have official support by Federal government of Mexico and the Major of Mexico City and their respective Culture, Tourism and Education secretariats.

• City proposed: Mexico City, Mexico.
• Proposed dates: July 15–19, 2015
• Number of participants: 1000
• Venue: Biblioteca Vasconcelos
• Contact person: Iván Martínez, Carmen Alcázar, Christian Cariño, Omar Sandoval and Andrés Cruz y Corro.
• Twitter: @Wikimania2015

Mexico City (Spanish: México, Ciudad de México, or D.F. (pronounced deh eh-feh)) is the capital city of Mexico, and the largest city in North America. Mexico is one of the most visited countries in the world and its capital is a popular destination for tourism and business alike. Mexico City has more than ten centuries of history and has a unique and plentiful variety of experiences. Although the situation in some areas of the country, Mexico City is a full safe city to visit.

Mexico City has been a hospitable city for many decades for people of all the world. And possesses a spirit of global city that has allowed to host events of international scope, including the only Olympic Games in Latin America, two FIFA's World Cup and a high number of annual conferences, meetings and conventions.

See more about Mexico City>>

The venue will be provided for free to host Wikimania 2015

Biblioteca José Vasconcelos (Vasconcelos Library) is a large public library and one of the largest cultural centers in Mexico City, located at the north of their Historical Center. Planned by prominent architect Alberto Kalach, it's shaped like a 250m ship, made out of concrete, glass and steel, surrounded by vast gardens of endemic flora. Recently built, under its current leadership the library is aligned with the principles of sharing human knowledge, independently of Wikimedia. The José Vasconcelos Library is one of the largest public libraries in Latin America, committed to be host to several informational, educational and cultural events for the benefit of the Mexican people.

The main 38,000 square meters nave is a city of books. It has three floors of reading rooms equipped with contemporary designed furniture and good lighting. The collection of 580,000 books is placed in the middle in hundreds of mobile shelves.

Wikimedia Mexico identified the library as the ideal venue for Wikimania because it has all the necessary infrastructure to make the event: more than enough space, electric power and other services, flexibility for program meetings and their use will be donated specially for the event. The space is designed to be modular in terms of spaces for all kinds of activities. There is a large hall for plenary sessions where we can accommodate more than 1000 persons. There are also some rooms for conference tracks and extra room for press, the rooms are close to each other. The library has outdoor spaces and a garden for fresh air. Even though this is a public space, Wikimania will be the main event there.

See more about Biblioteca Vasconcelos and venue spaces for conference.>>

Regarding the speaker program, we want to include prominent speakers about Wikimedia values, free culture and the future in the Spanish speaking context. Some ideas we think among with the WMF Conference Coordinator are:

• Luis von Ahn: Guatemalan entrepreneur and an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. He is known as one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing, creator of Duolingo. In 2011 Foreign Policy Magazine (in Spanish) named him the most influential intellectual of Latin America and Spain.
• Antonio Lazcano: Scientist, studied the origin and early evolution of life for more than 35 years. UNAM researcher and teacher.
• Daniel Goldin: head of Biblioteca Vasconcelos and long time editor. He can talk about the paper of Spanish speaking libraries' work with Wikimedia.
• Ward Cunningham: creator of Wiki software
• Nestor García Canclini: Argentine-born academic and anthropologist, known for his theories of the concept of "hybridity." He got a PhD in Philosophy at University of Paris X- Nanterre in the late 70s.
• Agustín Peña: head of contents at Ibero 90.9 FM. He can talk about how the digital contents will became into the free culture.
• Alejandro Piscitelli: Argentinean philosopher, specializing in new media and education.
• Patricio Lorente: member of the Wikimedia Foundation and former president of Wikimedia Argentina.
• Miguel de Icaza: Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects.
• Héctor García Molina: Mexican/American computer scientist and Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

Mexico City has a lot of options for accommodation. Unlike other cities where it has made Wikimania, we do not have a dorm ready for the event, or many hostels. For that reason, we have many hotels not far more than 5 kilometers from the exhibition at a reasonable rate and with a quality three star. We will work with the WMF Conference Coordinator in locating appropriate accommodations for all budgets.

• Lunch: will be served in the northeast garden in a buffet style. Vegan and Kosher options are considered. Traditionally the Mexican food are spicy, but the catering will be light on seasoning.
• Coffee-break: will include water, coffee (variety of preparations), tea, cookies, a plenty of fruits, traditional Mexican bread and juice.

We will hire to one of the main ISP to provide full simetric connectivity to the event with 20 mb of download and 10 Mb of upload, in addition to the own network of the venue. Due to the relations of Wikimedia Mexico with ISP providers, surely will be sponsored the full connectivity. The video streaming and recording of the sessions is covered into the budget, too, with an independent 20 mb connection.

Wikimedia Mexico have some alliances with free software and tech devoted communities. We will work among with some of them to assure the infrastructure and quality of the technical facilities. In addition, we will make an open call to other volunteer groups for work in tech stuff.

We will hire a professional registration service for all guests. This service will operate in accordance with WMF, and also give attendees a badge with their data in a Help Desk on the venue at the arriving.

In the budget is considered a backpack, the traditional t-shirt, a notebook and printed comprehensive guide for the event.

We are considering an opening party and closing party. The opening party is planned in the Alcazar of Chapultepec Castle, and the closing party at a venue to be confirmed. In the budget is planned only the cocktail and the waitress service. We will get the sponsoring of drinks and artists of both parties.

Our goal as Wikimania bid is achieve the most quantity of sponsors for all the items of the event. At the time of the bid, we get the sponsor of the venue, but we have other items as the technical facilities as a sponsoring.

We will perform a broad calling for volunteer program, and we plan to recruit 100 volunteers for Wikimania, at least. On 2013 we have a positive experience recruiting volunteers and conforming main tracks and detailed tasks for everyone. Preferably seek volunteers who have an advanced level of English, but also know the values of Wikimedia mission. The volunteer program will be conducted by Wikimedia Mexico.

The chapter has solid relations with federal and local government, prominent universities, relevant companies, cultural sector and NGO. In months preceding the application we have done extensive work of convincing and support to the realization of this event. Much of the development of Wikimedia Mexico has been possible thanks to the local willingness to support the Wikimedia mission.

• Letter of support by Biblioteca Vasconcelos
  Letter of support by Biblioteca Vasconcelos
• Letter of support by Lab for the City, Mexico City Government
  Letter of support by Lab for the City, Mexico City Government
• Letter of support of UNAM, the main university in Latin America
  Letter of support of UNAM, the main university in Latin America
• Letter of Support of ESCOM IPN, the most important public technological higher education center in Mexico.
  Letter of Support of ESCOM IPN, the most important public technological higher education center in Mexico.

• Wikimedia Chile (see the letter of support)
• Wikimedia Uruguay (agreement point in the March 29 Assembly)

• Sapphirewhirlwind (talk) 01:55, 17 November 2014 (UTC) [reply ]

Note: All the prices are quoted in USD.

ESTIMATED REVENUE:

Sponsorships: 100,000ドル

Registration Fees (1,500 attendees): 40,000ドル

WMF Grant: 300,000ドル

Other Grants/Revenue: 9,000ドル