Haifa hosts Wikimania conference

[King_David]

Some 1,000 Wikipedia contributors, volunteers from 55 countries celebrate online encyclopedia's 10th anniversary in northern Israeli city

Lior El-Chai Published: 08.05.11, 10:04

Armed with pens, laptops and high spirits, some 1,000 guests from 55 different countries arrived in Haifa on Thursday for the 2011 Wikimania conference for Wikipedia contributors and volunteers.



Many respectable cities – including New York, Montreal and Toronto – competed for the privilege to hold the international conference. After quite a few deliberations, the northern Israeli city was chosen to accommodate the many guests from China, Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Bolivia and many other countries, including some which have no diplomatic relations with Israel.

"In the world of free content, the decision to hold the conference in Haifa of all places is like having Israel host the Olympic Games," says Shay Yakir, the outgoing chairperson of Wikimedia Israel, which operates the website.



"We applied to host Wikipedia's 10th anniversary celebrations a year and a half ago, and were surprised to win," he adds.



Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav walked proudly among the young people, who kept on typing on their computers in the hallways.



"The world of Internet is a universe which one can sanctify, hate or worship," he said. "But one thing cannot be ignored: The elderly can lecture till the end of time and cling to the yellowing book pages and the thick encyclopedias, but the young generation is capable of providing answers to tough questions at the speed of light and is exposed to a huge amount of information on broadband, with something that years ago seemed like science fiction."


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4104858,00.html

[King_David]

1. What Wikipedia never heard of BDS ? nt