Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-14/Investigative report

Hong Kong's Wikimania 2013—failure to produce financial statement raises questions of probity

On 2 May 2012, the Wikimania jury announced that Hong Kong's bid to hold the 2013 event had beaten four other proposals. Moderator James Forrester wrote: "The Jury has confidence that the Hong Kong bidding team will pull off a magnificent Wikimania"—and indeed there were positive comments about the event from many attendees.

On the other hand, "Budget & Finances" was one of seven factors the jury focused on, according to the moderator—and among the key judging criteria for the competition were "financial logistics", "chapter support", and experience with "financial accountability for events of similar scope". The event enjoyed basic financial support from the Wikimedia Foundation of $300,000, with donors bearing additional costs of transport and accommodation for what appeared to have been at least 70 people; these include WMF employees and nine out of ten members of the volunteer Affiliations Committee—which by itself provoked a squabble on both Meta and the Wikimedia mailing list ("$40,000 Hong Kong junket")—and $17,000 for an associated WikiSym conference. Sponsorship apparently also involved serious cash: three gold sponsors were claimed in the bid, at $19,000 each; wikiHow was listed among seven silver sponsors ($10,000 each), and the company Dot.Asia was named as "co-host".