[Foundation-l] board candidacies

Sat Aug 12 04:33:11 UTC 2006

George Herbert wrote:

>On 8/11/06, Anthere <anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>What would we do if B. Gates Foundation gave us 1 000 000 dollars ?
>>
>>(that's a serious question)
>>    
>>
>Not serious response: race to semi- or fully protect the Bill Gates
>Foundation and Bill Gates articles, before the vandals accusing them of
>trying to buy Wikipedia could hit?
>
This is a great example of the difference between WikiPedian and 
WikiMedian thinking.

>Serious answer: I have been watching how Bill is donating money; he seems to
>be very selective and very engaged in the decision process of who to give
>money to, but conversely isn't (that I can recall) generally insisting on
>becoming engaged in the management of organizations he is funding.
>
That's a more likely scenario.  There's a physical limit to the number 
of boards that the guy can sit on.

>That is not to minimize the question - if we generalize, if Joe Random
>Billionare comes to the WMF with a million dollar donation check and asks
>for a board seat in return, it's still a completely valid policy question.
>And could well be a realistic problem.
>
This is where the advisory board comes in.

Ec