[Foundation-l] Latest board resolutions

Thu Jul 27 22:11:45 UTC 2006

On 7/27/06, mboverload <mboverload at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/27/06, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 7/27/06, Brad Patrick <bradp.wmf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > You have to be kidding.  Are you seriously suggesting the Foundation
> > stop
> > > buying servers?
> > >
> > IANAA but
> >
> > Once you factor in depreciation the logical end point of his position
> > is probably that the foundation should turn liquid assets into servers
> > and related products as quickly as posible.
>
> Layman explanation as to why?
>
> mboverload

I'm really not sure what geni was trying to say, but the two main
reasons I think Wikimedia should try to limit its assets are 1) to
increase board accountability and 2) to avoid being a good target for
lawsuits.

The first reason I suppose is the more important one.  Right now three
of the five Wikimedia board members are not elected.  The board is
accountable to the public largely because it relies on donations from
the community.  As the foundation acquires more and more assets, they
become less and less accountable to the public.  Sure, there need to
be reserves in place, but in the budgets that were released before
Wikimedia started hiding them from the public a very large portion
(something like 75%) was being spent on capital expenditures.

Anthony