[Foundation-l] Wikimedia main office

Fri May 26 02:41:54 UTC 2006

--- Michael Davis <mdavis at wikia.com> wrote:
> I'm not aware of any plans that call for massive hiring in a central 
> office.  Most office hiring will be for routine administrative/clerical 
> functions which will be much cheaper outside of a major metropolitan 
> areas.  Flights from St. Petersburg to NYC or DC are $200 round trip and 
> are easy day trips.  International flights are more difficult but that 
> hasn't slowed down Jimbo.  Given that the Foundations pays $400 per 
> month for office space, it's a whole lot cheaper to fly back and forth a 
> few time a month than lease office space in Manhattan.
> 
> Our strength is that we are a virtual organization and that isn't going 
> to change.

Nobody is advocating having an office in Manhattan. That would be insanely expensive. But having
one in suburb of Washington D.C. would be both cost effective and put us within a metro ride of
hundreds of potential contacts; both representatives from various nations and many other
like-minded organizations. Having our top paid staff there would even be more effective. 

There are real limits to the amount that can get done via email, IRC, and telephones. For example,
we were able to do more work in the January face-to-face meeting than we did in the previous six
months. Face-to-face communication simply has a much higher bandwith (as does having direct
physical access to records). Increasing the opportunity for that by physical proximity to the
people we want and need to be in contact with, can only reap great benefits.

-- mav

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