WOW, that's a lot to be spending on travel! I do hope I am not the only one
who thinks that >spending $264,361 (as compared with $140,605 in the previous year) is excessive.
In my book, that's not excessive. Near-constant world travel is never cheap, and travel is an *extremely* important part of the advocacy work that the WMF does. I personally am very glad they travel so much. It's my dollar well spent, and its what spreads wikipedia internationally.
On Feb 10, 2008 5:17 PM, gwern0@gmail.com wrote:
So, the audit was released a little while ago (if you missed it, the important thing is at < http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_2007_fs.pdf%3E). I'm a little surprised at the general silence here - did I just miss the threads or something?
Anyway, I read through it carefully and found it of great interest. A number of points stuck out at me in particular:
# Isn't it interesting how much Google stock was donated? On top of what I hear were previous donations? Some of the Googlers must like us.
# Wow, that's quite a bit to spend on salaries. And I think the amount is only going to go way up, what with Erik Moeller abruptly going from non-paid to paid status, and all the other hires. It strikes me as odd to see employee expenses rising past equipment and hosting costs, but I suppose that just marks me as being a product of the old days where the mission of the Foundation was seen as keeping the servers running (and not whatever else the Foundation does these days).
# WOW, that's a lot to be spending on travel! I do hope I am not the only one who thinks that spending $264,361 (as compared with $140,605 in the previous year) is excessive. Firstly, I am concerned by the almost doubling in travel expenditure: I don't see any particular reason for that. Yes, I am sure Jimbo and others did an awful lot of traveling to promote Wikia and its search engine - but that obviously wouldn't be on the Foundation's dime. Yes, no doubt expenses increased with the decline of the dollar, increase in jetfuel costs and so on - but I can't see that. I have to question what good all this traveling does the community. It's eating up an impressive amount of resources (a substantial fraction of what we spend on important stuff like keeping the servers running), and strikes me as 'fat'. If people really want WMF people to give a lecture or something, what's wrong with having them pay the fare? If WMF people need to meet, what's wrong with videoconferencing? Why should donations from strapped college students and so on be going to this. :#It may just be my overreaction, but the next time I hear the WMF is hurting for funds, I am probably not going to donate; it clearly has money to spare.
# Heh, talk about understatement:
"A substantial number of volunteers make significant contributions of their time in the furtherance of the Organization's projects. The value of this contributed time is not reflected in the accompanying financial statements, since it is not susceptible to objective measurement. Certain contributed services requiring specialized skills are recorded as support and expenses at fair value when determinable, or otherwise at values indicated by the donor."
# I must be misunderstanding something, but does this really mean what it seems to me on the face of it:
"Note C - Contingencies In the normal course of business, the Organization receives various threats of litigation on a regular basis. In the opinion of management, the outcome of the pending lawsuits will not materially affect present operations or the financial stability of the Organization."
That the reason current lawsuits don't matter is because there is nothing put aside for them? Seems kind of reckless.
# As usual, relationships with Wikia are concerningly close and ambiguous:
"The Organization shares hosting and bandwidth costs with Wikia, Inc., a for-profit company founded by the same founder as Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Included in accounts receivable at June 30, 2007 is $6,000 due from Wikia, Inc. for these costs. The Organization received some donated office space from Wikia Inc. during the year ended June 30, 2006 valued at $6,000. No donation of the office space occurred in 2007. Through June 30, 2007, two members of the Organization's board of directors also serve as employees, officers, or directors of Wikia, Inc."
They share staff, WP favors Wikia in well-known ways, and so on - and people are surprised when the public perception is that WP is the non-profit branch of Wikia, or vice versa? I'm also troubled by the sharing of costs bit - why is Wikia using WMF resources (presumably why they are paying WMF) and isn't it awfully convenient how the two amounts cancel out? Small potatoes, but still.
Yeah, so those were my thoughts on the audit. Anyone else?
-- gwern primers shell mania LHR anarchy JANET ssa RFI Internet Z-200
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