On 22/09/2007, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
In making this decision, we assessed five major
cities: Boston, London,
If that assessment took more that say 20 seconds we have a problem.
Could you elaborate? Are you saying that it should be, in some way,
obvious that London is a bad choice? In what way is that?
As discussed interminably on some other list this very week, British
defamation law is voracious and enthusiastic. Having WMF operating in
a British jurisdiction, or keeping assets there, is pretty much an
invitation for someone to sue us in a UK court - a situation where we
might win but we would certainly suffer.
It's home to plenty of like-minded organizations
and possible partners,
top-tier universities like Stanford and UC Berkeley, world-class support
services, and major media.
You want to go near the major media groups?
Why not? You can work with your competition to mutual benefit, you know.
Indeed, they're not our "competition" any more so than, say, a random
academic publisher is.
(Incidentally, the real key to this announcement strikes me as not
"San Francisco versus New York", but "anywhere but suburban
Florida"...)
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk