On 22/09/2007, Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi folks,
I wanted to let you know that later this year, the Wikimedia Foundation will be relocating its headquarters to the San Francisco Bay area.
Well while you are still there http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:St._Petersburg%2C_Florida
needs more pics.
In making this decision, we assessed five major cities: Boston, London,
If that assessment took more that say 20 seconds we have a problem.
New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC - as well as St. Petersburg itself. The upshot: after a fairly detailed analysis, I recommended to the board that the Foundation relocate to San Francisco, and the board accepted that recommendation.
One of these days the board is going to make a decision that doesn't increase costs.
Why San Francisco? It's the centre of high-tech in the United States.
Wikipedia isn't really that high-tech any more.
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?
And it will be more convenient - and cheaper
- than St. Petersburg for international travel.
There are also arguments for staying where we are. Moving will be expensive, and may be disruptive for the community. And St. Petersburg is less expensive than the Bay Area.
But in the long run, San Francisco will suit us well, and will give the Foundation a solid base from which to grow.
Here is what's planned at this point:
- The new office will open sometime this winter. We'll probably start
out in downtown San Francisco, until we get our bearings and choose a permanent location.
- The St. Petersburg office will close late this winter, probably at the
end of January.
- We know that many people's personal circumstances will make it
impossible for them to move, but we are hoping that some of the current staff will be able to come with us.
- The servers will remain in Tampa indefinitely. If we do choose to move
them, that would be a separate, subsequent decision. At this point, it's not under active consideration.
So we now have to worry about 2 sets of state law? While I understand Californian law in the relevant areas is fairly liberal anyone know any details? Either way BLP is going to need updating. Again.