--- Michael Davis mdavis@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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