From the Chapters point of view, Berlin is pretty much as central as
you can get (restricting locations to those on the surface of the
planet!). I don't know the distribution of developers, so can't
comment about that. If you look at the board meeting alone, then yes,
it would probably make much more sense to hold it elsewhere - but
combine it with the other meetings, and Berlin is a very sensible
place to hold it.
Voice and video conferencing have come a long way, but are not even
close to meeting in person in terms of time-effectiveness or effect
on relations, especially if the people involved haven't met each
other before. Until meetings can be held in immersive 3D
environments, I doubt things will improve (and even then, meeting
over tea/beer can't happen, which is incredibly useful to get to know
someone).
The locations that you list for board meetings all tally extremely
well with places that other events have happened in - mostly
Wikimanias - and I would assume that the dates are in very good
agreement. It makes a huge amount of sense for board members to go to
those events (whose location isn't determined by the board), and once
they're all together why not hold a board meeting?
Note that within the academic world, far more exotic and far-flung
places are chosen for conferences. In comparison, the WMF is
incredibly restrained!
BTW, I trust that, since you are so in favour of being "green", you
never go on holiday to foreign countries, and avoid making any
unnecessary trips (be it long or short distance)?
Mike Peel
On 1 May 2009, at 18:06, Gregory Kohs wrote:
The purpose of my question was to examine the carbon
impact on our
global
environment by holding this meeting in Berlin, which (by my
estimation) is
quite a ways off from the point of "least cumulative distance" that
could
have been achieved for at least the mandatory attendees. All of that
additional jet fuel and hotel consumption (laundered sheets, poor
recycling
standards, etc.) is something to consider if the polar ice melts
and floods
San Francisco one day, thanks to CO2-accelerated warming. A
shorter-haul
Boeing 737 flight burns about 200 pounds of fuel per passenger. I
can only
imagine that a trans-continental flight, plus a trans-Atlantic leg to
Berlin, is likely burning at least 400 pounds of fuel per
passenger. Return
trip makes that 800 pounds of fuel. I hope each of the San
Francisco-based
attendees feel comfortable that their burning of 800 pounds of jet
fuel
(about 114 gallons) in order to attend the conference in Berlin (a
conference that, as far as I can tell, had zero "dial-in" conferencing
options offered) was justified?
I get the impression that there is a corporate culture afoot at the
Wikimedia Foundation that stifles any attempts to optimize meetings
and
conferences in ways that might be more economical and environmentally
friendly, with innovations such as Skype and video-
teleconferencing. My
sense is that "interesting" and "exotic" places are chosen
instead... San
Francisco, the Netherlands, Berlin, Taipei, Alexandria (Egypt, not
Virginia), Buenos Aires, etc. I suspect it's part of the corporate
culture
to get the "backwater" taste of St. Petersburg (Florida, not
Russia) out of
everyone's mouth, to select all of these far-flung, non-English-
speaking
locales for a Board that consists mostly of North Americans who speak
English, and who are funded mostly by U.S. dollars.
I know that regarding a recent trade conference that was only 124
miles from
our headquarters, my Fortune 100 employer sent down an edict that
only one
of the 3 people from our team of 14 personnel who were interested
in going,
could actually attend. Certainly, this was more of an economic
decision
than a "green" decision, but frankly, the two are often hand-in-hand
outcomes. Is the Wikimedia Foundation very "green" in its governance
practices? I know that Wikia, Inc. touts its dedication to
"Green", but
what about the WMF?
Here's a 100-gallon aquarium:
*http://tinyurl.com/100-gallon-tank*
Imagine it full of jet fuel, then setting a match to it, sucking
oxygen out
of the air, and replacing it with carbon-laden molecules. That's
what each
of the North American board members did to enable travel to Berlin
to hold
their meeting which seems to have exhausted most of the attendees.
--
Gregory Kohs
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