----- Original Message ----- "When anything in this world gets accomplished, it is done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission." --Tom Peters; In Search Of Excellence[1]. Cheers, -- jra [1]I think that was the book; I'm quite certain it was Tom. -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra(a)baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA http://photo.imageinc.us +1 727 647 1274

On 10 November 2011 14:47, Strainu <strainu10(a)gmail.com> wrote: Mm, this is partially true but not fully true. It's probably correct that the Wikimedia Foundation focuses mainly on big features or major upgrades rather than small improvements. (Depending how you define those terms.) But, the problem that plagues lots of non-profits is that they seek restricted grants to fund specific projects that they otherwise would not do. That's a problem because it means external organizations are influencing, sometimes heavily, your priorities and plans. We didn't want to do that, so about two years ago we made the decision that we would no longer seek or accept restricted grants for specific types of work. Instead, we set our own agenda, and seek only unrestricted funding to offset our costs. I hope that makes sense. It was a deliberate decision that we made. We didn't want external organizations influencing our roadmap, because we didn't think external organizations were in the best position to know what's most useful for Wikimedia. So, we decided to handle things differently from many non-profits. We build our own roadmap, and seek only grants that will support the work we've already decided to do. Thanks, Sue -- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.  Help us make it a reality! http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

Domas, As far as I am aware Medecins Sans Frontieres pay full whack salaries: their doctors are not volunteers. Are you suggesting something? Andrew On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Domas Mituzas <midom.lists(a)gmail.com> wrote:

* Andrew Cates <andrew.cates(a)soschildren.org> [Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:06:31 +0000]: I believe that even for non-paid people it's cool to have their credits in Special:Version at major sites, like Wikimedia ones. It should be a worth record in resume / curriculum vitae, providing to developer the chance for better paid job. However, the growth and popularity of Wikipedia have raised the bar for developing to qualify their code to be deployed at major sites, so it's not easy to get your code there.. So, many people may get disappointed. But the international competition is very strong these days, in every field, not just programming. For example, third world countries are improving their education and there are many talented people. So, the life is not easy, of course. Dmitriy