[Foundation-l] Wikimedia main office

[Ray Saintonge]

Lord Voldemort wrote:

>On 5/25/06, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>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.
>>    
>>
>Okay, so even if this was the case, would the foundation be wanting to
>rent or buy?  Buying would obviously be more cost-effective, but how
>much would the foundation be willing to spend on a new office?
>
Buying real estate would be a bad idea from a resk management 
perspective.  The possibility of expensive legal suits will always be 
there, no matter how much we strive for accuracy in Wikipedia articles.  
One thing you don't want in such circumstances is assets that can be 
lusted after by suitors.  By having one (perhaps for-profit) company 
lease servers to an associated non-profit company you can cut the risk 
of being sued.

Ec