[Foundation-l] Fundraising season launch

[Brad Patrick]

Our auditors have been onsite for the past few days and we are
actively under the microscope, as it were.  I cannot say when things
will be done, but it is the number one priority for me right now,
since it is my responsibility.

It has been painful to see criticism about the financial aspects of
things, and feeling the pressure to make such information available
when we are on the verge of being able to offer audited financial
statements to the world for the first time.

Ours is a community where saying "trust me" is not the same as "show
me".  I look forward to being able to demonstrate the financial
picture of the Foundation as soon as possible.

The one thing I can comment on is that the external forces affecting
operations are huge.  The surge in demand we have seen since the
summer requires dramatic response in the hardware area.  We have also
been working very hard for the past 3 months to address our bandwidth
needs and networking operations for the long term.  These are all
mission-critical, complicated, and expensive issues.  They are caused
by our ever-upward demand.  We are presently at greater than 18,000
requests *per second* and climbing.

If our present performance is any indication of future success and
requirements, expect a seven figure fundraiser.  We are one of the top
dozen websites in the world, doubling in demand every 4 months.  In
short, we are growing nearly exponentially.  All I can say is thank
God for Moore's Law.

-Brad

On 10/9/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Anthere wrote:
>
> >Hello,
> >
> >Last update from Michael (this summer) mentionned that we had about 550
> >k$ in bank.
> >
> >The technical team mentionned recently there was an urgent need for new
> >application servers (apache/squids), to address the record traffic the
> >site has been receiving. A couple of weeks ago, traffic reports
> >indicated > 18,000 requests per second, far above our routine traffic of
> >12,000 requests per second earlier this summer.
> >
> It would be nice if proper financial reports were made available befor
> the start of another round of fundraising.  We owe it to potential
> donors to let them know that we believe in fiscal responsibility.
>
> Ec
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>


-- 
Brad Patrick
General Counsel & Interim Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
bradp.wmf at gmail.com
727-231-0101