[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Job: Volunteer Coordinator

[Robert Horning]

Anthony wrote:
> On 3/1/07, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hm. Methinks it is rather odd that an international organization does not have its head office in
>> or near a world city. I mean, other than the cool wikijob and the nice weather what does St Pete /
>> Tampa have in terms of services (including connections to like-minded organizations; not to
>> mention easy access to consulates)?
>>     
> Lack of income taxes is a nice feature.  The cost of living is much
> more reasonable than say San Francisco or New York City, and you get
> much more living space for that money.  There are quite a few beaches
> and parks, which I suppose goes along with the relatively nice
> weather.  Unemployment is very low here right now.  Internet access is
> fairly good - we have Fios available in lots of places and EVDO is
> available throughout the Tampa Bay area.
>
> Just a quick list off the top of my head.  Personally it doesn't
> matter to me all that much where I live, so what I can offer in this
> category is pretty limited.
>
> If money were no object I'd probably live in New York City.  Actually,
> if I really had the money to live anywhere I'd probably go snowbird
> and spend some time in NYC, some in Florida, some in Arizona, etc.
>
> Oh well, hope I was able to help a bit.
>
> Anthony
>   

A few years back, the Boy Scouts of America moved their national 
headquarters from New Jersey (near NYC) to Texas for what I think were 
reasons very similar to those listed above.  I don't know all of the 
particulars of this matter, but the needs of non-profit organizations is 
quite a bit different than what a for-profit company may want to be 
involved with.  Certainly non-profit groups don't have nearly the money 
to pay people to live in these major cities where the cost of living is 
insanely high, even by 1st world standards.

Wikia may have moved to San Francisco in part because that is the heart 
of Silicon Valley and has some real potential in terms of venture 
capital and computer-related business partnerships.  I don't think 
having Wikipedia go commercial is necessarily a long-term goal of the WMF.

I've only been to St. Petersburg, FL once, but I loved the area and felt 
it was a very comfortable place to have a family and have much of the 
normal everyday items you would like if you have a modest income.  It 
certainly is not in the middle of rural America by any means but rather 
a medium sized city with the usual cultural and professional sports 
opportunities of similar sized cities.

-- Robert Horning