[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Job: Volunteer Coordinator

[phoebe ayers]

On 3/1/07, Robert Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
>
> 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.


Indeed. However, though I don't know about Wikia's particular reasons, there
are also possible cultural reasons for being someplace like San Francisco,
as well as business ones: you can't turn around in this area (Northern
California/Silicon Valley) without running into someone who is passionate
about social software, wikis, Internet startups and the like and who has
some great new idea about the above. It seems like something relevant is
going on every day, and media coverage is good -- even the regular newspaper
covers detailed news from the tech world.