[Foundation-l] Relocation announcement

[GerardM]

Hoi,
I am happy to learn what variety of locations have been considered
including; even a city outside the USA. With San Francisco I would say that
Boston would probably have been the most obvious candidates. With this
choice for reaching out to some of the best of the best in Internet
companies, it may help to improve the best practices in the Wikimedia
Foundation. Then again, given the nature of our projects and their
organisation we are in many ways without a peer. The combination of content and
not for profit and scale makes us best of breed.

Hoi,
Given that San Francisco has many direct flights from all over the world and
as you will always have to change plains to get to St. Petersburg, it is
likely that the amount of hours travelling to the WMF office will go down.
The tickets seem to be more expensive ..

Given the nature of the WMF, I would argue that we fit better in an old
office in the centre of town then in a modern industrial park. That is just
my feeling of what we are maybe less what the WMF aspires to be :)

I wish the WMF, us, well in San Francisco and I thank St. Petersburg for its
hospitality !!
Thanks,
     GerardM


On 9/22/07, Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I wanted to let you know that later this year, the Wikimedia Foundation
> will be relocating its headquarters to the San Francisco Bay area.
>
> You may know that we're currently in St. Petersburg, Florida. This was
> an accident rather than a deliberate choice; when Jimmy started the
> Foundation in 2003, he happened to be living here. And in the years
> since then, Florida has been a very good home for us.
>
> But it's time to move. We need to be in a larger city that is more
> suited to our work.
>
> In making this decision, we assessed five major cities: Boston, London,
> New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC - as well as St. Petersburg
> itself. The upshot: after a fairly detailed analysis, I recommended to
> the board that the Foundation relocate to San Francisco, and the board
> accepted that recommendation.
>
> Why San Francisco? It's the centre of high-tech in the United States.
> It's home to plenty of like-minded organizations and possible partners,
> top-tier universities like Stanford and UC Berkeley, world-class support
> services, and major media. And it will be more convenient - and cheaper
> - than St. Petersburg for international travel.
>
> There are also arguments for staying where we are. Moving will be
> expensive, and may be disruptive for the community. And St. Petersburg
> is less expensive than the Bay Area.
>
> But in the long run, San Francisco will suit us well, and will give the
> Foundation a solid base from which to grow.
>
> Here is what's planned at this point:
>
> - The new office will open sometime this winter. We'll probably start
> out in downtown San Francisco, until we get our bearings and choose a
> permanent location.
> - The St. Petersburg office will close late this winter, probably at the
> end of January.
> - We know that many people's personal circumstances will make it
> impossible for them to move, but we are hoping that some of the current
> staff will be able to come with us.
> - The servers will remain in Tampa indefinitely. If we do choose to move
> them, that would be a separate, subsequent decision. At this point, it's
> not under active consideration.
>
> The board members have asked me, in this note, to thank the St.
> Petersburg staff for their hard work and dedication. And I want to add
> my thanks as well. It's a great group of committed, hard-working people,
> and those who can't move with the office will be missed.
>
> I know many of you will have questions about the staff. Most of them I
> probably can't answer, because, in general, individual staff issues are
> confidential. But I will say that I take very seriously the
> organization's obligation to its employees, and I am committed to
> ensuring everyone is treated fairly and with care. The staff has been
> informed and consulted throughout this process, and has made a good
> contribution to it.
>
> In the coming months, the Foundation will be relying on the staff's
> patience and cooperation, and on yours – we will need lots of support in
> order for this transition to go smoothly.
>
> Please feel free to forward this note to anyone who might be interested,
> and to contact me directly if you have any questions, or want to offer
> help. We will probably put out a press release sometime next week, but
> wanted to let you all know first.
>
> Thanks,
> Sue
>
>
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