[Foundation-l] Relocation announcement

[Florence Devouard]

Anthony wrote:
> On 9/22/07, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> The issue is that we both benefit from staying separate from an
>> organization point of view, both from fiscal perspective and from a
>> communication perspective
>>
>> Fiscal: *this* belongs to this organization, *that* belongs to that
>> organization. From an auditing perspective, having to identify who
>> bought the staples is a nightmare (and more seriously, on whether some
>> inappropriate arrangements are occuring between two organizations).
>>
> I wasn't suggesting that they share the exact same office space.
> Separate units and everything, of course.  Inappropriate arrangements
> can occur regardless of whether you're literally next door or a few
> miles away.

They are welcome as sponsors


>> Communication: we spent the entire past year trying to make it clear
>> that the two organizations were unrelated. It is not to our benefit to
>> be confused with Wikia.
>>
> Certainly not.  But I don't see how them donating office space would
> cause any more of such confusion.

I prefer that Sue chooses the office space she thinks is the best for 
our needs, and feel free to move to another as soon as she thinks it is 
necessary. No ties is much better.


>>>> We have gone through great efforts to fully separate from them
>>>> and we now have no more financial/legal/technical relationships. Only
>>>> love relationships, which is just fine.
>>>>
>>> Well, there still a lot of person-overlap, between the board, the
>>> advisory board, employees, arb com, etc.  And there's still the whole
>>> interwiki linking mess.  And now, they're gonna be in the same
>>> metropolitan area (which surely will help with the whole
>>> people-overlap part).
>> Whilst there are two overlaps on the board (with all due COI
>> documentation, and lack of vote in cases of conflicts), I do not know of
>> any overlap within the staff (can you cite a name ?). I see not why
>> Angela being on the advboard implies that there is a relationship.
>> Last, whether there are people both working at Wikia and at the arbcom
>> is completely irrelevant to the Foundation itself.
>>
> The foundation doesn't care about the arbcom?  That seems...really wrong.

Do not put words in my mouth that I did not say Anthony.
If one staff member of Microsoft was also a volunteer on the arbcom, 
would it tie us to Microsoft somehow ?

>> As I said earlier, the days of Michael on the board are counted. He does
>> not have time for this role any more, so this will no more be an issue.
>> Jimbo... though at Wikia... is hardly in SF himself. Besides, I see no
>> reason why he would go to the office on a regular basis. That's not his
>> role any more. In short, there is no reason for an overlap.
>> And I would not be in favor of ANY overlap for the reasons above
>> mentionned.
>>
> What do you mean by that?  You'd prefer for Jimbo to resign from one
> or the other organization?  If so, yeah, that'd be a good start.

No overlap at the organization level. Jimbo is *very* careful to avoid 
any conflict of interest, and abstain from voting or even giving opinion 
each time there might be one. It would be a very bad idea for Jimbo to 
quit any of the two organizations :-)

> Combined with Michael's resignation and removal of Wikia from the
> interwiki link table (or at least from the special nofollow
> treatment), and then maybe a statement that there are no relationships
> between Wikia and the WMF could be taken seriously (I don't know for
> sure, but maybe).  But as of now, it's just not a serious statement.

/me shakes head


>>> At least this "relationship" would be to the benefit of the WMF.
>> I disagree with that statement.
>>
> It seems you were confused as to what I was suggesting, though.  If it
> was just two offices next door to each other, would it be OK?  I think
> it would be, but maybe you're right that it wouldn't.

What you suggested was not two offices next to each other, but them 
donating office space to us.