[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation 2008-2009 Annual Plan

[Sue Gardner]

Nemo_bis wrote:
> Sue wrote:
>  >So the
>  >upshot is, we will not need to spend X amount of general operating cash
>  >on hardware, since it will likely end up being paid for by an external
>  >party :-)
> Thanks. Great. And what about «general conservatism and caution on the 
> part of the tech team» and «delays in hiring» (from: /Monthly ED Report 
> to the Board: May 2008/)? I didn't understand.
>  
> Nemo

Without speaking on behalf of the tech team necessarily, I would make 
the observation that it seems generally conservative about spending. 
That's not unique to Wikimedia; it's consistently been my experience 
that tech people tend to be fairly cautious spenders.  Our team did not 
want to spend money until it needed to: that is not a bad thing.

Re delays in hiring, the tech team has had approval to hire two software 
developers since last October. With the 08-09 budget, they have approval 
to hire I believe five technical people in total during FY 2008-09.  I 
am not surprised we've been slow to hire: the move's been pretty 
disruptive. But my understanding is that we're pretty close to 
announcing one new dev, with another in the works. This is good.