[Foundation-l] Omidyar Network Commits $2 Million Grant to Wikimedia Foundation

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/8/28 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>:
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> 2009/8/28 Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com>:
>> > In the interest of creating *informed* discussion, please note the
>> > publication of Episode 82 of Wikipedia Weekly - an interview with Matt
>> > Halprin.
>> >
>> > In this, at timecode 9:15 he is specifically asked about the issue of
>> > the donation+board membership.
>> >
>> > http://wikipediaweekly.org/2009/08/28/episode-82-matt-halprin-interview/
>>
>> I thank Wikipedia Weekly for asking the question, but he didn't really
>> answer it. He spent most of his answer talking about his
>> qualifications (which nobody disputes) and then just added on the end
>> that there isn't a tie between the money and the seat. It is going to
>> take more than that to convince me. They were announced on the same
>> day, to claim they are unrelated is pretty hard to believe.
>>
>
> It seems to me that if one is to assume good faith, the answer is that the
> money and the commitment by Halprin to be on the board *were* related, in
> that they were both things provided for the Wikimedia Foundation by related
> parties.  It all depends on how you look at it, really.  You can look at it
> as the WMF gave Halprin a seat, or you can look at it as Halprin agreed to
> take a seat.

Who made the offer and who the acceptance isn't very important. It is
a legal technicality, but all that really matters is that both exist.