[Foundation-l] Board statement regarding biographies of living people

[Michael Peel]

 From the Chapters point of view, Berlin is pretty much as central as  
you can get (restricting locations to those on the surface of the  
planet!). I don't know the distribution of developers, so can't  
comment about that. If you look at the board meeting alone, then yes,  
it would probably make much more sense to hold it elsewhere - but  
combine it with the other meetings, and Berlin is a very sensible  
place to hold it.

Voice and video conferencing have come a long way, but are not even  
close to meeting in person in terms of time-effectiveness or effect  
on relations, especially if the people involved haven't met each  
other before. Until meetings can be held in immersive 3D  
environments, I doubt things will improve (and even then, meeting  
over tea/beer can't happen, which is incredibly useful to get to know  
someone).

The locations that you list for board meetings all tally extremely  
well with places that other events have happened in - mostly  
Wikimanias - and I would assume that the dates are in very good  
agreement. It makes a huge amount of sense for board members to go to  
those events (whose location isn't determined by the board), and once  
they're all together why not hold a board meeting?

Note that within the academic world, far more exotic and far-flung  
places are chosen for conferences. In comparison, the WMF is  
incredibly restrained!

BTW, I trust that, since you are so in favour of being "green", you  
never go on holiday to foreign countries, and avoid making any  
unnecessary trips (be it long or short distance)?

Mike Peel

On 1 May 2009, at 18:06, Gregory Kohs wrote:

> The purpose of my question was to examine the carbon impact on our  
> global
> environment by holding this meeting in Berlin, which (by my  
> estimation) is
> quite a ways off from the point of "least cumulative distance" that  
> could
> have been achieved for at least the mandatory attendees.  All of that
> additional jet fuel and hotel consumption (laundered sheets, poor  
> recycling
> standards, etc.) is something to consider if the polar ice melts  
> and floods
> San Francisco one day, thanks to CO2-accelerated warming.  A  
> shorter-haul
> Boeing 737 flight burns about 200 pounds of fuel per passenger.  I  
> can only
> imagine that a trans-continental flight, plus a trans-Atlantic leg to
> Berlin, is likely burning at least 400 pounds of fuel per  
> passenger.  Return
> trip makes that 800 pounds of fuel.  I hope each of the San  
> Francisco-based
> attendees feel comfortable that their burning of 800 pounds of jet  
> fuel
> (about 114 gallons) in order to attend the conference in Berlin (a
> conference that, as far as I can tell, had zero "dial-in" conferencing
> options offered) was justified?
>
> I get the impression that there is a corporate culture afoot at the
> Wikimedia Foundation that stifles any attempts to optimize meetings  
> and
> conferences in ways that might be more economical and environmentally
> friendly, with innovations such as Skype and video- 
> teleconferencing.  My
> sense is that "interesting" and "exotic" places are chosen  
> instead... San
> Francisco, the Netherlands, Berlin, Taipei, Alexandria (Egypt, not
> Virginia), Buenos Aires, etc.  I suspect it's part of the corporate  
> culture
> to get the "backwater" taste of St. Petersburg (Florida, not  
> Russia) out of
> everyone's mouth, to select all of these far-flung, non-English- 
> speaking
> locales for a Board that consists mostly of North Americans who speak
> English, and who are funded mostly by U.S. dollars.
>
> I know that regarding a recent trade conference that was only 124  
> miles from
> our headquarters, my Fortune 100 employer sent down an edict that  
> only one
> of the 3 people from our team of 14 personnel who were interested  
> in going,
> could actually attend.  Certainly, this was more of an economic  
> decision
> than a "green" decision, but frankly, the two are often hand-in-hand
> outcomes.  Is the Wikimedia Foundation very "green" in its governance
> practices?  I know that Wikia, Inc. touts its dedication to  
> "Green", but
> what about the WMF?
>
> Here's a 100-gallon aquarium:
> *http://tinyurl.com/100-gallon-tank*
>
> Imagine it full of jet fuel, then setting a match to it, sucking  
> oxygen out
> of the air, and replacing it with carbon-laden molecules.  That's  
> what each
> of the North American board members did to enable travel to Berlin  
> to hold
> their meeting which seems to have exhausted most of the attendees.
>
> -- 
> Gregory Kohs
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