[Foundation-l] Akahele: Omidyar venturing out

[Sage Ross]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Anthony<wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:15 PM, Sage Ross
> <ragesoss+wikipedia at gmail.com<ragesoss%2Bwikipedia at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>
>> [Halprin] didn't deny that, in a social rather than
>> contractual sense, he was considered for a seat on the board because
>> of the grant negotiations; in fact, he basically said that he and/or
>> Omidyar Network expressed interest in a seat on the board because of
>> the grant negotiations, and as you show, that's pretty typical of the
>> way that Omidyar Network interacts with non-profits.
>>
>
> He said that?  Where has Halprin or anyone with knowledge of the appointment
> said that Halprin was considered because of the grant negotiations?  Where
> has anyone even acknowledged that there were grant "negotiations"?  What was
> being negotiated?  What were the other offers?

See http://wikipediaweekly.org/2009/08/28/episode-82-matt-halprin-interview/
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikipediaWeekly/Wikimania_2009/Halprin
(transcript of one section of the interview).

Halprin said: "But I think that at this point in time, I think what
Sue would say is, that even if Omidyar Network hadn't gotten involved,
once she got to know me that she would have actually said: hey, this
is someone who could be helpful for us at this point in time."  What's
implicit is that Omidyar Network did, in fact, get involved and that's
why Foundation people got to know him well enough to decide that he
should be added to the board.

What was being negotiated was terms of the grant, at the least; as the
Q&A says, there are targets that WMF has to fulfill in receive the
full grant.  From the interview, it also seems that discussions were
geared toward figuring out how much WMF and Omidyar Network had in
common in terms of goals and whether Halprin's expertise was needed or
would be helpful on the board.  And I imagine they discussed what
kinds of things the WMF might want to spend a few extra million on.

-Sage