[Foundation-l] Akahele: Omidyar venturing out

[Anthony]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Sage Ross
<ragesoss+wikipedia at gmail.com<ragesoss%2Bwikipedia at gmail.com>
> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Anthony<wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> > 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.
>

The timeline is unclear to me.  I was under the impression that Halprin met
the board before the grant was discussed.  To say that "Halprin was
considered because of the grant negotiations" implies that he wouldn't have
been considered were there no grant negotiations.  To me Halprin is saying
the opposite in that quote above.

If Omidyar Networks had not offered a grant, but offered to put Halprin on
the board, would the board have accepted it?  I don't see anyone with
knowledge of the situation saying no.