[Foundation-l] Honorarium (was Re: [Found>, > This conversation had jumped back and forth ....)

Daniel Mayer maveric149 at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 12 17:43:59 UTC 2006


--- Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> I have for a very long time now stressed to everyone who invites me to 
> speak that they are inviting me in my personal capacity.  So this
> policy will have no impact on me.  But it could have impact on many others.

You, above all other members of the board and officers, have the very real capacity to generate
significant revenue for the foundation to help us further our charitable mission. Your fame is
wholly the result of your founding and guiding of Wikipedia. People would not ask you to speak if
it were not for that. Thus it seems perfectly reasonable to me, and in fact most ethical, for any
honorarium you receive for speaking about Wikipedia/Wikimedia to go to the foundation. In fact, I
would love to use your fame as a significant fundraising mechanism - $200 per plate dinners and
such. 
 
> However, it could significantly impact our desire to bring more people 
> to the public eye.  For a volunteer to prepare a talk, travel to do it,
> a typical honorarium will be still be pretty poor compensation for the 
> time away from family, work, etc.

That is what vacation time is for. :) I gladly use that all the time for Wikimedia-related
activities, including speaking about Wikipedia/Wikimedia. That is part of volunteering for
something that is truly changing the world for the better. What I don't want, is for a culture of
getting paid to speak to interfere with our good work here. I think that people should speak about
Wikipedia and Wikimedia because they love it and want to share that with others. Any money paid
for that above actual expenses should go to the foundation. It just seems cleaner that way to me;
leaving no questions at all over motivations. 

But let's not dwell on what was done before (we are all new to this and feeling around in the
dark); we should instead look to the future. And a bright one is before us. That is why I endorse
Danny's proposed policy on this. 

-- mav

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