[Foundation-l] Honorarium (was Re: [Found>, > This conversation had jumped back and forth ....)
Tim Starling
t.starling at physics.unimelb.edu.au
Sat Aug 12 22:09:53 UTC 2006
Daniel Mayer wrote:
> --- 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.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these honoraria essentially Jimmy's only
means of income? I don't know if he draws a salary from Wikia, but I'm
fairly sure that the company is not yet turning a profit. He works almost
full-time publicising Wikimedia. It would seem very strange to me to deny
him this one small token of our appreciation.
-- Tim Starling
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