[Foundation-l] Wikimedia main office

[Erik Moeller]

On 5/25/06, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Not the suburbs of D.C. and to some extent parts of the NYC outside of Manhattan. The point, is to
> be in a place where we can most easily establish connections with other nations and like-minded
> organizations. Cost of rent is nothing compared to the synergies that would develop my being where
> all the action is. Not to mention being a job market where we can find top talent.

NYC makes sense to a certain degree because of the internationality
(UN, UNICEF), though of course relevant conferences and meetings are
held in many different locations around the world. Geneva or Brussels
would also work for the same reasons, and for some which do not apply
to NYC. Personally I don't mind the US HQ because it keeps most of the
legal trouble an ocean away from us EUians.

We also need to take into account laws that might be relevant to our
website operations. This is esp. true, unfortunately, in developing
countries.  There may also be critical variations across US states.

But the idea to move the HQ because of "top talent" sounds rather
silly for an organization that was formed around several websites.
There are plenty of companies which are entirely decentralized these
days, not to mention that highly talented, intelligent, educated and
passionate people can be found everywhere in the world. Even in
Washington D.C.

Erik