[Foundation-l] [Announcement] New Head of Business Development: KulWadhwa

[simonpedia]

>>>I’m delighted to announce that Kul Takanao Wadhwa is the Wikimedia
Foundation’s new Head of Business Development. Kul (pronounced “cool”)
starts with us today, January 3.


That's pretty wonderful. 

I do hope for Kul's sake that we might see a strategy for (let's call it)
Wikimedia Stage 2. Florence's 10 wishes for 2008 was a nice start. Pity we
don't have the time to talk through the wishes and conjure a strategy.

>>>Kul’s job will be to develop and execute the Foundation's business
development strategy. He'll identify and develop deals with for-profit
companies, particularly where those deals help us make the projects'
materials available to more people, in more ways, around the world. Business
development at a nonprofit is all about putting together deals that bring in
money while simultaneously advancing the mission: I am confident Kul can do
that for us.

I wish both Jay and Kul luck here. As they come from the background of the
"usual" organisation and old media, I can imagine they will have a challenge
understanding such a transparent interactive .org. Hopefully they won't sell
the WMF's community's content too short. It would be too easy to take the
low lying Silicon Valley fruit and get patted on the back, just as much as
feeding the established commercial media while believing that its size is
going to turn people's heads. 

Jay, just a plea. If you can come up with a simple comms tool, which will do
for asynchronous communications what a wiki does for co-developed libraries,
that would be great. But please, do take the next step and consider the Real
Time Comms will ya? Personally, after a few months I'd stay in Canada if I
was you. It's so easy to get sucked into the old professional concept of a
Head Office and subsidiaries, as anyone in a global company will tell you.
Ref: In the US http://commons.internet2.edu/rtc/rtc-participation.html
Best to you both.

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