[Wikimedia-l] Apparently, Wikipedia is ugly

[Birgitte_sb at yahoo.com]

On Jul 26, 2012, at 5:33 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> 
>> On 07/25/12 12:48 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> So there were how many years of faffing about before they hired *one guy*
>>> for this project? This is an organisation with a $20m annual budget, now
>>> acquiring umpteen paid chapter officials.
>>> 
>>> The "paid chapter officials" are employees of the chapters themselves.
> 
> 
> 
> The money comes from the same pot, as you know. The chapters are funded
> from the same donations as the Foundation.
> 
> 
> 
>> The best way to bring hostility against your own pet projects is by being
>> hostile towards the projects of others. What makes one project more
>> deserving than another.
> 
> 
> 
> Simplistically, chapters are marketing, while programmers and designers are
> product development. Marketing is important, but not more so than product
> development. To be fair, the Foundation is hiring product development
> staff, and it's not a choice of either/or.
> 
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings
> 

You must live in a very simplistic world, but I am afraid it does resemble reality very well. Here are how some various types of things and people are funded. Tool server=chapter. Developers= Mostly WMF but some chapter. Marketing professionals=WMF but no chapter I am aware of. Legal professionals=WMF and chapter.  Administration of fundraising campaign=WMF and chapters. You will not find any bright lines in reality.

Birgitte SB