[Wikimedia-l] compromise?

[Oliver Keyes]

On 2 January 2013 22:50, cyrano <cyrano.fawkes at gmail.com> wrote:

> Le 02/01/2013 18:42, Oliver Keyes a écrit :
>
>> On 2 January 2013 19:25, cyrano <cyrano.fawkes at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>    You're comparing your standard of living with extreme ways of life, and
>>>>
>>> you reach the conclusion that yours is moderate. However, if you compare
>>> with the rest of mankind, you're still getting things that 99% of them
>>> don't get.
>>>
>>> I think that's probably true, but the fact of the matter is that Leslie
>>> is
>>>
>> not saying "here is an extremity, I get less" - she's saying "here is an
>> extremity that is Standard Operating Procedure at
>> Facebook/Google/Twitter//**insertyourorgofchoice, where almost any of us
>> could get a job...I get less". In the context of a conversation comparing
>> WMF benefits with those of similar orgs in the Bay Area that makes total
>> sense as a statement. I would agree that it is better than 99 percent of
>> humanity, but I'm not sure who *dis*agrees with that statement: you appear
>>
>> to be arguing against a position that hasn't been made.
>>
>>
> I'm proud of people like Leslie who work for less money than other
> opportunities but for a cause. They stand for their beliefs and their
> values, I strongly respect that.
> Yet the money of the donations, which is given for a universal cause, is
> paying an incredibly tiny subset of humanity with very expensive standards
> of life. I think that's something pertinent to consider given the topic.
>
> I think it's worth considering, but I wouldn't say it has any specific
ramifications. So, the donations are given to a universal cause. This
universal cause is free knowledge for all, which is an incredibly
worthwhile thing (I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. Well, okay, so I'm a
massive pedant. I'd probably still be editing ;p). For us to be able to
achieve that cause, we need lots of things: volunteers, to curate the
content. Reliable hosting space for that content.  People building newer
and better features and fixing software bugs to make the process of
volunteering as painless as possible. Revenue streams to support all of the
above. The last one requires us to be able to attract world-class talent in
Engineering, Fundraising and all our other departments and teams, and
talented people tend to be clustered around major metropolitan areas like
the Bay, which was one of (if not the main) reason, iirc, that the
Foundation moved to SF from St Petersburg, FL in the first place. We are
ultimately pulled along by reality and human nature, and for the moment,
both of those things seem to prefer clustering of talent and the inevitable
cost upswing it produces.

Now, me, I live in Cardiff, Wales. The cost of living is a lot cheaper than
in SF (as I mock my friends about every time I visit). I can survive
relatively nicely on what I'm paid, although I benefit from not having
dependants or a mortgage or whatnot. But nobody goes to Cardiff to recruit
engineers or most other people - they go to London. They don't go to St
Petersburg, they go to SF. And so we have to, and we have to rebalance our
cost expectations accordingly.

Of course, if we're talking *global* costs - a heck of a lot of people are
going to fall above the mean. I am, here in Cardiff ;p. A more productive
measurement is where we fall in balancing our non-profit status and the
market in that section we care about: skilled, brilliant maniacs with the
best of intentions. And I'm very proud of the Foundation for finding a
middle ground in that market - between the "industry going rate" and a
salary situation that would make it untenable for the people they're trying
to recruit.

At the same time, I'm *incredibly* proud of the people who come to work for
us. I'm an editor; being here is, from my point of view, the best possible
situation. I've literally turned my hobby into a job :D. But I walked into
an environment populated by people who not only feel the same way, but
walked away from a heck of a lot of creature comforts to work for an org
they could believe in. I don't think we recognise this often enough.


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-- 
Oliver Keyes
Community Liaison, Product Development
Wikimedia Foundation