All --
As a matter of strategy we should be leveraging our open-source roots more
as we grow. This means distributed, loosely-coupled teams. We know from
software industry history that distributed teams work best when they are
*entirely* distributed. We are working on some structures that will allow
teams to either be entirely distributed or mostly co-located, consistent
with what we know about best outcomes. In SF, remote working is not very
common as the software companies demand people to be on-site and we have an
advantage with remote talent, but it is also not for everyone as it can be
isolating. Net-net.. before we worry about growth and costs we need to
worry about effectiveness, but we are thinking about this.
Thanks,
Lila
On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 9:02 AM, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 9 April 2015 at 16:47, Garfield Byrd
<gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Fae,
We have 215 staff in total, with a hub of activity in San Francisco and
other staff in several other states and 18 countries. So I agree
talented
people can be found globally and WMF does hire
the best talent it can
find
wherever they are located. At this point adding
offices in other
locations
add cost without any benefits to the community or
the Wikimedia
Foundation. We also do not have the luxury of Mozilla's $300 million
budget that can support a London office or Microsoft's billions to have a
globally distributed workforce with offices. So we are not closing the
door to anything. Based on our test project of trying to develop centers
of
activity in other parts of the United States
there is no need for
additional offices. We do need and will continue to hire a globally
distributed staff of talented people to support our global community of
talented volunteers.
Thanks for the response, it makes sense to me.
I agree with avoiding additional offices unless there is a very good
business case. Back in the late 1990s I was part of a small
consultancy where we chose to eliminate having a central office
altogether. It was a strange thing to try back last century, but
moving more of the administrative functions into the virtual working
space, and arming employees with excellent teamworking tools they can
use from home (or bookable office spaces locally) has become part of
the ordinary world of work these days.
WMF development happens this way already, and you writing here shows
that management/executive level folks are comfortable and skilled with
virtual spaces. It would be jolly interesting if the WMF were seen to
try out more virtual methods in other parts of its operation, and find
meaningful ways of reporting on benefits or avoidable costs. I see
this as part of the learning organization... Maybe a topic for another
thread at some point. :-)
Fae
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