[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] This Month in GLAM: March 2015

[The 'This Month in GLAM' team]

*This Month in GLAM* is a monthly newsletter documenting recent happenings
within the GLAM project, such as content donations, residencies, events and
more. GLAM is an acronym of *G*alleries, *L*ibraries, *A*rchives and *M*useums.
You can find more information on the project at glamwiki.org.
*This Month in GLAM – Issue III, Volume V – March 2015*
--

Upcoming: GLAM-WIKI 2015 from 10 to 12 April 2015 in the Netherlands:
http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_2015

For who goes there, see you at the conference!

--

Africa report: Closing the gap of the Global South
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Africa_report

Belgium report: Gendergap and Belgiumgap
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Belgium_report

Catalan areas report: One day at the radio
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Catalan_areas_report

France report: A very busy month!
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/France_report

Germany report: 1 topic, 2 talks, 3 hours
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Germany_report

Italy report: Agreements with national cultural institutions and
professional associations
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Italy_report

Mexico report: Wiki rides the subway editathon and second edition of the
Editatona gender gap marathon
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Mexico_report

Netherlands report: Nature, Art, Feminism and a GLAM-WIKI conference
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Netherlands_report


Poland report: Six months in
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Poland_report

Spain report: Women's edit-a-thons, Workshops and Miguel Delibes
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Spain_report

Sweden report: Fashion; BARK; Council of Central Museums
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Sweden_report

UK report: GLAM activities in the UK
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/UK_report

USA report: Wikipedia in Philadelphia & New York
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/USA_report

Open Access report: Wikimania Open Access policy; Wikimania; Wikipedia
Science Conference; Punch-card microfluidics
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Open_Access_report

Calendar: April's GLAM events
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Contents/Events



--


Single page view
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/March_2015/Single

Twitter
http://twitter.com/ThisMonthinGLAM

Add your story / Work on the next edition
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/Newsroom


-- 
The *This Month in GLAM* team
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Garfield Byrd]

Hi Pine,

If the Foundation decides to move, the cost of making the space usable for
our staff is not a recoverable cost from the building owner.

At this point, WMF is not planning on moving out of the San Francisco
market area.  We will be doing our best to manage cost when we renew our
lease or move. The advantages of having good access to talented people and
organizations WMF interacts with far outweigh any advantages to moving to a
lower cost location outside of the San Francisco market area.

Regards,

Garfield

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM, Pine W  wrote:

> Hi Garfield,
>
> I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians have noted
> the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high cost of
> living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent, and
> associated high salaries for WMF employees.
>
> I see on
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_Services.pdf
> that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its current main office
> lease expires.
>
> Questions:
>
> What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its current
> location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
> remodel by the building owner?
>
> I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
> area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
> less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
> being considered?
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Pine
>



-- 
Garfield Byrd
Chief of Finance and Administration
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext 6787
415.882.0495 (fax)
www.wikimediafoundation.org

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!

*https://donate.wikimedia.org *
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[Wikimedia-l] My article on Wikipedia Zero and Net Neutrality, just out today at Reason.com

[Mike Godwin]

http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/08/nothing-but-net


--Mike

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Dan Garry]

The Android app is now a featured app in Google Play. This means Google has
recognised our design of the app to be amongst the best. This has led to
the app being downloaded and used more, therefore supporting our
organisation's goal to share knowledge. A massive part of why that happened
is because myself and the app's primary designer were able to attend a
conference Google had on material design, and relay that to our team. The
conference was in San Francisco, so cost us nothing to attend.

My point is that these kinds of opportunities crop up a lot in San
Francisco, and lead to measurable and demonstrable increases in the user
value of the products we create. It's not like San Francisco is simply an
expensive place with no benefits; if we were not in San Francisco,
these opportunities would either not exist or would start costing us money
(because we'd have to fly staff to San Francisco to take part in them).

All of us, myself included, are just guessing about all of this since we
don't have all the facts and data. I have complete faith in the
organisation's executive leadership to weigh that data and make an
appropriate decision.

Dan


On Tuesday, April 7, 2015, Pine W  wrote:

> Hi Garfield,
>
> I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians have noted
> the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high cost of
> living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent, and
> associated high salaries for WMF employees.
>
> I see on
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_Services.pdf
> that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its current main office
> lease expires.
>
> Questions:
>
> What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its current
> location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
> remodel by the building owner?
>
> I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
> area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
> less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
> being considered?
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Pine
> ___
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-- 
Dan Garry
Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Nathan]

On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 3:45 PM, Pine W  wrote:

> I like the ideas about setting up a variety of remote clusters as well as
> remote individual employees. Google, Microsoft and Facebook have remote
> clusters, and I'm sure that many other companies do this as well. Besides
> decreasing expenses, improving travel logistics, and improving recruiting,
> having a distributed workforce increases disaster resiliency such as in
> case San Francisco had a major earthquake.


Google, Microsoft and Facebook also have the vast majority of their
employees working in the Pacific Northwest. I don't think recruiting and
location strategy is a topic particularly amenable to amateur input. The
management of the WMF is not an element of the movement that is
crowdsourced, probably for good reason. Not that anyone with great
confidence in their opinion should refrain from offering it, but hopefully
no one will be upset when the WMF makes its own decision.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Pine W]

I like the ideas about setting up a variety of remote clusters as well as
remote individual employees. Google, Microsoft and Facebook have remote
clusters, and I'm sure that many other companies do this as well. Besides
decreasing expenses, improving travel logistics, and improving recruiting,
having a distributed workforce increases disaster resiliency such as in
case San Francisco had a major earthquake.

Careful planning of the clusters would be important, of course, in order to
maximize the benefits. And legal exposure could become more complicated.

Many major tech companies seem to feel that the tradeoffs of distributed
workforces are worth it. WMF already makes this work to a degree with
individual remote employees, so establishing remote clusters and moving
department HQs to better locations than SF would be a reasonable
progression.

Cheers,

Pine
On Apr 8, 2015 12:08 PM, "Balázs Viczián" 
wrote:

> My two cents would be that of what evil giant corporations do: move their
> departments to the best place possible regarding costs/competition.
> Software development in SF, customer service to India :)
>
> For example keeping the sofware somewhere in the Bay Area would keep the
> potential to attract highly qualified software guys. While others, for
> example grantmaking would do better in my opinion in the old continent
> (that is 'Yurp'). In London or Paris or Berlin, you can select from a wide
> and deep pool of experts yet still cheaper than SF. Note, about 50-70
> percent of the chapters/thorgs/etc. would be within 2-4 hrs of flight and
> virtually all would be on a direct flight. Lots of saving on travelling
> costs for those that has to travel the most.
>
> You can play with the rest as you wish. Finance for example don't travel
> anywhere except the top management (1-2 ppl), so they can be in East St
> Louis :)
>
> My British company where I work has its finance in the Czech Republic, and
> its IT support in India for instance.
>
> Balazs
>
> 2015-04-08 20:29 GMT+02:00 Steven Walling :
>
> > On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM Pine W  wrote:
> > >
> > > Questions:
> > >
> > > What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its
> > current
> > > location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
> > > remodel by the building owner?
> > >
> > > I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
> > > area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds,
> have
> > > less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is
> this
> > > being considered?
> > >
> >
> > Keep in mind that the WMF already mitigates the cost and competition of
> the
> > San Francisco Bay Area market by recruiting remote employees.
> >
> > According to the recent report (
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.pdf
> > )
> > a large number are based either in other U.S. states or internationally.
> > Out of 202 employees, 77% are US-based in 19 states and 23% are based
> > abroad in 19 countries.
> >
> > Combine the remote employees in the U.S. and abroad, I wouldn't be
> > surprised if close to half of staff are based remotely. On engineering
> > teams especially, it's not uncommon for a majority of employees to be
> > remote.
> > ___
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> > 
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Guillaume Paumier]

Hello,

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 10:07 PM, Aleksey Bilogur
 wrote:
> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains to
> recruitment competitiveness will be quickly lost to the drain that losing
> whatever significant percent of the staff that doesn't make the move incurs
> on the organization.

I don't think it's that clear-cut.

A large part of the Product & Engineering staff is already working remotely, so
they wouldn't be affected by the change. Many SF-based staffers also work
remotely some of the time, and there are constant efforts being made to make
the organization more remote-friendly; it wouldn't be a stretch to become a
remote-first organization, to split to smaller offices, to relocate entirely, or
all of the above.

Some WMF employees followed the WMF from St Petersburg, FL to San Francisco
during the 2007 relocation. I expect that this would also happen to some
extent if the WMF were to relocate and/or split to smaller distributed offices.
San Francisco isn't just expensive for the WMF; it's expensive for employees
as well, and some of them may find it beneficial to move to a less expensive
area, especially as they start families.

In addition to the insanely high cost of living in the San Francisco area,
there are other reasons that make relocation a viable long-term solution. The
main that come to mind are geological instability (the bay area /will/ be
struck by major earthquakes in the medium term) and ecological conditions
(i.e. the multi-year drought and its anticipated socio-ecological
consequences). Planning for continuity means taking these concerns into
account in any medium- and long-term strategy thinking.

As Oliver mentioned, an East-coast office could make sense in this context.
Technical staff is somewhat distributed around the globe, but in contrast the
head (leadership) and backbone (finance, admin and HR) of the WMF is
concentrated in the San Francisco office. In the current situation, it would
take months or years to recover from a major disaster. Transitioning to
several (2+) smaller, distributed offices would make the organization a lot more
resilient, geographically and functionally.

All this to say: it is possible, even probably desirable, for the WMF to
consider relocating out of the Bay Area in the long term (in whole or in
part), so entertaining the idea is a valid train of thought.

-- 
Guillaume Paumier (volunteer capacity)
https://guillaumepaumier.com

This is a mailing list-only e-mail address. Direct messages may go unnoticed.

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Balázs Viczián]

My two cents would be that of what evil giant corporations do: move their
departments to the best place possible regarding costs/competition.
Software development in SF, customer service to India :)

For example keeping the sofware somewhere in the Bay Area would keep the
potential to attract highly qualified software guys. While others, for
example grantmaking would do better in my opinion in the old continent
(that is 'Yurp'). In London or Paris or Berlin, you can select from a wide
and deep pool of experts yet still cheaper than SF. Note, about 50-70
percent of the chapters/thorgs/etc. would be within 2-4 hrs of flight and
virtually all would be on a direct flight. Lots of saving on travelling
costs for those that has to travel the most.

You can play with the rest as you wish. Finance for example don't travel
anywhere except the top management (1-2 ppl), so they can be in East St
Louis :)

My British company where I work has its finance in the Czech Republic, and
its IT support in India for instance.

Balazs

2015-04-08 20:29 GMT+02:00 Steven Walling :

> On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM Pine W  wrote:
> >
> > Questions:
> >
> > What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its
> current
> > location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
> > remodel by the building owner?
> >
> > I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
> > area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
> > less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
> > being considered?
> >
>
> Keep in mind that the WMF already mitigates the cost and competition of the
> San Francisco Bay Area market by recruiting remote employees.
>
> According to the recent report (
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.pdf
> )
> a large number are based either in other U.S. states or internationally.
> Out of 202 employees, 77% are US-based in 19 states and 23% are based
> abroad in 19 countries.
>
> Combine the remote employees in the U.S. and abroad, I wouldn't be
> surprised if close to half of staff are based remotely. On engineering
> teams especially, it's not uncommon for a majority of employees to be
> remote.
> ___
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> 
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Steven Walling]

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM Pine W  wrote:
>
> Questions:
>
> What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its current
> location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
> remodel by the building owner?
>
> I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
> area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
> less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
> being considered?
>

Keep in mind that the WMF already mitigates the cost and competition of the
San Francisco Bay Area market by recruiting remote employees.

According to the recent report (
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_of_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.pdf)
a large number are based either in other U.S. states or internationally.
Out of 202 employees, 77% are US-based in 19 states and 23% are based
abroad in 19 countries.

Combine the remote employees in the U.S. and abroad, I wouldn't be
surprised if close to half of staff are based remotely. On engineering
teams especially, it's not uncommon for a majority of employees to be
remote.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] ** DATE CHANGE ** Invitation to WMF March 2015 Metrics & Activities Meeting: Wednesday, April 8, 18:00 UTC

[Praveena Maharaj]

REMINDER: This meeting starts in 30 minutes.


On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 4:09 PM, Praveena Maharaj 
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> The next WMF metrics and activities meeting will take place on Wednesday, 
> April 8, 2015 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). Please note, on this occasion, we 
> are holding this meeting on the second Wednesday in April.
>
> The IRC channel is #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net, and the meeting will
> be broadcast as a live YouTube stream.
>
> Each month at the metrics meeting, we will:
>
> * Welcome recent hires
> * Present reports/updates that are focused on a key theme or topic: the
> theme for April's meeting is Fundraising
> * Engage in questions/discussions
>
> Please review
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings for
> further information about how to participate.
>
> We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
>
> Thank you,
> Praveena
>
> --
> Praveena Maharaj
> Executive Assistant to the VP of Product & Strategy and the VP of
> Engineering
> Wikimedia Foundation \\ www.wikimediafoundation.org
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Stuart Prior]

I see that East St Louis also has a murder rate approaching that of say,
Bogota. This to me says "vibrant".

On a more serious note, while SF is egregiously expensive, if you want to
attract good people, you have to base yourself where the action is.

S

On 8 April 2015 at 16:46, Richard Symonds 
wrote:

> I know from experience that East St Louis is pretty cheap, and it's
> centrally located. And the weather is almost as good as California, but
> without the Hurricanes.
>
> How do the WMF staff feel about moving to East St Louis? I imagine they
> would be *thrilled*.
>
> Richard Symonds
> Wikimedia UK
> 0207 065 0992
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
>
> *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
> over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
>
> On 8 April 2015 at 14:57, Oliver Keyes  wrote:
>
> > (volunteer hat on)
> >
> > Glasgow to London in no way represents the scale of what any move,
> > even an in-US move, would be, unless the goal is for the WMF to end up
> > in LA or (maybe) Portland.
> >
> > I would agree that a multi-location setup would work better as a good
> > expansion route here, although I'm not sure what that how that would
> > work out internationally, in terms of legal liability. Even just
> > having an east coast location in somewhere obvious (we have clusters
> > of staff in, e.g., Boston, Raleigh and NY, albeit small clusters)
> > would make a big difference.
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:53 AM, Fæ  wrote:
> > > On 8 April 2015 at 06:07, Aleksey Bilogur 
> > wrote:
> > >> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains
> > to...
> > >
> > > Plenty of companies and charities happily move their HQ building
> > > location with more staff gaining benefits rather than losing them. I
> > > was involved with a corporate move where most staff went from London
> > > to Glasgow, with the benefit that their family and social lives
> > > improved and they could afford to buy large houses with the same money
> > > it takes to buy half a small flat in London. Presented the right way,
> > > a move can improve staff commitment and even reduce turnover.
> > >
> > > You also can't have it both ways, the WMF is supposed to be a
> > > multi-location global organization. Strategically it would be better
> > > to grow globally in several locations, rather than always having
> > > everyone in the same offices in the same city on the West Coast of
> > > America. Our staff and volunteers are highly experienced in virtual
> > > cooperation and meetings, the WMF could even become an exemplar for
> > > how that works for smaller organizations with global teams.
> > >
> > > Fae
> > > --
> > > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
> > >
> > > ___
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>


​

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Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Richard Symonds]

I know from experience that East St Louis is pretty cheap, and it's
centrally located. And the weather is almost as good as California, but
without the Hurricanes.

How do the WMF staff feel about moving to East St Louis? I imagine they
would be *thrilled*.

Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
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*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
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On 8 April 2015 at 14:57, Oliver Keyes  wrote:

> (volunteer hat on)
>
> Glasgow to London in no way represents the scale of what any move,
> even an in-US move, would be, unless the goal is for the WMF to end up
> in LA or (maybe) Portland.
>
> I would agree that a multi-location setup would work better as a good
> expansion route here, although I'm not sure what that how that would
> work out internationally, in terms of legal liability. Even just
> having an east coast location in somewhere obvious (we have clusters
> of staff in, e.g., Boston, Raleigh and NY, albeit small clusters)
> would make a big difference.
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:53 AM, Fæ  wrote:
> > On 8 April 2015 at 06:07, Aleksey Bilogur 
> wrote:
> >> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains
> to...
> >
> > Plenty of companies and charities happily move their HQ building
> > location with more staff gaining benefits rather than losing them. I
> > was involved with a corporate move where most staff went from London
> > to Glasgow, with the benefit that their family and social lives
> > improved and they could afford to buy large houses with the same money
> > it takes to buy half a small flat in London. Presented the right way,
> > a move can improve staff commitment and even reduce turnover.
> >
> > You also can't have it both ways, the WMF is supposed to be a
> > multi-location global organization. Strategically it would be better
> > to grow globally in several locations, rather than always having
> > everyone in the same offices in the same city on the West Coast of
> > America. Our staff and volunteers are highly experienced in virtual
> > cooperation and meetings, the WMF could even become an exemplar for
> > how that works for smaller organizations with global teams.
> >
> > Fae
> > --
> > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Oliver Keyes]

(volunteer hat on)

Glasgow to London in no way represents the scale of what any move,
even an in-US move, would be, unless the goal is for the WMF to end up
in LA or (maybe) Portland.

I would agree that a multi-location setup would work better as a good
expansion route here, although I'm not sure what that how that would
work out internationally, in terms of legal liability. Even just
having an east coast location in somewhere obvious (we have clusters
of staff in, e.g., Boston, Raleigh and NY, albeit small clusters)
would make a big difference.

On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:53 AM, Fæ  wrote:
> On 8 April 2015 at 06:07, Aleksey Bilogur  wrote:
>> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains to...
>
> Plenty of companies and charities happily move their HQ building
> location with more staff gaining benefits rather than losing them. I
> was involved with a corporate move where most staff went from London
> to Glasgow, with the benefit that their family and social lives
> improved and they could afford to buy large houses with the same money
> it takes to buy half a small flat in London. Presented the right way,
> a move can improve staff commitment and even reduce turnover.
>
> You also can't have it both ways, the WMF is supposed to be a
> multi-location global organization. Strategically it would be better
> to grow globally in several locations, rather than always having
> everyone in the same offices in the same city on the West Coast of
> America. Our staff and volunteers are highly experienced in virtual
> cooperation and meetings, the WMF could even become an exemplar for
> how that works for smaller organizations with global teams.
>
> Fae
> --
> fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
>
> ___
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> 

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Fæ]

On 8 April 2015 at 06:07, Aleksey Bilogur  wrote:
> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains to...

Plenty of companies and charities happily move their HQ building
location with more staff gaining benefits rather than losing them. I
was involved with a corporate move where most staff went from London
to Glasgow, with the benefit that their family and social lives
improved and they could afford to buy large houses with the same money
it takes to buy half a small flat in London. Presented the right way,
a move can improve staff commitment and even reduce turnover.

You also can't have it both ways, the WMF is supposed to be a
multi-location global organization. Strategically it would be better
to grow globally in several locations, rather than always having
everyone in the same offices in the same city on the West Coast of
America. Our staff and volunteers are highly experienced in virtual
cooperation and meetings, the WMF could even become an exemplar for
how that works for smaller organizations with global teams.

Fae
-- 
fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Balázs Viczián]

Relocating within the US or worldwide?

Relocating the whole office or just some departments?

Vince

2015-04-08 7:07 GMT+02:00 Aleksey Bilogur :

> A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains to
> recruitment competitiveness will be quickly lost to the drain that losing
> whatever significant percent of the staff that doesn't make the move incurs
> on the organization.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Ask questions, give feedback on six annual plan grant proposals for the FDC!

[Siko Bouterse]

On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 7:34 AM, Pine W  wrote:

> Hi Luis (wow, I didn't expect to see you here at this hour!)
>
> I was referring to the qualifications, benefits and limitations of the
> different kinds of grant programs. The way that they're structured provides
> some ups and downs for affiliates when we have the option to choose among
> grant types. FDC/APG's structure recieved a lot of attention in the past
> few years. I think it would be good to take a step back and look
> collectively at the grants programs, and to think about how to engineer
> them with today's environment, goals and tools for affiliates, small teams
> and individual grantees in mind; and to think about transition points among
> grant types.
>
> I would love to talk with you more about this at the Wikimedia Conference
> if possible (:
>

As WMF continues to focus on "integration" as a major theme in 2015, we'll
certainly be giving the big picture of all our grantmaking structures,
impact assessments, etc some further thought. Any updates to grant programs
would happen in consult with the committees and broader community, so you
can expect that the program officers and I will be having more
conversations on this topic with you all over the coming year (no sudden
changes, lots of measured thought).
Cheers,
Siko


>
> Pine
> On Apr 7, 2015 11:20 PM, "Luis Villa"  wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 11:13 PM, Pine W  wrote:
> >
> > > Just noting that annual plans can go through APG or PEG, but the
> > > qualificattions and scope are different. Some chapers choose to
> continue
> > > with PEG funding becuase it is more flexible. The main limiter on PEG
> > > funding is that it  will not pay for full time permanent staff; however
> > > according to Meta it may pay for part time or temporary staff.
> > >
> > > APGs and PEGs for annual plans are usually recurring, but PEG funds a
> > > variety of programs in addition to annual plans.
> > >
> > > This is the kind of conversation that I hope Luis and his team will be
> > > considering holistically in the next several months.
> > >
> >
> > Katy of course is part of my team, so we're here, having a conversation
> :)
> > Can you elaborate a bit, Pine? You've done a good job answering MZ's
> > question, so I'm not clear what conversation you meant to highlight -
> > simply suggestions on how to improve the pages MZ linked to, or...?
> >
> > Luis
> >
> >
> > --
> > Luis Villa
> > Sr. Director of Community Engagement
> > Wikimedia Foundation
> > *Working towards a world in which every single human being can freely
> share
> > in the sum of all knowledge.*
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-- 
Siko Bouterse
Director of Community Resources
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

sboute...@wikimedia.org

*Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. *
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF office location and remodel

[Aleksey Bilogur]

A logistical non-starter! They've got 200+ staff members, any gains to
recruitment competitiveness will be quickly lost to the drain that losing
whatever significant percent of the staff that doesn't make the move incurs
on the organization.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Ask questions, give feedback on six annual plan grant proposals for the FDC!

[Cristian Consonni]

Hi Pine,

2015-04-08 8:34 GMT+02:00 Pine W :
> I was referring to the qualifications, benefits and limitations of the
> different kinds of grant programs. The way that they're structured provides
> some ups and downs for affiliates when we have the option to choose among
> grant types.

A quick recap of the existing grant programs is available here:


In particular, a selected quote about the different types of programs:
* Travel and Participation Support: travel funding to participate in
mission-aligned events.
* Individual Engagement Grants: comprehensive support for individual
and small team projects focused on online impact.
* Project and Event Grants: expenses related to organizing events and
running projects. For individuals, groups and organizations. [The
Grant Advisory Committee (aka GAC) works in the scope of these grants]
* Annual Plan Grants: funding the annual budgets and mission
objectives of affiliated organizations. [The Fund Dissemination
Committee (aka FDC) works in the scope of these grants]

> FDC/APG's structure recieved a lot of attention in the past
> few years. I think it would be good to take a step back and look
> collectively at the grants programs, and to think about how to engineer
> them with today's environment, goals and tools for affiliates, small teams
> and individual grantees in mind; and to think about transition points among
> grant types.

Katy has for sure more details, but the APG/FDC process has built-in
from the start the fact that when the staff reaches out to a potential
applicant there is an initial discussion and assessment to see if the
APG is the best route for the given applicant to apply for funds.
There have been cases in the past (on top of my mind, Wikimedia
Hungary) of entities that have decided to go through the PEG/GAC
instead of the APG/FDC after the initial discussions with the FDC
staff and the committee.

So, possibly this is not completely formalized but as a process it
exists and there are precedents.

> I would love to talk with you more about this at the Wikimedia Conference
> if possible (:

2015-04-08 8:54 GMT+02:00 Christophe Henner :
> The Advisory group to the FDC actually made that very proposal.
>
> To have a body who would look At the grant system as a whole and not juste
> At one of its part.
>
> Not sure if that would ever be implemented sadly.

It seems a most reasonable idea, my 2cents would be not to rehaul
completely the structure of grants because having a structure that is
stable enough (i.e. that is used for some years) is useful to compare
data between different applicants and provide some historical
analysis. (cfr.
)
and if I recall correctly up to date there have been the possibility
to have just one general impact report so far (for this you need
completed grants so we have those up 2013/2014).

C

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