On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 11:38 AM, David Cuenca <dacu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Erik, if the WMF is supposed to be a global organization there is no need > to concentrate all (physical) resources in SF, unless the WMF is acting as > the US chapter, then it could be understood that it has to restrict its > geographic presence. As I see it, for example there is no impedement to > have a WMF Asia in any chosen country of that region with an engineering > department dependent on the WMF. > > I would like to hear from the legal team what are the challenges of having > a distributed presence. It is not a new problem, many international > organizations and companies have gone through the process, so there should > be no need to invent new solutions. I'm not a lawyer, so I won't pretend to speak expertly to the legal situations, but in my time on the Communications team I've seen several concrete examples of where it's very valuable to be far from a conflict physically and situated in the U.S. There's the disputed Kashmir maps in India issue (Google and other outfits with offices in those countries have given in to demands<http://www.businessinsider.com/most-controversial-places-on-google-maps-2013-5?op=1>from local authorities to alter maps in a number of cases). What kind of pressure would we get for this file if we had offices in India? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_disputed_areas_map.svg The most recent example was with the DCRI in France. Had we had offices in France, I'm not sure the outcome would have been the same; I imagine our leverage would have been compromised. Of course, there are significant challenges with U.S. laws around copyright, so it's not a panacea, certainly. But I do think it's a very complicated issue. > As you say, there is international > staff already, the only thing missing would be a space to attract even more > talent while keeping the costs down. Not everyone wants to work from home. > Obviuously an external assessment would be necessary to establish what is > the size necessary for that to happen and if the benefits outweight the > costs. > > As for chapters building engineering capacity I see it as something > positive, unfortunately only at the reach of the biggest chapters, and with > a very local (contry-level) organizational focus, which doesn't help in > creating an international work environement. > > Micru > > > On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 12:30 PM, Erik Moeller <e...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > > > On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 6:44 AM, David Cuenca <dacu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I don't agree with Romaine's view that it is a cultural problem, but it > > is > > > true that the WMF management seems to prefer to have all development > > > concentrated in SF. > > > > Hardly. About half of WMF's engineering staff is distributed (both > > inside and outside the US), and we've encouraged and supported > > software engineering efforts by chapters. I'd actually love to see > > much more of that happen, and see other chapters build engineering > > capacity over time. It's legally challenging for WMF to have office > > presence in multiple jurisdictions, but having independent orgs like > > Wikimedia chapters build out development teams doesn't suffer from > > that challenge. > > > > We're an open source project; being able to decentralize effort is our > > strength. The caveat I would add is that you actually need to ensure > > that complex projects are resourced sufficiently. Wikidata is a > > success in part because it's a well-resourced, well-managed team, and > > the partnership in areas where WMF does need to help was carefully > > negotiated. > > > > So, which other chapters are up for building out serious software > > engineering capacity? > > > > Erik > > -- > > Erik Möller > > VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > > -- > Etiamsi omnes, ego non > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Matthew Roth Global Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation +1.415.839.6885 ext 6635 www.wikimediafoundation.org *http://blog.wikimedia.org/* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>