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 <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 9 April 2015 at 16:47, Garfield Byrd <gb...@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 > > _______________________________________________ > 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, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ 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, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
