On 5/26/06, Delirium [email protected] wrote:
This isn't without risks; many initially grass-roots organizations have lost the essence of what initially made them work in the transition to large, professional organization (this is especially true, for example, of many environmentalist organizations). It's not impossible to do right, but IMO needs to be done slowly and cautiously. There are plenty of things that a grassroots organization can get people to do for free that an organization with a large, paid staff cannot.
-Mark
But I'm not sure we lose the grassroots-type feel even if we had a paid staff. We still have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people willing to do things for free, even with a paid staff. Wikimedia has flourished under this volunteer oriented mindset, but I don't see everyone suddenly saying, "Screw you WMF, you hired some people, I ain't doing squat." The volunteers would still be there, and WMF would still enlist the services of them. Or am I wrong? --LV