Brion:
"Who actually would go to this main office, and what would they do there?"
Good question. I suppose there are administrative tasks that will grow as the organisation gets bigger (like sending more and more donators a Xmas card, oops bad example ;)
Mav:
"Cost of rent is nothing compared to the synergies that would develop my
being
where all the action is."
Well one major task that might benefit from close contact would be organising a printed Wikipedia for every school in Africa, if it will ever happen. (I can't believe the $100 notebook project is a panacea). I hope and suppose printing would be done somewhere on that continent as well, so this puts a different light on Mavs 'where all the action is'.
Mav what kind of (financial?) action are you referring too anyway? Stock exchange, investment banks? Guess not, forgive my irony. What kind of major deals would you (?) strike then in NY and not anywhere else?
Wikimedia made a difference because it dared to do things in a novel way, not copying the ways of the old establishment.
Jimmy is travelling all over the world all the time. I guess his work is not very dependant on where a main office resides, of course he can answer that better.
Presence of Mav or his successor (not sure which time frame we are talking) in New York or D.C. might be beneficial, although I don't see yet how. I would think a main office is less for policy makers and deal strikers, but rather for dealing with administrative chores.
In the old ways a main office was also very much needed for representational needs. Big hallway, etc. I'm sure everyone agrees we don't need that. People know how to find us, they're willing to come to Frankfurt to meet us, so why not to Bangalore, San Jose or any place else?
Erik Moeller:
"We also need to take into account laws that might be relevant to our
website operations.
This is esp. true, unfortunately, in developing countries. There may also be critical variations across US states."
This would indeed be a complicating factor, if the web server would fall under the jurisdiction of the country that hosts the main office. Not sure if that would necessarily be the case. Maybe depends on which country we choose?
Erik Zachte
Erik Zachte wrote:
Erik Moeller:
"We also need to take into account laws that might be relevant to our
website operations.
This is esp. true, unfortunately, in developing countries. There may also be critical variations across US states."
This would indeed be a complicating factor, if the web server would fall under the jurisdiction of the country that hosts the main office. Not sure if that would necessarily be the case. Maybe depends on which country we choose?
That could be avoided by not really having a "main office" in the traditional sense, but just offices where and when (and if) they're needed. St. Petersburg could remain the place of incorporation of the Foundation and its official mailing address, while actual physical offices can be opened as needed. If there's a lot of work in Africa necessitating some local physical presence, we could have a Nairobi office, and it could be much bigger than the St. Petersburg office. What's designated "main office" is more a legal formality; there's no need for us to have one giant office in which everything takes place and designate it "Wikimedia World Headquarters".
(Incidentally, that's how globalized "real companies" are increasingly running things; the giant centralized main headquarters is no longer in vogue.)
-Mark
On 5/26/06, Delirium [email protected] wrote:
Erik Zachte wrote:
Erik Moeller:
"We also need to take into account laws that might be relevant to our
website operations.
This is esp. true, unfortunately, in developing countries. There may also be critical variations across US states."
This would indeed be a complicating factor, if the web server would fall under the jurisdiction of the country that hosts the main office. Not sure if that would necessarily be the case. Maybe depends on which country we choose?
That could be avoided by not really having a "main office" in the traditional sense, but just offices where and when (and if) they're needed. St. Petersburg could remain the place of incorporation of the Foundation and its official mailing address, while actual physical offices can be opened as needed. If there's a lot of work in Africa necessitating some local physical presence, we could have a Nairobi office, and it could be much bigger than the St. Petersburg office. What's designated "main office" is more a legal formality; there's no need for us to have one giant office in which everything takes place and designate it "Wikimedia World Headquarters".
/me *nods*
Exactly. Go with the needs.
Delphine
On 5/25/06, Delirium [email protected] wrote:
(Incidentally, that's how globalized "real companies" are increasingly running things; the giant centralized main headquarters is no longer in vogue.)
At least one major multinational I'm aware of has its official "home office" in Bermuda with a staff there of one.
Kelly
On 5/31/06, Kelly Martin [email protected] wrote:
At least one major multinational I'm aware of has its official "home office" in Bermuda with a staff there of one.
And through a strange organizational quirk, that's the guy who takes down the departmental reports. And they all have to be filed in person.
Austin