Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 3/14/2013 11:36 PM, Theo10011 wrote: On Fri, Mar 15, 2013, Michael Snow wrote: I'm not sure why you would use traffic ranking for financial analysis, even the envelope-and-napkin kind of analysis we're engaging in here. I'm pretty confident that just because Google has been sitting at #1 for

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 11:36 PM, Theo10011 wrote: > > On Fri, Mar 15, 2013, James Alexander wrote: > > > > Aye, I know for example that our page views have more then doubled in the > > last 5 years (since 2008) and I believe grew even more dramatically in > the > > years before that. > > > They

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Hi Michael On Fri, Mar 15, 2013, Michael Snow wrote: > I'm not sure why you would use traffic ranking for financial analysis, > even the envelope-and-napkin kind of analysis we're engaging in here. I'm > pretty confident that just because Google has been sitting at #1 for some > time, it doesn't

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Mar 14, 2013, at 10:57 PM, Michael Snow wrote: > Aside from that, it's only recently that Wikimedia sites have approached > having the kind of redundancy and failover capabilities we've talked about > needing for a long time. That's at least one example of something that can > add prett

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:57 PM, Michael Snow wrote: > On 3/14/2013 10:26 PM, Theo10011 wrote: > >> On Thu, Mar 14, 2013, Erik Moeller wrote: >> >>> Only data-center usage (facilities, bandwidth, power). It does not >>> include capital expenditures (servers, storage, network gear, etc.; >>> budg

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 3/14/2013 10:26 PM, Theo10011 wrote: On Thu, Mar 14, 2013, Erik Moeller wrote: Only data-center usage (facilities, bandwidth, power). It does not include capital expenditures (servers, storage, network gear, etc.; budgeted at $1.9M in 2012-13) nor ops engineering staffing, nor of course any

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

currently the bylaws say: transfer the money to any 501(c) organisation. wmf would not be allowed to be charitable in switzerland as it is not guaranteed the donors money end up what it was ment for: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bylaws#Section_2._Distribution_of_Assets. rupert. On Fri, Mar

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013, Erik Moeller wrote: > Only data-center usage (facilities, bandwidth, power). It does not > include capital expenditures (servers, storage, network gear, etc.; > budgeted at $1.9M in 2012-13) nor ops engineering staffing, nor of > course any software engineering staffing or t

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Parallel to that question, is what happens to the endowment if the WMF is wound up. This would be of some interest to possible donors. In principle I am in favour of an endowment. Cheers, Peter - Original Message - From: "phoebe ayers" To: "Wikimedia Mailing List" Sent: Thursday, Marc

Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF Grants Program Retrospective 2009-2012 published

After reading this more thoroughly: I am deeply impressed. This sort of review should be carried out for all major ongoing projects. For instance, it could be useful to have a similar retrospective on major technical features that have been implemented or formally requested by large Wikimedia wi

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

We also have to consider what these costs will be in 5 years and beyond to know really how big an endowment would need to be. This will require some fairly complicated projects, that will most certainly be wrong at some point in time. :) On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Samuel Klein wrote: > O

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:45 PM, George Herbert wrote: >> [Hosting...] Then various operational and administrative costs. My finger in >> the >> air estimate would be a total of about $4m-$5m. >> >> It is important to know how much money is going on essentials and how much >> on nice-to-haves. (T

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 2:51 AM, Erik Moeller wrote: > On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Thomas Dalton > wrote: > >> Last year's financial report shows almost exactly $2.5m for "Internet >> hosting". I'm not sure quite what that covers > > Only data-center usage (facilities, bandwidth, power). It

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 15 March 2013 01:51, Erik Moeller wrote: > The "what's the level required > for bare survival" question is, IMO, only of marginal interest, > because it is much more desirable, and should be very much possible, > to raise funds for sustaining our mission in perpetuity. > Perhaps a more useful

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote: > Last year's financial report shows almost exactly $2.5m for "Internet > hosting". I'm not sure quite what that covers Only data-center usage (facilities, bandwidth, power). It does not include capital expenditures (servers, storage, network

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote: > On Mar 15, 2013 12:21 AM, "MZMcBride" wrote: >> >> Erik Moeller wrote: >> >On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: >> >> It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for a year. >> > >> >How did you come up with that

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Mar 15, 2013 12:21 AM, "MZMcBride" wrote: > > Erik Moeller wrote: > >On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: > >> It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for a year. > > > >How did you come up with that number? > > I used to say $2 million, but Roan recently told m

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Erik Moeller wrote: >On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: >> It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for a year. > >How did you come up with that number? I used to say $2 million, but Roan recently told me that it had probably gone up since that estimate (from 2009

[Wikimedia-l] GLAM-Wiki 2013 - one month to go!

Hi all, and apologies for crossposting - We've been pushing ahead with the last stages of planning for the GLAM-Wiki conference these past couple of weeks, and I thought I'd send around a reminder that it'll be four weeks from now! The conference will be looking at the work done by Wikimedians wo

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 11:00 AM, Erik Moeller wrote: > On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: > >> It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for a year. > > How did you come up with that number? > > Erik Can you propose a better number for arguments' sake (not a firm

[Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia course to launch next week on School of Open Fwd: [okfn-br]

-- Forwarded message -- From: Carolina Rossini Date: 2013/3/14 Subject: [okfn-br] Wikipedia course to launch next week on School of Open To: rea-li...@googlegroups.com, "Grupo de interesse em conhecimento livre no Brasil, especialmente dados abertos" -- Forwarded messa

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:47 PM, Samuel Klein wrote: > Aha, a welcome topic :) > > MZMcBride writes: >> I think we need to decide, as a community, whether this is something we >> want. If it is, we should set up an endowment fund sooner rather than >> later, so that people willing to donate to suc

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Lisa, The article cites no exact reason for the longevity of Wikipedia specifically, but does talk about passion to a mission: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/03/yuri-milner-google-facebook-100-years On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:52 PM, phoebe ayers wrote: > On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:4

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Lisa Gruwell wrote: > My team here at the foundation has begun to do a little leg work so that we > are ready to go, if the Board should decide to pursue an endowment. We > have begun to "tip our toes" into the world of planned giving and have had > conversations

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

My team here at the foundation has begun to do a little leg work so that we are ready to go, if the Board should decide to pursue an endowment. We have begun to "tip our toes" into the world of planned giving and have had conversations with some of our major donors about it. At this point, the pl

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 5:16 AM, Thomas Dalton wrote: > On 14 March 2013 13:00, Manuel Schneider > wrote: > > Thanks Andrew and Philippe for your explanation and links. > > > > So that is a plan to build a reserve of funds that is so big that the > > operation can be funded by the capital's gain

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Aha, a welcome topic :) MZMcBride writes: > I think we need to decide, as a community, whether this is something we > want. If it is, we should set up an endowment fund sooner rather than > later, so that people willing to donate to such an endowment have a place > to put their money, I think. Ye

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia Zero wins!

Thank you! Can't wait to be launched in Hungary! ;) *~Orsolya* 2013/3/14 Kul Wadhwa > Hi Orsolya, > > On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Orsolya Gyenes < > gyenes.orso...@wiki.media.hu> wrote: > > > Is there a blog post or a press release about it? > > > > The blog post is up: > > > http://blog.

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia Zero wins!

Blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/wikipedia-zero-wins-2013-sxsw-interactive-activism-award/ On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 11:51 AM, Orsolya Gyenes < gyenes.orso...@wiki.media.hu> wrote: > Is there a blog post or a press release about it? > *~Orsolya* > > > 2013/3/14 Stephen LaPorte

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia Zero wins!

Hi Orsolya, On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Orsolya Gyenes < gyenes.orso...@wiki.media.hu> wrote: > Is there a blog post or a press release about it? > The blog post is up: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/13/wikipedia-zero-wins-2013-sxsw-interactive-activism-award/ -- Kul Wadhwa Head of Mo

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia Zero wins!

Is there a blog post or a press release about it? *~Orsolya* 2013/3/14 Stephen LaPorte > On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 11:00 PM, Samuel Klein wrote: > > > Where is the mythical award photo of which you speak? SJ > > > > Mythical award photo: > https://twitter.com/thekulway/status/311636200979054592

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

I was marginally involved on this issue two years ago. And by then the focus/priority was to ramp up the Fundraising activities. As this now has been successfully done, I believe this discussion is now much better in timing, and worthwhile to work through I like the idea that the basic runnin

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 2:47 PM, MZMcBride wrote: > > As I understand it, the yearly annual Wikimedia Foundation budget is about > $35 million. It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for > a year. So even if an endowment weren't large enough to cover well over > 130 full-time s

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Philippe Beaudette wrote: >On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: >> (Particularly looking at you, Philippe, given your work on >> both the strategic plan and the licensing vote. Gerard's Law and all. >>;-) > >For the record, I didn't do the licensing vote. :) Erik gets all the >blam

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 14 March 2013 17:55, Philippe Beaudette wrote: > My feeling would be that the obvious first place to start would be the > Board of Trustees. I'd probably start by emailing them and asking them > what they think. It seems to me, if I were in your shoes (and I'm > carefully taking no position

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: > It costs about $2.5 million to keep the sites operational for a year. How did you come up with that number? Erik -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundat

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, MZMcBride wrote: > (Particularly looking at you, Philippe, given your work on > both the strategic plan and the licensing vote. Gerard's Law and all. ;-) > For the record, I didn't do the licensing vote. :) Erik gets all the blame credit for that. :-) My fee

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Thomas Dalton wrote: >An endowment is a long-term thing. Current low interest rates probably >won't last more than a few years. Even so, it would need to be a very >large fund, yes. If you can get a return of, say, 2% over inflation >(you can get more than that if you're willing to take some risks)

[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Nederland February activity report

The February activity report by Wikimedia Nederland is now available on meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/WIkimedia_Nederland/201302 It is also included as text below. WMNL February report Technical projects · The closing conference of the EU-f

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Le 2013-03-14 12:12, Andrew Gray a écrit : On 14 March 2013 08:09, Manuel Schneider wrote: thanks for collecting these links, they are interesting. Anyway, I didn't fully understand the idea behind the page, especially as a non-native speaker I have problems to come up with a proper translat

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Hi Manuel, In my professional experience with endowments (which isn't that extensive, I must confess), the investments are typically extremely conservative and designed to give a steady and reliable long term flow of dividends, rather than shooting for quick capital gains through risky investments

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 14 March 2013 13:00, Manuel Schneider wrote: > Thanks Andrew and Philippe for your explanation and links. > > So that is a plan to build a reserve of funds that is so big that the > operation can be funded by the capital's gain - interest, dividends... Yes, although "reserve" generally refers

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Thanks Andrew and Philippe for your explanation and links. So that is a plan to build a reserve of funds that is so big that the operation can be funded by the capital's gain - interest, dividends... Sounds interesting, even though the endowment must be huge to cover our yearly budgets. Another p

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

See also: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment ___ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 415-839-6885, x 6643 phili...@wikimedia.org On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 4:12 AM, Andrew Gray wrote: > On 14 March 2013 08:09, Manuel Schneider >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

On 14 March 2013 08:09, Manuel Schneider wrote: > thanks for collecting these links, they are interesting. Anyway, I > didn't fully understand the idea behind the page, especially as a > non-native speaker I have problems to come up with a proper translation > / understanding of "Endowment". I un

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia (Foundation) endowment

Hi, Am 14.03.2013 06:48, schrieb MZMcBride: > I've started collecting notes about a possible Wikimedia or Wikimedia > Foundation endowment here: . thanks for collecting these links, they are interesting. Anyway, I didn't fully understand the idea behind

Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Lua scripting enabled today on all wikis

Le 2013-03-13 19:38, Guillaume Paumier a écrit : Greetings, As you might have seen on the Wikimedia tech blog(article included below) or the tech ambassadors list