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I worked at the Wikimedia Foundation from 2012 to 2016. The Foundation did fly me across the world several times, either to attend professional conferences like

by atdt 9y ago

I worked at the Wikimedia Foundation from 2012 to 2016. The Foundation did fly me across the world several times, either to attend professional conferences like FOSDEM or (more commonly) to participate in events hosted by a local chapter, like a community hackathon. I never flew anything but coach. I can recall one occasion when a colleague was able to get a free upgrade by using his frequent flyer miles. I am not aware of the WMF ever paying for business class for one of its employees. This sort of comment is really pernicious. If you bring up such an accusation, you should really be prepared to back it up.

ShinTakuya 9y ago
Unfortunately I can't back it up since I'm not the person in question, nor am I willing to drag this person into the spotlight since he's a good guy who doesn't deserve it. It's possible that they'd already cut down on the spending by the time you joined. After checking back when I would have seen the case I mentioned, it was in fact 2010 and not 2011. Also is it possible that the foundation has different practices in different countries? I was in Australia at the time for reference. Out of curiosity, how common were these local community hackathons? Even flying economy it seems a bit excessive to be flying people across the world for that...
- atdt 9y ago
  It is not a lot of money when you consider the amount of value it generates in terms of fostering relationships between volunteer developers and providing assistance to interested first-time participants who later go on to make meaningful contributions to the MediaWiki software stack. Here is a detailed breakdown of the costs associated with the most recent hackathon, and some of the things that came out of it: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Report https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Repo...
- praneshp 9y ago
  It is also possible that " the guy you knew who was a software engineer for Wikipedia back in uni." was flat out lying to you to show off.
  - elect_engineer 9y ago
    I am the author of the Wikipedia essay "Wikipedia has Cancer". I have recently had extensive private correspondence with several current and former Wikimedia foundation software developers. The developers are not living lavishly. They are doing about as well financially as developers in other industries. In addition, the developers are not doing a poor job. Every problem with the software that the WMF has released was caused by bad management decisions, mostly by managers who no longer work there.

by atdt 9y ago

ShinTakuya 9y ago

Unfortunately I can't back it up since I'm not the person in question, nor am I willing to drag this person into the spotlight since he's a good guy who doesn't deserve it. It's possible that they'd already cut down on the spending by the time you joined. After checking back when I would have seen the case I mentioned, it was in fact 2010 and not 2011. Also is it possible that the foundation has different practices in different countries? I was in Australia at the time for reference. Out of curiosity, how common were these local community hackathons? Even flying economy it seems a bit excessive to be flying people across the world for that...

atdt 9y ago
It is not a lot of money when you consider the amount of value it generates in terms of fostering relationships between volunteer developers and providing assistance to interested first-time participants who later go on to make meaningful contributions to the MediaWiki software stack. Here is a detailed breakdown of the costs associated with the most recent hackathon, and some of the things that came out of it: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Report https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Repo...
praneshp 9y ago
It is also possible that " the guy you knew who was a software engineer for Wikipedia back in uni." was flat out lying to you to show off.
- elect_engineer 9y ago
  I am the author of the Wikipedia essay "Wikipedia has Cancer". I have recently had extensive private correspondence with several current and former Wikimedia foundation software developers. The developers are not living lavishly. They are doing about as well financially as developers in other industries. In addition, the developers are not doing a poor job. Every problem with the software that the WMF has released was caused by bad management decisions, mostly by managers who no longer work there.