3 ms·
Yes it is open, and for some reason you forgot to link it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikimedia_Foundation_FY2020-2021_Audit_Report.
by hansword 4y ago
Yes it is open, and for some reason you forgot to link it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikimedia_Foundation_FY2020-2021_Audit_Report.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikim...
As you can see, from 112M total expenses, internet hosting is 2.4M (or 2%), and 'other operating expenses' is 10M (or 9%). This is 11% of expenses.
This compares to 56M for salaries and 23M for awards and grants.
Where is the misinformation?
(Conflict of interest statement: I am an editor on Wikipedia for 15+ years and a member of my national Wikimedia chapter.)
- codethief 4y ago> As you can see, from 112M total expenses, internet hosting is 2.4M (or 2%), and 'other operating expenses' is 10M (or 9%). This is 11% of expenses. This compares to 56M for salaries and 23M for awards and grants. Where is the misinformation? I believe the parent already answered your question: > You're discussing server costs, but need to also consider hosting and data center costs, as well as employee salaries. Running Wikimedia is a pretty decent percentage of their budget. The numbers you presented confirm this statement: 56M (salaries) + 2.4M (hosting) + 10M (other operating expenses) = 68.4M (61%)
- bawolff 4y agoServers don't run themselves. I'm not saying everything wmf spends money on is useful, but servers are useless without sysadmins. Keep in mind part of the reason server costs are low is because wikimedia owns its own servers. Lots of people rent servers (e.g. AWS) where the cost of hosting will be higher because the cost of some of the sysadmin duties are covered by the AWS fee, where at wikimedia that is a salary that has to be paid. [Coi: ex-wmf contractor but its been a while]