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Wikimedia Foundation Moving To Another Bay Area

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By CARLOS MONCADA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is relocating from the Tampa Bay area to the San Francisco area, primarily to be closer to the country's high-tech center.

The move, confirmed today by Wikimedia communications manager Sandra Ordonez, is expected to occur this winter, with a new office opening later this year and the St. Petersburg one closing early in 2008.

The Wikimedia Board of Trustees, after a detailed analysis, chose San Francisco from among five cities that were considered. The other cities were Boston, London, New York and Washington, D.C. The possibility of remaining in St. Petersburg, home of Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales, also was examined.

Major considerations for choosing San Francisco were the proximity to like-minded organizations and potential partners as well as cheaper and more convenient international travel than is available from St. Petersburg.

Although overhead costs will be higher in California, the new location is expected to help Wikimedia attract people with the needed skills as the organization adds to its staff of 10. The main cluster of Wikimedia servers will remain in Tampa, however, and the Foundation is not currently considering moving those.

Wikipedia is described as the world's largest community-written encyclopedia, with more than 7 million entries in 143 languages.

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