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Talk of the bay: Pieces of Wiki keep zipping off into the sunset

By Times Staff
Published September 26, 2007

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, already moved his for-profit spinoff to California. Now he's sending the mothership there, too. The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit entity that runs Wikipedia and other free-content sites like Wiktionary, confirmed Tuesday that it's relocating to that other bay area, San Francisco. Wikimedia, which handles administrative tasks, has six full-time employees in downtown St. Petersburg. Spokeswoman Sandra Ordonez declined to say whether those employees would move to San Francisco. She also declined to say whether Wales, a St. Petersburg resident informally heralded as the highest-profile thing the Tampa Bay tech scene has going for it, would be sticking around. He was in Japan and couldn't be reached for comment. The foundation said that, because its main servers will remain in Tampa, it will still have a strong presence here. "We're a Web-based company, so the fact that our servers are here is a pretty big deal," Ordonez said. "We only have three (server) locations worldwide: here, Amsterdam and Seoul." In a statement, Wikimedia said it chose San Francisco to be its new home "because it is the technology center of the United States." When Wales moved Wikia to Silicon Valley last year, he offered this explanation: "We're hiring engineers out there and Web people," he said at the time. "You go where the talent is."

Odyssey may strike gold in TV

Is Tampa treasure-hunter Odyssey Marine Exploration getting its own television show? It may be. Fortune magazine, which recently interviewed co-founder Greg Stemm, says Odyssey is "close to announcing" a show described by Stemm as "Jacques Cousteau meets Deadliest Catch." Odyssey spokeswoman Natja Igney said the company would announce details later. The National Geographic Channel, which has worked with Odyssey in the past, would seem a likely partner. Spokesman Chris Albert said in an e-mail that "as far as I can tell, this is a project we have been pitched but nothing we have committed to so far."

Chamber clued in to more rate cuts

Members of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce heard some cheery news over Tuesday's breakfast from Wall Street economist Thomas Berner of UBS Wealth Management Research. He expects two more Federal Reserve rate cuts will stave off recession, allowing the economy to keep growing, albeit slowly.

[Last modified September 25, 2007, 23:22:37]