Financial & Organizational Structure
(this was written in 2005 and is currenlty more of a roadmap than an exisiting structure)
Worldbridges Financial structure aims to provide the fairest possible compensation to those who do the work of managing the sites and producing content. Worldbridges is organized into Divisions and those divisions are further divided into sub-units (cooler name pending).
Within the context of Worldbridges values and goals, each division of Worldbridges is managed as autonomously as possible . Similarly, each sub-unit and/or show is managed as autonomously as possible from its parent division. Certain management functions and financial responsibilities must be met, but how that is accomplished is up to each management team.
The management team of each division and sub-unit needs to include the following roles/functions:
- Security & Backup - make sure that all software is updated & patched, maintain passwords and a list of who has access to which parts of the site, maintain current backups of all site content, subscribe to Worldbridges Security update newsletter.
- Treasurer - coordinate receipt and distribution of all income
- Scheduling/Event Posting - coordinate access to webcast streams, post information about shows and events
- Coordinator/Network Liaison - oversee operations, maintain relations with parent division and sub-divisions.
Each Division needs to pay its operating costs or 10% of gross income (whichever is higher). Operating costs will be determined by the portion of server resources dedicated to that division. The rest of the income is distributed to managers and producers.
Income can be earned by donations, sales of products or services, and/or advertising. Division teams can decide to use income from profitable sub-units to fund non-income generating projects within the division. (i.e extra income generated from EdTechTak is used by the Eduation Division to fund Personal Learning Space). Accounting should be meticulous and transparent.
Worldbridges reserves the right to place up to two 120x120 pixel banners (one of which is visible on the top screen view) on any site considered part of The Worldbridges Network and up to a 15 second audio intro attached to the beginning of audio and video files. Cross promotion of Worldbridges shows is very much encouraged.
Corporate Ownership
Legally speaking, 100% of WorldbridgesLLC shares are currently held by Jeff Lebow. Approximately 7% of these shares have been set aside for those who either invested financially or made significant contributions of time and energy along the way. Shares will continue to be set aside for those who do so, but there are no plans to distribute income to shareholders. Instead, income will be distributed to those doing the work and re-invested in infrastructure and operations. The value of being a shareholder resides in having a vote in corporate decisions. Ownership should evolve in a way that reflects the global nature of the company. Shares are not transferable and upon death of a shareholder, their shares will be returned to the corporation for redistribution.
Ownership of Sites
Network Owned Sites - These are sites that are owned by Worldbridges and will remain part of the network regardless of management changes.
Independent Affiliates (Hosted and Non-hosted) - These sites are owned by individuals that choose to be part of Worldbridges. Hosted affiliates pay for storage space and bandwidth. Non-hosted affiliates pay for streaming services only. Independent Aaffiliates can choose to leave the network at any time and Worldbridges reserves the right to terminate our relationship with affiliates at any time.
Licensing
All Worldbridges materials are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Worldbridges reserves the right to maintain an archived version of any materials produced by member sites, even after a network affiliation has been terminated.