David, the BBC says you told them the following: ---o0o--- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19148151 *Donations* Mr Gerard joked that due to the site's limited financial resources, some of its infrastructure relied on "gaffer tape and string". In an error message posted to the site, the Wikimedia Foundation reiterated its reliance on donations to fund its continued operation. "The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organisation which hosts some of the most popular sites on the internet," the message read. "It has a constant need to purchase new hardware. If you would like to help, please donate." Despite its limited funding, the site is considered to have impressive reliability. Its last significant down time was deliberate - the site went "offline" for 24 hours in protest at proposed anti-piracy bills in the US. ---o0o--- Compare that characterisation of limited funding to the FAQ for the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan 2012–2013: ---o0o--- http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2012-2013_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Ans… How did 2011-12 play out from a financial perspective? Wikimedia Foundation. The 2011-12 plan called for us to increase revenue 24% from 2010-11, to $29.5 million, and to increase spending 53% from 2010-11, to $28.3 million. In fact, we significantly over-achieved from a revenue perspective, and we also slightly underspent, resulting in a larger reserve than planned. We're projecting today that 2011-12 revenue will have actually increased 47% from 2010-11 actuals, to $34.8 million. Spending is projected to have increased 36% from 2010-11 actuals, to $27.2 million. This means we added $9.9 million to the reserve, for a projected end-of-year total of $27.7 million which represents 12 months of reserves at the 2011-12 spending level.[/quote] ---o0o--- Just for comparison's sake, the 2007 fundraising report announced contributions totaling 2.16 million for the entire year, i.e. merely one-sixteenth of the revenue last year. And less than Wikimedia now takes in a month. Even so, Wikipedia was up and running in 2007. Could you get back to the BBC, please, David, and tell them that they somehow seem to have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick here? And could you drop the "gaffer tape and string" jokes next time round? Andreas On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 5:50 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 6 August 2012 20:43, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote: See, this is where you part ways with how the media works. These days I count it as a win if anything in quotes uses words I've ever used in my life. - d.

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 8:54 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote: Well, glad to hear the words gaffer tape and string never crossed your lips, then. I still think you should call them and disabuse them of their notion that WMF is desperately short of cash. On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 8:47 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote: $35 million is not "a few million dollars". Wikipedia was indeed run on a budget of a few million dollars a few years ago, but that's no longer the case. And the chapters are having to come up with creative ideas to spend their money. One of the latest suggestions raised by a Wikimedia UK staff member was that ... ---o0o--- We could put a volunteer or two on a specially fitted-out (and Wikipedia-liveried?) live-aboard boat for the summer, and have them map the canal network - taking photos of every building, every lock, and even taking video footage of sections of the trip from a roof-mounted camera. A GPS system would trace the entire route for Open Street Map. British Waterways may also be interested, as we'd essentially be doing a mini-survey of the network, including all the structures, for them. We could fit the inside of the barge with a small supply of educational materials and a marquis for stopping the 'wiki-barge' in towns along the way.*What would we need?* - A narrowboat, to hire, for the summer - needs to be quite small. Two volunteers, technically minded, at least one of whom knows about narrowboats. GPS equipment (possibly able to loan from OSM or British Waterways?). A 3G internet connection (wouldn't work everywhere, but would work when near a village/town). A camera (and possibly a video-camera). Lots of hard drive space. Expenses for the volunteers aboard. Brochures/booklets. ---o0o--- All fine and dandy, but then let's please do our best to ensure that the BBC don't print "gaffer tape and string" sob stories about us. The tenner that someone in India sends us might indeed be better spent on a local charity there that actually feeds someone, or keeps someone healthy.

There is now a WMF blog post explaining the initial findings from the Operations team: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/06/wikimedia-site-outage-6-august-2012/ We hope to have a more detailed report soon. -Matthew -- Matthew Roth Global Communications Wikimedia Foundation +1.415.839.6885 ext 6635 www.wikimediafoundation.org *https://donate.wikimedia.org* On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:

Richard, that is fine. But surely you can see that it's inappropriate to have the BBC imply, on a day when we have an outage, that we're strapped for cash to keep Wikipedia running, holding the site together "with gaffer tape and string", and need donations, while in fact we have built up reserves of $27.7 million, equivalent to a full year's spending at 2011-2012 levels, and Wikimedians struggle to come up with zany ideas on how to spend £10k. Nothing against barges, and canals ... I love them. By the way, any further ideas for a Wikimedia UK project can be added to this page: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan/Ideas Andreas On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 9:36 PM, Richard Symonds < richard.symonds(a)wikimedia.org.uk&gt; wrote:

Thanks for the nice reply, Andreas. You get bonus points for liking barges! I think that in this case, the problem is due to the journalist, rather than David's quotes. I've seen the emails he sent to our communications organiser, Stevie, keeping him up to date, and the journalist did a rather rushed job. Not to bad-mouth him, of course: but it's clear that he had a deadline to work to. We've all had things taken out of context, even by the nicest journalists - I still remember the Wikipedia Review thread where two Wikipedia Review-ians saw my flat on the BBC, and genuinely offered, in private, to come round and help me fix it up, so shocked they were at the "squalor". The fact was, I had stripped half of the wallpaper, and lived nextdoor to Wormwood Scrubs prison - and the BBC journalist decided to emphasise those points, rather than my immaculate cravat and waistcoat ( www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12172367) I can't speak for the rest of the movement, but WMUK is planning to keep 6 months reserves. I believe good practice for a UK charity is anywhere from six to twelve months reserves. Certainly, though, we need to keep an eye on the movement's reserves, and ensure that either we shorten the fundraiser appropriately, or fund educational outreach programmes as needed, worldwide. And, to those critics and supporters lurking around: we could really use your help coming up with crazy, unusual, innovative ways to spend £10k. This year, we launched Monmouthpedia - bringing an entire town together to write about where they live. It wasn't without faults: but the idea, and the project, were a complete success. Next year, we might shorten the fundraiser by a few hours - or we might come up with a completely off-the-wall project that shows what crowdsourcing can really do. Put your ideas up at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan/Ideas, no matter how daft they are. The WMUK board will look at them, love them, and laugh at them, as appropriate. WMUK might not approve any of them: but Monmouthpedia was started when one man stood up at the back of a museum and said, "why not do that with a whole town?". And we did, and we generated worldwide media coverage, spread the idea of Monmouth around the world, and won 'Best Chapter Project' at Wikimania 2012. *Add your ideas, folks!* Please :-) Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992 Disclaimer viewable at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:Email_disclaimer Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk On 6 August 2012 21:50, Andreas Kolbe &lt;jayen466(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

On 8/6/12 6:50 PM, David Gerard wrote: I sort of like the idea that the BBC might be maintaining a database of Genuine David Gerard quotes that are randomly retrieved and attached together (with gaffer tape?) as needed, whenever a Wikipedia-related story comes up. Do they know about your Slashdot account? It'd be a gold-mine of Genuine Quotes from a Wikimedia UK Spokesperson! -Mark