[Foundation-l] PediaPress

[MZMcBride]

Liam Wyatt wrote:
> I suspect that the issue lies not with the fact that you are only a couple
> of clicks away from the PediaPress bookprinting service from every Wikipedia
> article, but more the fact that the PediaPress system is the *only *service
> listed on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Book As Erik
> mentioned in the previous email, the relationship with PediaPress is
> non-exclusive and entirely independent from the  "Book Creator" code.

I enjoyed your examples of for-profit companies' products being integrated
with Wikimedia.

I wonder, if a company like CafePress wanted to sell Wikimedia apparel and
would donate a percentage of their revenue to Wikimedia, would they get a
sidebar link (or section) as well? The response from Erik seems to be "well,
having printed copies of our work makes us feel good," which is perfectly
fine, but so does a fitted T-shirt with the Wikipedia logo on the front.
Would a company like CafePress be allowed to have a link in the sidebar to
their Wikimedia-related products? What are the exact criteria for getting to
be "only a couple of clicks away" for millions of visitors?

The larger context of this thread (for me, at least) is that, given that (a)
Wikipedia is about to turn ten, (b) Wikipedia gets millions of views per
day, and (c) people are always looking for ways to make money, why is it
that so few companies have partnered with Wikimedia in the way that
PediaPress has?

Tim mentioned the Wikipedia DVD, which I'd forgotten about and don't quite
remember the details of. There was also a Virgin (Mobile?) ad in the
fundraising banners at some point. However, these examples seem rather
limited and sparse. I'm not arguing that that's a bad thing, but it still
feels rather odd to me, especially when I look at a company at PediaPress
and try to figure out what made them seemingly special.

MZMcBride