On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
The registration form will definitely include an option to donatesome money for the scholarships fund. There was a substantial interest in this option.
Good idea! It might also be a good move to make this kind of donation possible for people who don't register.
uuh - i am not sure if one should open that can of worms. what is the purpose of wikimania? is it to raise money? for sure not. there are more intelligent ways to do that. is wikimania a business, i.e. the organizer want to get as much money out of the conference as possible? for sure not. there are other conference topics which are more promising. imo we should clearly focus everything we do towards the core mission. if wikimania is not serving this mission, than we probably do not need wikimania. if we need more money for wikimania, use the established banner. if we want to have topic bound donations, then use the banner and let the user choose the topic important to her.
personally i do not think "financial diversity" will do any good to the reputation of the wikimedia movement. the wikipedia website is one of the most prominent in the world. i am perceiving a site banner to donate money ok. all other means to raise money i find unacceptable and damaging the reputation. because we are perceived as "competitor" - and this is not what we want to be. imo we should really strive to have clear and consistent picture to the outside world which is not "consistently begging for money on every possibility we see". we want to be enabler so more persons find ways to support our goals.
i am aware as WMUK needs to go begging for money at WMF is automatically triggering such ideas. and i probably would have similar ideas in case i would be WMUK. the solution is to fix the money flow. the income needs to come to an organisation as close to the donor as possible so a donor can walk over and slap the receiver in case of inefficiency.
just my 2c, rupert