On 10/8/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I also think we shouldn't limit ourselves to any
one donor base. ...
and certainly not anyone who is already donating to charities.
Anecdotaly, many people I encounter who *I* consider good potential
donor material (young-middle age, tech savvy, household incomes
soundly in the 33 and even 35% federal income tax brackets, and who
*do* donate to things like macfound) are often completely unaware or
misinformed of Wikimedia's non-profit status. To quote someone I spoke
to recently: "Wikipedia, you know thats not non-profit anymore right?
The founder Jimmy Wales ... wikia... search.." 0_o Easily corrected,
but only if someone is actively correcting it.
Right, this isn't a bad idea by any means, I think what people fear
about this kind of thing though is that it seems *too* professional,
and disconnects from the community. And you're right, the foundation
should certainly try and broaden our donation base, possibly using
different approaches in different demographics. About misinformation,
it really is alarming, even in other semi-tech communities I use
online. "Wikipedia will be bought out..." etc
The problem of overprofessionalism is a very mild one, I don't recall
anything we have ever done as coming off *too* polished. ;) That's our
charm I guess.
Judson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cohesion