Benjamin Webb wrote:
On 26/03/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Or more to the point, I think that starting a geneology project is actually going to be a significant source of revenue for the Wikimedia Foundation rather than being a drag on the resources. And a geneology database increases significantly in value as it grows. I can't say what the critical number would be, but having over a million names would certainly be a significant milestone to make any project, and people have paid some large amounts of money ($1,000's) for much smaller databases that might have some information they are looking for, or are even willing to do international travel just to get a few additional names and references.
Probabably so, and by charging very modest fees at that. The question to ask then, given the massive number of genealogical websites out there, what can we do that will make our site more desirable than all the others.
Surely the Wikimedia Foundation isn't going to charge fees, I thought it was non-profit. Have I misunderstood what you are saying?
Charging fees and being non-profit are not mutually exclusive concepts. That idea is one possibility among many. It would be irresponsible to lunge forward with such a huge project without some consideration of its economics.
Ec