As you may know, a number of us are trying to get a two-year NEH grant for
the Wikimedia Foundation. This is a grant for anything from $80-700,000 for the
development of resource materials. Gentgeen has spoken with them, they are
familiar with Wikipedia, and they encouraged us to apply for the grant.
We are asking for $500,000. This is a lot of money, but we believe that it
will cover our operating costs for 2 years, including the purchase of new
servers, etc. We can do some amazing things with half a million dollars, and really
help Wikipedia and the other projects to soar.
To do this, however, requires a lot of help. The grant deadline is July 15,
and it is already July 3. It must be in their office by then, so that means it
will have to go out by Fedex from somewhere by July 13 at the latest. The
proposal is complicated, and requires all sorts of documentation. No one will just
give us money for the asking, and the complete proposal has to be written and
approved by the community.
That said, I appeal to everyone to give us a hand with this. Pick a section
you want to write or edit, submit ideas, help Mav with the budget, argue about
it, discuss it. This is a chance to take Wikipedia to an exciting new stage,
and it is one that we should not miss.
For more information, a good place to start is:
http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEH_Reference_materials_grant_application
Looking forward to your insights and contributions to this effort,
Danny