The Communications committee is working on coordinating the use of sitewide notices for Wikimedia projects. This is needed for the upcoming fundraiser, as well as other potential announcements relevant to all projects, such as Wikimania or technical issues like single login.
It's anticipated that we will use a bot to help update these messages, which due to the nature of the pages being edited will need to have universal sysop privileges. Rest assured that we won't be using it for other sysop functions. Naturally, with all of these messages we will need help with translation, ideally before they are distributed but also after if necessary. Please let your projects know in case they have any questions.
Incidentally, I know the idea of a Fundraising committee is still just getting off the ground, but could we get an idea of when we would have a fundraiser, and for how long? In order for the site notices to be effective, we have to maintain some downtime between uses, and we need to be able to plan the other uses as much as possible.
--Michael Snow Chair, Wikimedia Communications Committee
--- Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
Incidentally, I know the idea of a Fundraising committee is still just getting off the ground, but could we get an idea of when we would have a fundraiser, and for how long? In order for the site notices to be effective, we have to maintain some downtime between uses, and we need to be able to plan the other uses as much as possible.
The board is voting on the establishment of the fundraising committee on the board wiki. If they pass the resolution I wrote w/o modification, then the committee should be set up soon (next couple weeks). I imagine the first order of business would be to organize the next fundraiser. Pre-planning may begin as soon as this weekend if I can find the time.
But having a drive soon is not too pressing due to the huge success of the last fundraiser, higher than expected non-fundraiser background donations since, and lower than expected expenses so far this year. The spending side may change if one or more committees asks for a significant increase in their budget (now being worked on).
-- mav
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