Just another thought that came up with me today:
What about an auction. I dont know whether there is interesting stuff enough to collect, and I dont expect thousends of dollars out of it, but wouldn't it be fun for the community to have something like an auction? People can give stuff that could be "cool to have" for the auction, to the foundation, and the person that bids the highest amount of money, can get the thing. For instance, I would be thinking of a postcard witht he signatures of all boardmembers, a used cigarette of oscar (no, not really, please come up with something more fun! :P ) or maybe even approach famous people to donate something that belongs to them for this cause. The stuff can varie to everything, but should be intensively prepared probably.
Would this be fun for the community? Would it be creating some money to the foundation, would it be worth while? Are there maybe more ideas in this trend, that together get a meaningfull amount of money together?
I understand of course it wont be possible anymore for this very fundraising, but I think it would be an idea for the next one. I'm not sure whether the foundation should "lower" itself to this level, or maybe it explicitely *should*. Please shoot! :)
Lodewijk
2007/1/6, Peter van Londen londenp@gmail.com:
Waerth I would appreciate if you could stay with the subject, which is alternative funding of Wikimedia projects by a add-driven fanpedia. The fanpedia was brought up some days ago (and not reoccurring every two weeks). There are definitely more people than you mention; might not be the most, as I have written, because most people on nl-wp don't care about how the projects are being funded. I wished that you had commented on the subject, in stead of flaming.
I would like some comments about the feasibility of doing such a project. We give up "add-freeness" for one project so that the other projects can be funded add-free. Is that compatible with the Mission/Vision? Are there other points: like for instance legal liabilities as of the probable nature of the content on a Fanpedia?
Robert Scott Horning: I don't know Wikia, so I don't have any idea of a fanpedia under the wings of the Wikimedia Foundation would conflict with Wikia's interests or vice versa. Anyhow by transporting content to Wikia does not help much with funding of the Wikimedia Foundation, if I understand that correctly.
SJKlein: any comments why you don't think it is a good idea?
A lot of people involved in Wikipedia don't like adds or even sponsoring if a sitenotice mentions the name of logo of the sponsor. We could keep advertising away of the "more-serious" project if we had an add-driven sisterproject. (It doesn't have to be a fanpedia, it can be a different project, but fancruft is popular!). It would be a compromise.
Kind regards Londenp
2007/1/6, Walter van Kalken walter@vankalken.net:
The thing is that a lot of people work on the fancruft, imho non-encyclopedian, part of Wikipedia and that is OK. Prison Break is
one
of
the most visited articles on dutch Wikipedia. Most nl-Wikipedians are
uneasy with this kind of articles, which evoluate to a encyclopedia
inside
the wikipedia in itself, and would be happy to move them to a different project.
Most ?????? That is a very bold statement. I would say a minority. Currently in the Dutch wikipedia it is only 4 or 5 people who bring this up every 2 weeks or so. Including you. That is definately not most wikipedians!!!
Waerth
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
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Delightful idea!
How about a small pamphlet containing all the existing WikiWorld comics, plus a couple more exclusive ones, featuring commentary and signed by Greg Williams?
On 1/6/07, effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
Just another thought that came up with me today:
What about an auction. I dont know whether there is interesting stuff enough to collect, and I dont expect thousends of dollars out of it, but wouldn't it be fun for the community to have something like an auction? People can give stuff that could be "cool to have" for the auction, to the foundation, and the person that bids the highest amount of money, can get the thing. For instance, I would be thinking of a postcard witht he signatures of all boardmembers, a used cigarette of oscar (no, not really, please come up with something more fun! :P ) or maybe even approach famous people to donate something that belongs to them for this cause. The stuff can varie to everything, but should be intensively prepared probably.
Would this be fun for the community? Would it be creating some money to the foundation, would it be worth while? Are there maybe more ideas in this trend, that together get a meaningfull amount of money together?
I understand of course it wont be possible anymore for this very fundraising, but I think it would be an idea for the next one. I'm not sure whether the foundation should "lower" itself to this level, or maybe it explicitely *should*. Please shoot! :)
Lodewijk
2007/1/6, Peter van Londen londenp@gmail.com:
Waerth I would appreciate if you could stay with the subject, which is alternative funding of Wikimedia projects by a add-driven fanpedia. The fanpedia was brought up some days ago (and not reoccurring every two weeks). There are definitely more people than you mention; might not be the
most,
as I have written, because most people on nl-wp don't care about how the projects are being funded. I wished that you had commented on the
subject,
in stead of flaming.
I would like some comments about the feasibility of doing such a
project.
We give up "add-freeness" for one project so that the other projects can be funded add-free. Is that compatible with the Mission/Vision? Are there other points: like for instance legal liabilities as of the probable nature of the content on a Fanpedia?
Robert Scott Horning: I don't know Wikia, so I don't have any idea of a fanpedia under the wings of the Wikimedia Foundation would conflict with Wikia's interests or vice versa. Anyhow by transporting content to Wikia does not help much with funding of the Wikimedia Foundation, if I understand that correctly.
SJKlein: any comments why you don't think it is a good idea?
A lot of people involved in Wikipedia don't like adds or even sponsoring if a sitenotice mentions the name of logo of the sponsor. We could keep advertising away of the "more-serious" project if we had an add-driven sisterproject. (It doesn't have to be a fanpedia, it can be a different project, but fancruft is popular!). It would be a compromise.
Kind regards Londenp
2007/1/6, Walter van Kalken walter@vankalken.net:
The thing is that a lot of people work on the fancruft, imho non-encyclopedian, part of Wikipedia and that is OK. Prison Break is
one
of
the most visited articles on dutch Wikipedia. Most nl-Wikipedians are
uneasy with this kind of articles, which evoluate to a encyclopedia
inside
the wikipedia in itself, and would be happy to move them to a
different
project.
Most ?????? That is a very bold statement. I would say a minority. Currently in the Dutch wikipedia it is only 4 or 5 people who bring
this
up every 2 weeks or so. Including you. That is definately not most wikipedians!!!
Waerth
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
effe iets anders wrote:
Just another thought that came up with me today:
What about an auction. I dont know whether there is interesting stuff enough to collect, and I dont expect thousends of dollars out of it, but wouldn't it be fun for the community to have something like an auction? People can give stuff that could be "cool to have" for the auction, to the foundation, and the person that bids the highest amount of money, can get the thing. For instance, I would be thinking of a postcard witht he signatures of all boardmembers, a used cigarette of oscar (no, not really, please come up with something more fun! :P ) or maybe even approach famous people to donate something that belongs to them for this cause. The stuff can varie to everything, but should be intensively prepared probably.
Would this be fun for the community? Would it be creating some money to the foundation, would it be worth while? Are there maybe more ideas in this trend, that together get a meaningfull amount of money together?
I understand of course it wont be possible anymore for this very fundraising, but I think it would be an idea for the next one. I'm not sure whether the foundation should "lower" itself to this level, or maybe it explicitely *should*. Please shoot! :)
Lodewijk
Why not auction off some of the older servers? They must now be too clapped-out for any real production use, and they're each a piece of Wikipedia history some wealthy or obsessive Wikimaniac might want on their shelf (or in their rack). The money from selling the old servers can go to buy new ones: possibly with the original names recycled, like battleships.
Not the very oldest, of course -- they should be carefully kept for posterity and donated to a museum at some time in the future -- they're the free culture equivalent of the original printing press, or first steam engine.
-- Neil
Neil Harris wrote:
Why not auction off some of the older servers? They must now be too clapped-out for any real production use, and they're each a piece of Wikipedia history some wealthy or obsessive Wikimaniac might want on their shelf (or in their rack). The money from selling the old servers can go to buy new ones: possibly with the original names recycled, like battleships.
Not the very oldest, of course -- they should be carefully kept for posterity and donated to a museum at some time in the future -- they're the free culture equivalent of the original printing press, or first steam engine.
The first Wikipedia server (ross?) was owned by Bomis and is probably still in active service for Wikia. Larousse and pliny are out of commission, and still in the possession of the Foundation, AFAIK. I believe geoffrin was reclaimed by Bomis after we got our first batch of 9. Most of that batch of 9 are still doing useful active service -- only moreri is down. There are only maybe 7 named servers out of commission in total, and it might be economic to repair some of them.
Moore's law is not what it used to be, these servers are largely as useful as they were when we bought them. Give it a couple of decades, then maybe your idea will be a good one.
-- Tim Starling
--- effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
What about an auction. I dont know whether there is interesting stuff enough to collect, and I dont expect thousends of dollars out of it, but wouldn't it be fun for the community to have something like an auction? People can give stuff that could be "cool to have" for the auction, to the foundation, and the person that bids the highest amount of money, can get the thing. For instance, I would be thinking of a postcard witht he signatures of all boardmembers, a used cigarette of oscar (no, not really, please come up with something more fun! :P ) or maybe even approach famous people to donate something that belongs to them for this cause. The stuff can varie to everything, but should be intensively prepared probably.
Would this be fun for the community? Would it be creating some money to the foundation, would it be worth while? Are there maybe more ideas in this trend, that together get a meaningfull amount of money together?
I understand of course it wont be possible anymore for this very fundraising, but I think it would be an idea for the next one. I'm not sure whether the foundation should "lower" itself to this level, or maybe it explicitely *should*. Please shoot! :)
The fundcom has seriously considered both online and live auctions. Nothing concrete has been planned or decided yet, but I dont see any reason why we would not want to add that to our fundraising mix. eBay, citing one popular example but in no way committing us to using them, even has a special auctioning method designed specifically for non-profits. http://givingworks.ebay.com/
-- mav
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