On Mon, 2010-05-24 at 00:49 +0100, Thomas Dalton wrote:
On 24 May 2010 00:29, Brian McNeil [Wikinewsie]
Does WMUK have that authority?
It is an interesting idea. I don't think WMUK has the authority to do it unilaterally (we can sell t-shirts to members at cost price, but once you start to get commercial we need to consult the WMF), so you were right to CC Kul. What do you see as being the benefits of doing this? I think the financial benefits wouldn't be worth the effort (we make hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from donations, I wouldn't expect us to make more than a few thousand pounds a year at £1 a t-shirt). Do we think the PR/marketing side of it would be a significant benefit?
Well, it's the "think small, but multiply by hundreds of places" sort-of idea.
You go into one of these places that makes up tees, with a design featuring WMF-owned logos, and they will - most probably - just print the thing for you. The clincher is, WMUK, and parent WMF, will see nothing financially.
If you strike a deal, and local Wikimedians do the designs to appeal to those who frequent the locale, or are there as tourists, you give the person running the business something they can sell and we're required to put in very little effort.
A pound for every T-shirt that tourists buy with a WP logo, a photo, and the text: "Edinburgh Castle is a castle fortress which dominates the sky-line of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle here since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603."
Why not?