V. Ivanov wrote:
The idea is not absolutely new. We use the absolutely similar
approach at the Ossetic Wikipedia (we call it "Project <<Tskhinval
Teachers>>". The essence of the project is paying teachers from South
Ossetia a 2,5-USD equivalent for every article (up from 2500
characters).
Aw man! I would gladly pay that sum to anyone who can write articles in
some of my favourite exotic languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Navajo, Nahuatl,
Hmong -- all of these are million-speaker languages).
Maybe we should make this concept better known globally. Maybe we
should organise a list of Wikipedians who are prepared to give money to
poor people in return for an article in a language that has an inactive
Wikipedia. The Wikipedians would be able to specify any conditions, but
once their conditions are fulfilled, they should be legally obliged to
pay out the money they offered.
Of course, for that to work, there needs to be a way of getting the
message (and later, the money) to the people. Maybe someone has a few
ideas?
Maybe someone should add interwiki links to these. :-)