Hi everyone,
I wanted to take a moment to bring you up to date on the planning of
the 2010-2011 fundraiser, and ask once again for your participation in
the process. Our updated meta pages (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010
) will give you an overview as well. There's a lot of information
here, because we've made huge progress: I hope you'll take the time to
read it and join in the planning for the fundraiser.
There's no doubt about it: the appeal from Jimmy Wales is a strong
message. We've tested it head-to-head against other banners, and the
results [1] are unequivocal - especially when you also compare its
performance last year and the year before.
But nobody wants to just put Jimmy up on the sites and leave him up
for two months!
So we're issuing a challenge: Find the banner that will beat Jimmy.
Data informed conclusions
Here's the trick:
We have to make our decisions based on the facts, not our instinct.
Please read the summaries below for really important details from our
focus group and survey of past donors.
Focus Group
Wikimedia conducted a focus group of past donors in the New York City
area in September 2010. It's important to note that this was a single
focus group, and in a single city. We'll need to do more to make sure
that results correlate universally. But we came out of it with a few
important take-away points. It's important to realize that these
points reflect ONLY donors - they should not be read as a wider
feeling about mission or strategic direction - they're messaging
points to help us refine and deliver the best messages possible.
** The most powerful image is of Wikipedia as a global community of
people who freely share their knowledge and self-police the product.
For everyone who participated, the idea of a global community of
people sharing knowledge that is accessible to anyone who wants it
free of charge is incredibly powerful. Respondents in this group were
highly unlikely to be editors themselves; most consider themselves
users. They love the idea of the community and want to support it, but
they are reluctant to put themselves out there by being more than a
user and a donor.
** Keeping the projects ad-free is a powerful motivator.
Respondents were unanimous that keeping Wiki[m\p]edia ad free should
be a priority, even if it meant that Wiki[m\p]edia would be
approaching them for money more often. Accepting paid ads could
corrupt the values and discourage the free flow of information.
** Independence is critically important.
These respondents consume a lot of media, and they place a high
premium on the free flow of information. They have little patience
for “sponsored” news or information that excludes other perspectives.
The Wikimedia model of openness and community engagement facilitates
that.
** It’s a cause because it’s a tool.
This may sound a bit like a chicken/egg argument, but it’s actually an
important nuance. These folks use Wikimedia every day for things from
simple curiosities to serious research. So it’s a tool that lets them
get what they need. But it has grown to 17 million articles in 270
languages. Because it has that kind of depth and it reaches so many
people around the world, it’s worth protecting what the community so
successfully built. And that makes it a cause too.
** Growing isn’t always a good thing, when positioning for donors.
Like many tech savvy folks, our respondents are a suspicious lot. The
idea of Wikimedia growing brings up concerns about what Wikimedia
would become, and fears about the path of companies like Facebook.
It’s not just a privacy concern; it’s a concern about what would
happen to the democratic model of Wikimedia inside a growth strategy.
Supporting the organic growth of the community doesn’t raise the same
concerns.
** Supporters strongly reject any agenda being attached to Wikimedia,
even when that agenda would extend the current offerings.
An agenda implies ownership, and respondents feel pretty strongly that
the community owns Wikipedia. They think of Wikipedia as an organic
thing, not like a typical nonprofit, and any attempt to steer it would
disrupt that. Community support is one of the key values, and not
everyone in the community would support new initiatives.
** There is room to fundraise more aggressively.
Across the board, respondents were surprised that they didn’t have the
opportunity to give to Wikimedia more often. Obviously, there is a
balance and a PBS-style solicitation schedule wouldn’t make sense both
for Wikimedia’s personality and for this audience, but there is much
more space available than we are taking.
** Wikimedia donors are highly suspicious of marketing gimmicks.
Simple, direct messages are likely to work best. Jimmy’s message
worked not so much because he was the founder, but because it was a
simple plea for support delivered authentically.
As we know, that’s something that also needs quantitative testing to
prove. Sometimes donor response in a focus group and donor activity
don’t line up exactly. But, some things already line up with early
tests. The more gimmicky the banner, the less likely it is to drive
donations even if it increases clicks.
Reaction to banners like “572 have donated in New York today” also
raised concerns about privacy – not a good reaction in an already
suspicious audience. Appeals to “keep us growing” or that highlight a
contributor’s work raise earlier concerns about an agenda.
Donor Survey Highlights
Wikimedia produced a random sample of 20,000 individuals from the much
larger number of individuals, from many countries, contributing less
than $1000 between November 1 2009 and June 30 2010. These individuals
were invited to participate in a 29 item (but around 70 question)
survey. 3760 agreed to participate, and the survey was conducted in
August 2010. The participants probably differ from those who declined
in ways that are associated with survey answers. Hence the respondents
do not represent an entirely representative sample of the < $1000
donors.
The survey participants are committed to Wiki[p/m]edia, visiting it
frequently. They say that they are very likely to donate again, and
they support all the survey-mentioned reasons for donation. They were
not aware of Wikipedia chapters. A majority of respondents did not
appear greatly concerned about possible threats to Wikipedia’s identity.
About 1/3 of these individuals have edited, though not frequently.
Those who express more support for Wikimedia as a cause appear more
prone to edit. Those who have not contributed in this way say mostly
that they haven’t thought about it--suggesting that they haven’t
really considered the possibility—or that they don’t have time.
Europeans and the highly educated especially stress lack of time.
Some subgroup differences were found within the sample. The likelihood
of writing or editing does vary a bit by subgroup, for example.
Overall, however, responses did not vary greatly by subgroup, whether
“demographic” (nationality, education, sex) or behavioral (e.g.,
degree of on-line activity).
* The full details of the survey can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FR_Donor_survey_report.pdf
* A short overview can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donor_survey_report_excerpts.pdf
.
Chapters
Chapters will receive the specifics of how we will work with them
through their fundraising contacts which were designated on the
fundraising survey, in order to keep the information communicated here
to the essentials.
Testing
We have been testing for ten weeks now, and are really pleased with
the progress that the tech team has made with new tools to support the
fundraiser. Geotargetting appears to work now, and we are currently
testing a 1 step versus 2 step donation process. We will have solid
test results this week, we believe. In all, we believe that we are -
technically and message-wise - in a really good position. We're
working out kinks, definitely, but we're working them out before the
fundraiser starts, so that we can maximize the dollar-earning
potential of every day that we have banners up.
We need you
From the very beginning, Zack charged me with presenting the most
collaborative fundraiser yet. I'm thrilled at the level of
involvement from the community, in everything from banner creation to
testing structure, to design, to actually sitting on our test
fundraisers with us in virtual conferences and being a full
participating member of the team. We're reporting out frequently, and
trying very hard to engage with members of the community. We have
dedicated staff who are outreaching to our various language wikis in
an attempt to get ever more broad participation. I strongly encourage
you to join in the discussions at the meta pages about the
fundraiser: /http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FR2010. Your involvement
is not just appreciated - it's crucial.
Thanks for sticking through this email - join us in discussion and
help us beat the Jimmy appeal!
Thanks,
Philippe
[1] - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Banner_testing#Test_six_
:_September_23rd.2C_2010
____________________
Philippe Beaudette
Head of Reader Relations
Wikimedia Foundation
philippe(a)wikimedia.org
Imagine a world in which every human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Hi all,
Zack Exley, the Chief Community Officer [1] of the Wikimedia
Foundation, will
be having office hours this Tuesday (October 5) at 21:00 UTC
(14:00 PT, 17:00 ET, 23:00 CEST) on IRC in #wikimedia-office.
If you do not have an IRC client, there are two ways you can come chat
using a web browser: First, using the Wikizine chat gateway at
<http://chatwikizine.memebot.com/cgi-bin/cgiirc/irc.cgi>. Type a
nickname, select irc.freenode.net from the top menu and
#wikimedia-office from the following menu, then login to join.
Or, you can access Freenode by going to http://webchat.freenode.net/,
typing in the nickname of your choice and choosing wikimedia-office as
the channel. You may be prompted to click through a security warning,
which you can click to accept.
Please feel free to forward (and translate!) this email to any other
relevant email lists you happen to be on.
[1] - http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Chief_Community_Officer
____________________
Philippe Beaudette
Head of Reader Relations
Wikimedia Foundation
philippe(a)wikimedia.org
Imagine a world in which every human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
If this is correct, we can update:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Template:PD-UKGov
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt(a)gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 8:45 PM
Subject: [Wikimediaau-l] Fwd: [Wikimediauk-l] Open Government Licence
To: Wikimedia-au <wikimediaau-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Forwarding to the Australia list - some great news from the UK!
Hopefully we can follow suit someday.
-Liam
Begin forwarded message:
From: Peter Coombe <thewub.wiki(a)googlemail.com>
Date: 30 September 2010 20:14:35 AEST
To: wikimediauk-l <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Open Government Licence
Reply-To: wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
This announcement seems to have slipped under the radar a bit, but
(assuming I'm reading it correctly) it's potentially very good news:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/498.htm
I'm no expert but it looks basically like a CC-BY license, with a few
additions to explicitly spell out moral rights. They're claiming it's
interoperable with CC, but I haven't seen anything from Creative
Commons themselves on the issue yet.
Here's more about where it will be applied:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/government-licens…
So it seems like it will apply at least to things previously under
Crown copyright and Crown database right by HMSO, with a few
exceptions. The exclusion for the other delegated bodies (last bullet)
is a major limit, but we can hope that they will follow HMSO's lead.
Pete / the wub
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimediaau-l mailing list
Wikimediaau-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
