[Foundation-l] Re: Answers.com and Wikimedia Foundation to Form New Partnership

[Tim Starling]

Daniel Mayer wrote:
> Explain, exactly, how this snooping would occur? 
> 
> We can't expect reader donations to carry us indefinitely. We need to diversify
> our income sources. Partnerships like this, along with other funding strategies
> such as grants, are needed to ensure we stay in the black. 
> 
> BTW, do you have a few extra million dollars laying around to pay for servers
> next year? And what about the special projects we would like to fund but can't?

According to Angela, paying for servers isn't the problem:

" I would like to know: a) Was this change necessitated by a budget
shortfall? b) What will the Board do if Wikipedia users remove the
answers.com link from Wikipedia:Tools or from the sidebar? -- Tim
Starling 20:14, 20 October 2005 (UTC) "

" No, it wasn't necessitated by the budget. I am expecting the revenue
would be regarded as something additional to what is needed to keep the
site running. For example, special projects like the distribution of
content in Africa and so on. As with the Amazon experiment last year,
we've little idea at the moment what the revenue from this will be,
whether it will be worthwhile, and whether it will be regarded as overly
controversial. This is why I insisted on a trial period. We're expecting
the links won't be removed, in the same way normal fundraising drive
notices are not removed. Angela (disclaimer: all of my comments on this
page are just my opinion and not official Board responses) 20:34, 20
October 2005 (UTC) "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Tools/1-Click_Answers

See the wiki page for my response to this.

-- Tim Starling