[Foundation-l] Fundraising season launch

Tue Oct 10 20:26:42 UTC 2006

Erik, I have to agree with Danny we need to not get ahead of ourselves here.

But in round numbers, just as a *starting point* -

If we have +/- 250 servers running now
*and we double in traffic every four months
*and the costs per server (for round number purposes, including racks,
power, etc.) are $4000
*we are talking about *starting* with a $1M computer order being
fulfilled before March 1.

If we add to that the next 500 computers, at the same rate, we are
talking about a batch of $2M beyond that.  /me's head spins.

Let's say we disagree and growth levels out at the same rate we are at
now, it is still another several hundred thousand dollars to get ahead
of the curve.  For that assumption to hold, however, many, many things
would have to be wrong with our predictions about expanding smaller
wikis, etc.  And the rest of the stuff on your list would have been
for no effect in terms of growth.

Even purchasing rack after rack after rack, these technical operations
challenges are daunting, and cannot be ignored.  They *are* the most
important thing, whether you choose to put your head in the sand about
the facts or not.  If there is one thing I have come to appreciate
even more than I did at Hacking Days, it is that the technical
component will come back to bite us even harder if we neglect it like
we did this summer.  We must purchase capacity on at least a 3x per
year basis, with linear or geometric assumptions.

-Brad

On 10/10/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Slow down a bit. Let's start with the basics. For various technical  reasons,
> a fundraiser should not start at the beginning of the month.
>
> Befpre deciding that the fopcus shoudl not be servers, decide what the real
> needs are. If servers happen to be the primary cost, then that should be the
> focus.
>
> I am wary of turning this into an OLPC/Wikimedia fundraiser, even if just  by
> tying the two organizations together. It may also run counter to our 501 c 3
> status, but of this I am not sure.
>
> Will the money go to chapters or to the Foundation? Can the chapters
> transfer money to the foundation if needed?
>
> How will funds donated be processed? Who will process them? How will we
> recognize donors, both by what is required by law and by what is simply a nice
> way to recognize them? This is an enormous amount of work.
>
> Just some thoughts.
>
> Danny
>
> In a message dated 10/10/2006 3:27:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> erik at wikimedia.org writes:
>
> On  10/9/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > As an individual  (not board member), I would like to ask if it were
> > possible that the  spin around the fundraising, focuses a bit on the
> > other projects,  perhaps the notion of virtual library, with the
> > wikicommons and  wikisource. We have the recent report of the german
> > digitization to  show up as an example as how we could push things
> > forward in realm of  digital libraries.
>
> Yes, it seems absolutely essential to me that the  communication
> strategy is carefully planned _before_ we ask for  money.
>
> What have the Foundation and the Chapters accomplished so far?  What is
> the status of our work to bring Wikimedia to developing  countries?
> What have our expenses been? (Get audited financial reports  out.) What
> expenses do we foresee? What strategic projects are around the  corner?
> What is the state of the projects besides Wikipedia, the  small
> languages?
>
> The last thing I want is another "WE NEED MORE  SERVERS" fundraiser.
>
> So, in order to do this properly:
>
> Brad -  can we assume that the financial statements will be published
> before Nov 1?  Can you work on outlining some expenses over the next 6
> months you see as  critical, in broad terms (staff, hardware, etc.)?
>
> Tim - when are the  static dumps going to be ready?
>
> Samuel - can you pass on some  promotional materials re: the OLPC
> partnership to the Fundraising  Committee?
>
> Delphine - can you compile a report on chapter activity (max  10K,
> pictures would be nice)? What projects were completed, what  chapters
> were set up?
>
> Jimmy, Florence - shall we prepare a detailed  vision statement on
> Board Wiki? I volunteer to take a first stab at the  structure.
>
> Sabine - could you write a little report regarding  translation
> projects, and future activities you can envision in this  area?
>
> I would suggest early November as a launch of the fundraising  drive. I
> would like to see some new functionality implemented for  this
> fundraising drive as well, e.g. the ability to donate directly  from
> any Wikimedia project page, as well as a more prominent display  of
> donor comments above a certain amount.
>
> Most importantly, however,  I want us to start working very soon on a
> decent appeal for support and  report of activity so far. I understand
> that donor attention is limited, so  we need to have a very short
> general appeal, but those who care should be  able to find detailed
> information about what we are doing and why we need  support.
>
> Ideally, the information we compile here should be useful to  approach
> organizations and wealthy individuals, beyond just a general  appeal to
> the masses.
>
> Does that sound reasonable? :-)
> --
> Peace & Love,
> Erik
>
> Member, Wikimedia Foundation Board of  Trustees
>
> DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions  expressed
> in this message are solely my own and do not represent an  official
> position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of  Trustees.
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-- 
Brad Patrick
General Counsel & Interim Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
bradp.wmf at gmail.com
727-231-0101