[Foundation-l] what do we do in the event the Foundation fails? - Re: Pol...

[geni]

On 4/22/07, Walter Vermeir <walter at wikipedia.be> wrote:
> Selling would be not very smart to do. Renting is better then doing
> nothing with it. But the best thing to do would to use it ourselves.
>

We don't have much skill or experience in running a commercial site.
Renting to someone who knows what they are doing would make more
sense. The problem of loss of control in that case would be an issue.

On the other hand I strongly suspect Answers Corporation would bid for
it and they have a good record of doing things that would not upset us
(well outside some press releases)

> The domain "wikipedia.com" is a potential goldmine for the Wikimedia
> Foundation.
>
> If it would be used for offering a good read only copy of Wikipedia
> *with* moderate advertisement it could be a nice source of income for
> the WMF.
>
> wikipedia.com -> read only with advertisement -> $$$ -> Good for
> everybody, maybe not need anymore to beg to the readers to give money
> wikipedia.org -> stays like it is

There are no shortage of "wikipedia with ads" mirrors out there.

I'd be more looking at a site based around wikipedia. Sure include a
wikipedia mirror with ads but also throw in the trivia games and
quizzes Jimbo was suggesting. Throw in a copy of 6 degrees of
wikipedia with ads and any other cool features on the tool server.
Throw in wikipedia combined with non three content (I know I know).
Throw in the wikipedia store (not cafepress)..


-- 
geni