[Foundation-l] Rethinking brands

[Florence Devouard]

Ray Saintonge wrote:
> Yann Forget wrote:
> 
>> Beside, we should not think in terms of commercial products for our
>> projects. We have no deadline, no profits to make, no balance to adjust.
>> Why do people come to our projects? Not because we have a big brand, not
>> because they see an ad. They come because our content is free as a beer
>> and free as a speech. Rather than a brand, that the message we need to
>> spread out: Wikimedia is the greatest (and biggest) free project on the
>> planet.
>>
> When I reflect on "Ten things that must be freed" I think less about 
> free as in beer, or free as in speech than about free as a verb.
> 
> I think there is room for all sorts of projects with overlapping goals, 
> some of which may draw heavily on Wikipedia's content.  Isn't that what 
> the viral nature of free knowledge is all about?  To me, drawing 
> everything under a single Wikipedia umbrella seems too much like empire 
> building.
> 
> Ec

You ring a bell here. From time to time, we hear rumors of fears that 
"Wikipedia could become the main source of information" - a sort of 
Google empire of knowledge. With hints of World Domination.

Of course, WE know that this fear is non sense since our content is free 
and may be used by anyone and reworked in other projects.
Still, there is always this fear in the background against anything that 
might become a monopole.

I think the proposed rebranding would fuel that fear of monopoly.
In the long run, it might not be such a bad idea that we are not seen as 
ONE. This goes along the same comments that Delphine gave. Some defaults 
and criticisms of Wikipedia could spread to the other projects.

Ant