[Foundation-l] Bertelsmann publishes "Wikipedia Encyclopedia in One Volume"

[Oldak Quill]

2008/4/28 Aphaia <aphaia at gmail.com>:
> On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:44 AM, Waerth <waerth at asianet.co.th> wrote:
>  > Look at it from another side. A Pokemon encyclopedia might bring in a
>  >  lot more money than a serious one!
>
>  But is it worth to make a deal with Nintendo, even their Seattle
>  headquarters (not in Kyoto), and pass their quality control check
>  (they are very keen to keep quality of derivatives, seeing the Atari
>  shock impact in '80s) and pay them loyalties? IMHO it would not the
>  best way of using Foundation staff's energy ... Even it may bring a
>  lot of money, it would better to be done with a third party.

Since Wikipedia is largely run by volunteers, why not make it a
volunteer effort? I have no interest in Pokemon, but would happily
help compile a Pokemon encyclopedia to be published if it were to
raise funds for Wikimedia Foundation. I'm sure there are many other
Wikipedians, Pokemon fans or not, who would also help with such an
effort (or similar efforts).

Some Wikimedia Foundation staff time would be necessary to OK the
project with Nintendo, to seek trademark usage rights, to supply
Nintendo with drafts of the project and to act as general liaison
between Wikipedia and Nintendo. Even so, I don't think this would be a
massive drain on Wikimedia Foundation resources, and in light of the
funds the project hopes to source for the Wikimedia Foundation, I
think it would be worth it.

What's more, I'm only using Pokemon as an example here - there are
many potential projects that could do the same thing: fictional
worlds, special-interest areas (stamps, trains, planes, WWII info...),
&c.

-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)