[Foundation-l] Are we useful yet?

[Dennis During]

How would we KNOW that our efforts were pleasing to anyone other than
ourselves?  We have very little information about how valuable our
users fee about any of the projects in any language.  In the name of
some definition of privacy we have created a world where our efforts
face virtually no broad reality check.

I suppose we could rely on a marketplace test: Are we succeeding at
raising the funds required to keep the operation running and at
getting volunteer help to reduce the need for funding?

Presumably the foundations and corporate funders know how to evaluate
us, whether it is on some statistical basis, on some good-intentions
test, on a feel-good basis, or based on how it contributes to their
own objectives.

As to volunteers, who knows what the diversity of motivations is, but
we seem to get a fair amount of help, albeit not quite enough
disinterested, yet expert help that has the patience to stay with the
projects.

On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Lars Aronsson wrote:
>> mboverload wrote:
>>
>>> Someone needs to tell me WHY we should have a Wikipedia or
>>> Wikinews in these kinds of languages.
>>
>> This is actually a really good suggestion.  It should not be taken
>> as an insult, and it should not be restricted to small or "odd"
>> languages.  As now even the closing of Wikiquote was being
>> discussed, we really need to tell each other and the world:
>>
>>  * Why should there be a Wikipedia in French?
>>  * Why should there be a Wikisource in English?
>>  * Why should there be a Wiktionary in Russian?
>>
>> We shouldn't take any of these for granted.  Tell the world!  Why
>> are they needed?  Exactly how are they useful?  Are they indeed
>> useful, or do we keep all these projects just in case they could
>> become useful?  Can you come up with convincing arguments?  Who is
>> being helped by these projects?
>>
>> Such arguments are needed for recruiting more volunteers as well
>> as soliciting donations.
>>
>> But if we really fail to produce good arguments, perhaps we are
>> just wasting our time and that project should be closed down.
>
>
> I have a nice quote on that topic
>
>
> "Everyone loses if one language is lost because then a nation and
> culture lose their memory, and so does the complex tapestry from which
> the world is woven and which makes the world an exciting place."
>
> Vigdis Finnbogadottir
> UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages
>



-- 
Dennis C. During

But then arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully
believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the
lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions ? --
Charles Darwin