[Foundation-l] Fundraising idea

[Anthere]

lars wrote:
> Anthony wrote:
> 
> 
>>This a good point, and one the board should think long and hard about.
>>I was somewhat disturbed by the fact that "money" received the
>>largest value under "opportunities" during the SWOT exercise.
> 
> 
> Please don't over-interpret the report from that SWOT exercise.  
> Money was not given "the largest value", it was the term mentioned 
> by most of the participants.  That only means it is the least 
> original idea, one that everybody can think of.  Really original 
> ideas, such as "Wikipedia can change the way humans breath oxygen" 
> would only be mentioned by very few participants, and could be 
> completely wrong, or could be completely revolutionary.  The most 
> interesting and important aspects are probably somewhere at the 
> middle of this scale, between radical and trivial.
> 
> 
>>That said, I think there is a lot that could be done by the
>>foundation, if only the foundation had more money.
> 
> 
> No, I don't agree.  This is the trap I'm warning against.  You are 
> about to fall into it.  Rather than paying more programmers, we 
> should think of ways that more programmers can be stimulated to 
> contribute for free. 


By the way, we should also think of ways that more editors can be 
stimulated to help on OTRS for free.

We have a need for people to help on press inquiries as well.

We apparently also lack help for writing press releases.

Volunteers welcome. And ideas to stimulate them as well ;)


Ant



  Today that can be quite difficult, because
> only very few have access to the centralized running server.  Two 
> important methods are already in place: Anybody can download a 
> database dump and analyze it on their own computers and develop 
> new services such as those running on the German Toolserver.  And 
> since Mediawiki is free software, many develop their own plugins 
> for special functions.  These are examples of distributed software 
> development that don't require money to run through the WMF.  
> Instead of collecting more money, we should think about how we can 
> achieve even more without involving money.
> 
> Also the Knams proxy in Amsterdam is paid for by an external 
> organization (Kennisnet), and that saves the WMF a lot of money.  
> Why not ask for similar proxies inside the USA, rather than 
> collecting more money to buy more servers.
> 
> 
>>But...then Wikimedia doesn't get to spend that money...
> 
> 
> There is a lot of money in the world that the WMF doesn't spend.  
> I just had breakfast for money that I spent, without passing 
> through the WMF.
> 
> 
>>Why should Wikimedia be concerned over whether or not someone is
>>silent?  I don't have a problem acknowledging *every* contribution.
>>If every donor wants acknowledgement, then we should give it to them.
> 
> 
> Of course.  What I'm against is that special treatment should be 
> given to people who want to make things more complicated.
> 
> 
>