[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Brand Survey Analysis

[phoebe ayers]

On 7/5/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
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> On 7/5/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
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<snip>

I think it's equally foolish to pretend that the people who think that
> Wikipedia = Wikimedia are correct.  Wikipedia is a much more valuable
> name than Wikimedia because Wikipedia is a much bigger success than
> Wikimedia.


I'm not sure "success" is the right way of looking at it. Off the top of
your head, what are Marlboro Reds? Now, what does Altria Corporation do for
a living?

You may have heard of Miller Light and Pilsner Urquell. But what about
SABMiller?

What about our friends at World Book? Who's their holding company, again?
Oh, hmm, Berkshire Hathaway.

I'm not suggesting that Wikimedia should strive to be anything like one of
these megacorporations. But brand recognition doesn't *necessarily* reflect
corporate success -- not if Wikimedia's main goal is to quietly keep its
very famous products, the projects, afloat.

Or maybe I'm just jaded because I spent an hour last night talking to a
friend who wanted to know how he could get his online community of
historical reenactors joined up with "Wiki"; he meant Wikipedia, and he just
assumed that we had a good way to incorporate specific communities of
interest. This is a sysadmin with his own install of Mediawiki, so not
entirely clueless. But I suspect, as others have pointed out in this thread,
that community distinctions elide most of the public once they've gotten the
idea of 'wiki' anything.

-- phoebe