[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Brand Survey Analysis

[George Herbert]

On 7/5/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> On 7/5/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > Just a data point from a practical perspective: we get blank looks when
> > we tell people we're "the Wikimedia Foundation", versus wide eyes and
> > bright smiles when we tell people we're "Wikipedia". The latter is a lot
> > nicer to get when we're asking for something. :)
> >
> Doesn't that suggest that Wikipedia should be self-governing or at
> least in control of its own funds?  If people are giving you something
> because they want to help Wikipedia, then that something should be
> used toward Wikipedia, not some other project.

My impression and interpretation of the situation is that the money
effectively goes in three directions:
1. Staff (lightly associated with number of projects, strongly with
project size)
2. Hosting (also lightly associated with number of projects, strongly
with project size/readership)
3. SW Dev (not affected much by number of projects; scaling issues
somewhat related to project sizes)

One could study the problem in more depth, but my impression is that
for any useful definition, essentially all the money coming in does
support the Wikipedia part of the Foundation's projects set.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com