[Wikimedia-l] Outage: what I'm telling the press

[Andreas Kolbe]

Richard, that is fine. But surely you can see that it's inappropriate to
have the BBC imply, on a day when we have an outage, that we're strapped
for cash to keep Wikipedia running, holding the site together "with gaffer
tape and string", and need donations, while in fact we have built up
reserves of $27.7 million, equivalent to a full year's spending at
2011-2012 levels, and Wikimedians struggle to come up with zany ideas on
how to spend £10k. Nothing against barges, and canals ... I love them.

By the way, any further ideas for a Wikimedia UK project can be added to
this page:

http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan/Ideas

Andreas

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 9:36 PM, Richard Symonds <
richard.symonds at wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Andreas,
>
> That idea - my idea - is taken wildly out-of-context, and I feel I have to
> step in and defend it. We were all asked to come up with a crazy idea that
> could costs about £10k as part of a brainstorming session - the canal boat
> idea was my contribution. As you know, I know a fair bit about narrowboats,
> and when asked to come up with a crazy idea, it's usually where I start.
> There's nothing wrong with liking boats. It's a running joke with me (and
> my picture on ED is of me in a sailor suit...)
>
> It wasn't long ago that people on the WMUK list were suggesting ideas like
> funding open-source ocean-going ROVs, to take photos of shipwrecks - while
> not all of these ideas are workable, I think it's fantastic that we're
> having such creative ideas. Innovation is a fantastic thing: just because
> something is wacky and zany, doesn't mean that it's a waste of money;
> equally just because something isn't feeding African orphans, doesn't mean
> it's not a charitable endeavour. There are UK charities out there that
> exist just to fund donkeys, or of course charities like KCM Europe (
> http://www.kcm.org.uk/) which exist for the advancement of religion. It is
> a matter of personal choice for the donor as to where a donor's money goes.
> I am confident that this year, we'll be raising money for some fantastic
> projects - a larger version of Monmouthpedia, or a new digitization project
> with the National Archives - or maybe even the next Wikidata.
>
> To conclude, I want to share my own feelings on who I donate to: I donate
> to several charities, one of which is a homelessness charity who have
> helped me and my loved ones greatly in the past. The others are all
> education charities. This is because it's my belief that, in the long term,
> free education for all is the best way to solve world poverty, world hunger
> and conflict. You might disagree - I daresay many people would - but I feel
> that if only we were all as wise as a wise old owl, the world would be a
> much, much better place.
>
>
> Richard Symonds
> (Wikimedia UK staff, but with my volunteer hat on).
>
>
>
> On 6 August 2012 21:06, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 8:54 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On 6 August 2012 20:43, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > David, the BBC says you told them the following:
> > >
> > >
> > > See, this is where you part ways with how the media works. These days
> > > I count it as a win if anything in quotes uses words I've ever used in
> > > my life.
> >
> >
> >
> > Well, glad to hear the words gaffer tape and string never crossed your
> > lips, then. I still think you should call them and disabuse them of their
> > notion that WMF is desperately short of cash.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 8:47 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>
> >  wrote:
> >
> > > On 6 August 2012 20:43, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Could you get back to the BBC, please, David, and tell them that they
> > > > somehow seem to have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick here?
> > And
> > > > could you drop the "gaffer tape and string" jokes next time round?
> > >
> > > We operate the fifth most visited website in the world on an
> > > operations budget of a few million dollars. It is you that has the
> > > wrong end of the stick...
> >
> >
> >
> > $35 million is not "a few million dollars". Wikipedia was indeed run on a
> > budget of a few million dollars a few years ago, but that's no longer the
> > case. And the chapters are having to come up with creative ideas to spend
> > their money. One of the latest suggestions raised by a Wikimedia UK staff
> > member was that ...
> >
> > ---o0o---
> >
> > We could put a volunteer or two on a specially fitted-out (and
> > Wikipedia-liveried?) live-aboard boat for the summer, and have them map
> the
> > canal network - taking photos of every building, every lock, and even
> > taking video footage of sections of the trip from a roof-mounted camera.
> A
> > GPS system would trace the entire route for Open Street Map. British
> > Waterways may also be interested, as we'd essentially be doing a
> > mini-survey of the network, including all the structures, for them. We
> > could fit the inside of the barge with a small supply of educational
> > materials and a marquis for stopping the 'wiki-barge' in towns along the
> > way.*What would we need?* - A narrowboat, to hire, for the summer - needs
> > to be quite small. Two volunteers, technically minded, at least one of
> whom
> > knows about narrowboats. GPS equipment (possibly able to loan from OSM or
> > British Waterways?). A 3G internet connection (wouldn't work everywhere,
> > but would work when near a village/town). A camera (and possibly a
> > video-camera). Lots of hard drive space. Expenses for the volunteers
> > aboard. Brochures/booklets.
> >
> > ---o0o---
> >
> > All fine and dandy, but then let's please do our best to ensure that the
> > BBC don't print "gaffer tape and string" sob stories about us. The tenner
> > that someone in India sends us might indeed be better spent on a local
> > charity there that actually feeds someone, or keeps someone healthy.
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