[Wikipedia-l] Re: Paid-for-articles WPs in smaller languages

[V. Ivanov]

2005/5/28, Timwi <timwi at gmx.net>:
> Maybe we should make this concept better known globally.  Maybe we
> should organise a list of Wikipedians who are prepared to give money to
> poor people in return for an article in a language that has an inactive
> Wikipedia.  The Wikipedians would be able to specify any conditions, 

Say, offer a preferable topic or even a certain article (or article set).

> Of course, for that to work, there needs to be a way of getting the
> message (and later, the money) to the people.  Maybe someone has a few
> ideas?

The very large problem here is the validation.
Someone must check:
- if the article is really in the language in question. :)
- if the article is about what its title is.
- if the style is sufficiently encyclopedical.
- if the money go to the author (and not fully or partly to the "mediator").
The easiest way here is maybe launching such projects only when an
active Wikipedian(or a few of them) in the WP already exists (e. g. as
in the [[:os:]] and [[:cv:]] now).

------------------
I can't imagine the situation about the languages you've listed, but
for many languages of Russia there exist a very interesting literacy
tradition of the years 1920-1940, when the local languages flowered.
That means that a written style exists, though it's mostly forgotten,
and that even useful texts (manuals etc.) exist, some of which can be
reused in the WP.
We are now trying to find the school textbooks: we already have one, a
book on Astronomy of 1949. It's in Moscow now and probably soon
someone will scan it and put pieces into WP.

Mind that for such sources the copyright is no longer in effect (books
published in the USSR before 1971 are no longer copyright-defended if
the server is in the US). That means that for the languages of Russia
we could start another project along with the "Paid-for-Articles" -- a
project of scanning older sources and creative reusing them in WP
articles, thus preserving the once very active written traditions.
 
Sl./Amikeco
-- 
Esperu cxiam!