As a counter argument, I have seen tech sector's rebranding gone wrong and ended up
introducing uncertainty and confusing.
I live just an hour's drive from the headquarters of a major Canadian tech company,
BlackBerry. For those of you who don't know. Up until circa 2012, Blackberry was one
of the major smartphone manufacturer under the company name Research In Motion (RIM).
Unable to keep pace with iPhone and Android systems, it tried the rebrand exercise by
renaming the company from RIM to BlackBerry to minimize the confusion, trying to use the
renaming for a fresh start and make it easier for people to connect the two together
(doesn't that sound very similar to the existing WMF's renaming proposal?)
Unfortunately it couldn't turn the trend around and completely left the smartphone
sector. The company kept the name but whenever Canadians mention the name BlackBerry,
it's more commonly associated with the impression of a brand that failed to keep up
with innovation.
My point is that all it takes is a major scandal hitting Wikipedia (can be server outage,
a tweet by prominent individual) and anything containing the word Wikipedia such as the
renamed-WMF will take a major hit in reputation and donation. Just last year, the
foundation attempted a similar proposal by renaming and attaching "Wikipedia" to
the prefix of other projects (e.g. Commons becomes Wikipedia Commons, WikiJournals becomes
Wikipedia Journals, Wikiversity becomes Wikipedia University)
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications/Wikimedia_brands/2030_r….
This was met with strong opposition that the idea was dropped. Keeping it Wikimedia offers
some distance, a bit of an "arms length" away from Wikipedia.
I agree with Sarah. You don't need to rename the organization to its biggest product.
If someone has difficulty associating Wikimedia and Wikipedia, I often say this:
"Wikimedia is the foundation that runs Wikipedia and other projects". Short,
precise and offers context without diving into the difference.
Andrew
________________________________
From: WikiJournal-en <wikijournal-en-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org> on behalf of مفتاح
المعرفة <mossab748(a)gmail.com>
Sent: June 24, 2020 7:09 PM
To: WikiJournal User Group participants and followers
<wikijournal-en(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiJournal-en] Survey from Brand Project Team
For me as wikipedia education program team leader at the Hashemite University in Jordan I
face huge difficulty in persuading university administration that Wikimedia user groups
are working to support wikipedia because they know wikipedia and not Wikimedia so that
shortening the distance by rebranding will help us a lot in approaching different
organizations inside the country without Wikimedia-wikipedia dilemma . Regards
Mossab Banat
Wikipedia Admin
في الأربعاء، ٢٤ يونيو، ٢٠٢٠ ٨:٣٦ م Sarah Vital
<svital@stmarys-ca.edu<mailto:svital@stmarys-ca.edu>> كتب:
The comments from the users (as Andrew pointed out) sum up my thoughts as well: iPhone is
the most recognizable product of Apple, but Apple doesn't rename itself iPhone. If
iPhones fall out of favor, the company lives on and introduces a new product. (Or replace
that with Nike and their famous Air Jordans. Next great big shoe comes along, Nike is
still Nike with a new fancy shoe).
Also, universal names only work if that universal name is universally respected not just
universally recognized. The good and the bad follow the name. For journals, the baked in
hesitance of "Wikipedia" is already a bit of a hurdle for a lot of academics to
get involved. Having the umbrella (Wikimedia) and it's products (Wikipedia,
WikiJournals, etc) makes more sense to me.
Just my input.
--Sarah Vital (WikiJ of Humanities)
On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 10:11 PM Andrew Leung
<andrewcleung@hotmail.com<mailto:andrewcleung@hotmail.com>> wrote:
One of the biggest underlying dispute from the rebranding exercise is that Wikimedia
Foundation (WMF) will get rid of the "Wikimedia" part and change it to
"Wikipedia". Corresponding to this rebranding survey, there's a current RfC
in meta on whether the renaming from "Wikimedia Foundation" to "Wikipedia
_____" should proceed. Currently, only 8% of the users voted in support of the
renaming.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Should_the_Foundation_…
Andrew
________________________________
From: WikiJournal-en
<wikijournal-en-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org<mailto:wikijournal-en-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org>>
on behalf of Mikael Häggström
<editor.in.chief@wikijmed.org<mailto:editor.in.chief@wikijmed.org>>
Sent: June 23, 2020 9:31 PM
To: WikiJournal (currently at Wikiversity)
<wikijournal-en@lists.wikimedia.org<mailto:wikijournal-en@lists.wikimedia.org>>
Subject: [WikiJournal-en] Survey from Brand Project Team
Hi all WikiJournal participants,
I received an email from the Brand Project Team of the Wikimedia Foundation about feedback
on naming convention proposals. As for WikiJournals, as I understand it, it will mean that
instead of "Funding: Wikimedia Foundation" at for example the WikiJMed
page<https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_of_Medicine>ne>, it will instead say
"Funding: Wikipedia Network / Wikipedia Movement / Wiki" or perhaps "Part
of the Wikipedia Network / Wikipedia Movement" or "A Wiki Project",
depending on which proposal wins. We are therefore asked to discuss this, and then have a
representative fill in the survey on behalf of WikiJournal.
Best regards,
Mikael
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Samir Elsharbaty
<selsharbaty@wikimedia.org<mailto:selsharbaty@wikimedia.org>>
Date: Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 5:33 PM
Subject: [Brand Project] Survey deadline extended + some resources
To: Brand Project
<brandproject@wikimedia.org<mailto:brandproject@wikimedia.org>>
Hello Affiliate leads,
We hope you are doing well and that you have received the Affiliate survey link in an
email from Essie Zar via Qualtrics. If you have not, please let us know and we will make
sure to resend the link.
Here are the latest updates on Phase 2: Naming Convention
Proposals<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brand…
There are two office hours this week where the Brand Project Team will continue to answer
questions that we did not get a chance to answer during last week's Live Naming
Presentation<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3zlBGHHHiY> as well as new questions
that you may have.
* 23 June at 16:30 UTC - Join via this
link<http://meet.google.com/nzr-gibe-pqp>
* 26 June at 00:00 UTC - Join via this
link<http://meet.google.com/ucs-eupa-sqi>
In response to a number of requests, the survey deadline has now been extended from 30
June to 7 July. However, if you still need more time please contact us at
brandproject@wikimedia.org<mailto:brandproject@wikimedia.org> and we will work
something out.
Here are some resources if you haven’t received them already
* Naming Convention
Proposals<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brand…
(Available in several languages)
* Text of the Survey
Questions<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brand…
(Available in several languages)
* Individual
Survey<https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9G2dN7P0T7gPqpD>
- please feel free to share with your affiliate members and larger communities on any
channels you use. Affiliates
* Executive
statement<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brand…
and Board
statement<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_not…
on the project, which provide answers to the broader questions being asked about the Brand
Project.
Please remember, these proposals are starting points for discussion. Engage your
affiliates in identifying what should stay, what should be worked on and combined, and
what should go.
Please let us know if you have any questions
Thank you,
Samir and the Brand Project Team
[
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/X4m8hlmRtGy-cZojsa18gGS55lLqw9Q-YwUwfhcuB…]
Samir Elsharbaty (he/him)
Community Brand and Marketing coordinator
Wikimedia
Foundation<https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Essie Zar <qualtrics@wikimedia.org<mailto:qualtrics@wikimedia.org>>
Date: Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 1:10 PM
Subject: [Brand Project] Naming survey: Affiliates
To: Mikael Häggström
<haggstrom.mikael@gmail.com<mailto:haggstrom.mikael@gmail.com>>
Dear Affiliates,
This is the 2030 Movement Brand Project affiliate survey to provide feedback on the naming
convention proposals. One survey should be submitted per affiliate. The answers will be
interpreted as the opinion of the affiliate. The results will be used to determine how to
remove, refine and recombine elements from different proposals into a single naming
proposal. Responses will be published on Meta-Wiki and attributed to each affiliate, but
only the survey administrators on the Brand Project team will have access to the email
address connected to each response.
Follow this link to the Survey:
Take the
Survey<https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhGbpYN0uMEOmtn?Q_DL=…
Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dhGbpYN0uMEOmtn?Q_DL=ArJEiy0Skc…
To support your discussions, please see: the naming pages on
Meta-Wiki<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Wikimedia_brand…
and the naming
presentation<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3zlBGHHHiY> and the
naming presentation
slidedeck<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J2huDEFflGs3ZhaFaASa-t…14>.
Thank you for your responses! This survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete
after you have completed discussions with your affiliate. It will be available until 30
June. It is currently available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and
Spanish. If you need more time, just contact us.
This survey is conducted via a third-party service, which may subject it to additional
terms. For more information on privacy and data-handling, see the survey privacy
statement<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Naming_Convention_Propos…nt>.
Reply to this email with any questions or email brandproject(a)wikimedia.org
Thank you!
Essie Zar
Senior Brand Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
ezar(a)wikimedia.org
Follow the link to opt out of future emails:
Click here to
unsubscribe<https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/CP/Register.php?OptOut=true&…
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--
Sarah Vital
Business Librarian
Saint Mary's College of California
she / her / hers
(925) 631-8038 | svital@stmarys-ca.edu<mailto:svital@stmarys-ca.edu>
Staff
Directory<https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/library/staff-directory/sarah-vital… |
Faculty
Profile<https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/node/143291>
Make an
appointment<https://stmarys-ca.libcal.com/appointments/svital>
Saint Mary’s College of California sits on the ancestral, traditional lands of the Saclan
(Sacalanes) Tribe, whose descendants are now organizing into the Muwekma Ohlone tribe.
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