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BBC Radio Wales 'Mousemat'...

Guardian interview to appear Monday

David Gerard

6 Mar 2006 6 Mar '06

5:59 p.m.

The WMUK wiki is presently a small closed internal directors' wiki, but mailing to the list here (a) reaches you all satisfactorily (b) will get ideas from the world, which I could do with right now. [[Media]] - this page has been started for all interviews/articles about WMF-related stuff in the UK, whether it's WMUK people or whatever. Nach0king has been doing a *pile* of press for the 1 millionth article. (He avoids wikipolitics like the plague, but would be happy to do local Scottish stuff come press launch time.) [[Press launch]] - here's where I need your help. This event is *all about marketing*. We want to look like a charity people in the UK will want to chuck money at. We need a *compelling marketing story*. We don't have one yet. "What's the money for?" "Er ... stuff ..." We don't control the wiki, we don't run servers - what do we use people's money for? - d.

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Caroline Ford

6 Mar 6 Mar

7:14 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

Well.. What do you want money for? You must have some idea what you're fundraising for. What about - promotion of wikibooks in community languages - supplementary education textbooks. Paper encylopedias written by a college educated diaspora and distributed widely in south east asia/west africa/wherever. Science books to Kashmir - written in Bradford... Language projects in Cornish, Manx, Gaelic, Lowland Scots and Welsh. The Scottish parliament is bound to have a pot of money for Gaelic language work. What do the Gaelic wikipedia community want? Do we want to do development work on a BSL wikipedia? I think there is loads of potential with wikibooks. National curriculum topics, community language instruction, sports/health/fitness instruction. The British girl guiding wiki or the Manchester United wiki are possibilities. Sensibly: 1. What is the foundation for? 2. What do we want to achieve? 3. How do we do it? 4. What needs cash? I presume we don't want to stop people donating directly to the foundation - or do we? Is ours ring fenced for UK work? (This will depend upon the mems&arts). Caroline -----Original Message----- From: wikimediauk-l-bounces(a)Wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of David Gerard Sent: 06 March 2006 18:00 To: wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed The WMUK wiki is presently a small closed internal directors' wiki, but mailing to the list here (a) reaches you all satisfactorily (b) will get ideas from the world, which I could do with right now. [[Media]] - this page has been started for all interviews/articles about WMF-related stuff in the UK, whether it's WMUK people or whatever. Nach0king has been doing a *pile* of press for the 1 millionth article. (He avoids wikipolitics like the plague, but would be happy to do local Scottish stuff come press launch time.) [[Press launch]] - here's where I need your help. This event is *all about marketing*. We want to look like a charity people in the UK will want to chuck money at. We need a *compelling marketing story*. We don't have one yet. "What's the money for?" "Er ... stuff ..." We don't control the wiki, we don't run servers - what do we use people's money for? - d. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.0/275 - Release Date: 06/03/2006

David Gerard

7:24 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

On 06/03/06, Caroline Ford <caroline(a)secretlondon.me.uk> wrote:

...

I think there is loads of potential with wikibooks. National curriculum topics, community language instruction, sports/health/fitness instruction. The British girl guiding wiki or the Manchester United wiki are possibilities.

That's a fantastic idea!!

...

I presume we don't want to stop people donating directly to the foundation - or do we? Is ours ring fenced for UK work? (This will depend upon the mems&arts).

That is the idea. We get some tens of thousands of pounds sterling donated directly to the WMF, taxably; we think it's safe to assume that's almost entirely from people in the UK, who could reasonably be expected to give even more tax-exempt or Gift Aid. (I say "some tens of thousands" without being quite sure of the total. But http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4/Day_21 lists that one day's GBP donations as about 1/10 of one day's USD donations.) Money that comes into WMUK can not be used on: * stuff outside the UK, until we're *very* sure we can make specific grants or whatever. (We are working on the assumption that we're surrounded by people watching us like hawks and looking for an opportunity to wreck our charity status and fuck us up, because we are ;-) * servers, because of the UK's unspeakably awful libel laws. We have ideas of what to spend it on, but I'm looking for the ones that make a good marketable story. - d.

Andrew Walker

7 Mar 7 Mar

5:25 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

Hi all, I'll throw in another idea that has been floating around for a while. (I think it may originally have come from Gordon, but I could be wrong - it will be in the archives somewhere). This weekend I ran it past a friend who also happens to be the local (i.e. UK) contact for the charitable fund run by a very large e-commerce company that gives grants in the UK. He thought it was the sort of thing that may be funded by such an organisation. One of the things we could encourage is the creation of free images for wikipedia, wikinews and wikicommons. There are loads of local history groups, local nature groups and so on around the UK who may want to be involved in creating such content. What we could do is offer a project where we would provide a digital camera and training on basic concepts of intellectual property and producing images for websites to such groups. We could look for funding / sponsorship to fund the project (or provide the cameras) and expect to get significant new free content in return. Thinking about it, we may even want to get schools involved. Cheers, Andrew On 3/6/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 06/03/06, Caroline Ford <caroline(a)secretlondon.me.uk> wrote:

That's a fantastic idea!!

I presume we don't want to stop people donating directly to the foundation - or do we? Is ours ring fenced for UK work? (This will depend upon the mems&arts).

Cormac Lawler

6:17 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

Yes, I really like the 'raising awareness of access to information and intellectual property' side of this idea, Andrew - it's a whole new dimension to the photography and local history ideas that are currently on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Possible_projects_of_Wikimedia_UK One dream that I have that would have real marketing potential is a project where children in a school in the UK link up with a school in Pakistan, say, or Kenya, to write an article or groups of articles in English/Swahili/Urdu, whatever. They could collaborate on articles of collective interest to both groups, and then publish a nice WikiReader at the end of it to show their work. But I have a question here also: which is who has access to the WMUK wiki, and why not others? I am aware of the confidentiality of many issues, but, seeing as the list of initial directors was drawn up fairly ad hoc, is there no way of giving access to others who have been pretty intimately involved in this process over the last few months? I'm a bit concerned that our work will start to fragment otherwise - have we abandoned Meta, for example? Ok, well, looking forward to response on this, and further ideas to develop. Is this work starting yet, by the way? Do we have to wait until we have charity status? Cormac On 3/7/06, Andrew Walker <keggers(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 06/03/06, Caroline Ford <caroline(a)secretlondon.me.uk> wrote:

That's a fantastic idea!!

I presume we don't want to stop people donating directly to the foundation - or do we? Is ours ring fenced for UK work? (This will depend upon the mems&arts).

_______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

Gordon Joly

11 Mar 11 Mar

11:12 a.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

At 18:17 +0000 7/3/06, Cormac Lawler wrote:

...

Or you could get children in the East End to talk to each other? :-) Last open (free) IT basic skills training session I went to around the corner was being conducted in English and Bengali. And it was buzzing!! -- gordon.joly(a)pobox.com Gordon Joly 116, Hind Grove London E14 6HP

Gordon Joly

11:08 a.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

At 17:25 +0000 7/3/06, Andrew Walker wrote:

...

And by a strange coincidence, or maybe not, since we are living the dream of Web 2.0 now... one of the local history groups here in the East End of London has just started a two month project with students from Goldsmith's University along the lines of some of the stuff you mention here. I will not say too much, since the project is in a nascent state, but the group (of women only, currently, since it has arisen from some women only IT training sessions held last year) meets under the auspices section of Poplar HARCA. http://www.poplarharca.co.uk/ http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/ And there is already wiki, of course.... http://www.lansburyvoices.org.uk/ http://www.lansburyvoices.org.uk/wiki/ :-) The Wikipedia entry has been snarfed into the Wikiverse for a while now: http://lansbury-estate.wikiverse.org/ Cheers! -- Gordo (aka LoopZilla) gordon.joly(a)pobox.com http://pobox.com/~gordo/ http://www.loopzilla.org/

Jimmy Wales

7 Mar 7 Mar

6:41 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

David Gerard wrote:

...

On 06/03/06, Caroline Ford <caroline(a)secretlondon.me.uk> wrote:

That's a fantastic idea!!

Indeed! But let's remember to keep the educational textbook focus for our work -- the Foundation can't legally host random content that falls outside our charter. Manchester United might not be appropriate. But all the other stuff sounds great. (I don't know what "British girl guiding" is... :)) -- ####################################################################### # Office: 1-727-231-0101 | Free Culture and Free Knowledge # # http://www.wikipedia.org | Building a free world # #######################################################################

Alison Wheeler

9:57 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

...

(I don't know what "British girl > guiding" is... :))

Girl scouts (as in cookies, except they don't do the cookie thing here ...) Alison

Chris McKenna

9:58 p.m.

New subject: Media and press launch pages (on WMUK wiki) -compelling marketing story needed

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006, Jimmy Wales wrote:

...

(I don't know what "British girl guiding" is... :))

A quick search of a popular encyclopaedia turned up the following link which may be of interest - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girlguiding_UK Chris -- Chris 'Awkward' McKenna cmckenna(a)sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery

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participants (8)

Alison Wheeler
Andrew Walker
Caroline Ford
Chris McKenna
Cormac Lawler
David Gerard
Gordon Joly
Jimmy Wales