[Foundation-l] roadmap for WM affiliation ; a name for self-identified affiliation

Sat Jul 16 12:19:08 UTC 2011

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 12:30 AM, Keegan Peterzell
<keegan.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

In reply overall-- I definitely agree that Wikipedia is, by far, our
strongest brand-- and a very different brand than the one that would
be served by a wider unnamed movement.

I haven't been anywhere near as ambition to think we could get a brand
 anywhere as good as Wikipedia.   Its brand is so off-the-charts it's
a little unfathomable.

I'd be happy with something in the neighborhood of Wikimedia--  if
donors and editors communities can easily understand it means
"Wikimedia Movement on other servers", I'm good.

> Now, how can we expand this into another name?
> Simple answer: we can't.

Well...  we certainly do it as well as Wikipedia.  But we can
"piggyback" off the Wikipedia name in ways,  as the name Wikimedia
does.
...
> Advancement of the Wikipedia brand is the only feasible option
> to expand Wikimedia coverage, as shown by almost every study both
> academically and journalistic relating to our products.  If Wikipedia is
> tied into any coverage related to a sister project it will be read and
> understood.  If not tied in, we get confusion.

Exactly.   The whole online world "gets" Wikipedia, and the closer you
can be tied to it, the more people understand your values.  All the
WMF-sites ARE seen as "tied" to Wikipedia-- but the third-party sites
are misunderstood, seen as just randomly off doing their own thing.

Something close, but not something so close as not to imply direct
control by the foundation.

I have a very long list of non-wikipedia related names.  The list of
piggy-back names off Wikipedia is pretty short however:

"Wikimedia Movement" would work for the movement, but it seems a
little "too in-use" and "too-close to home" for us to use that.
"Wiki?edia  Movement" , no clue how you could pronounce it.
"Wiki*edia  Movement" , pronounced "Wiki-Staredia Movement",
"Wiki-Edia Movement", pronounced Wiki-Edia
"Wiki-Seedia Movement",  each project is a seed?  hokey.

For some unknown reason, I also like WikiZedia.   An Omega or other
symbol in the middle might also work if we want to get really crazy,
but pronunciations are essential

All these are are very geeky and so not ideal.  My brain really isn't
the right brain to generate a good piggy-back brand.  I don't care
what we call it, I more want us to recognize it and start calling it
something.   And these names also might still be too close to home for
some of us.

As for the word "Movement"-- it  can always be termed Alliance,
Coalition, Cloud, Constellation, Sphere, or something else entirely.
Movement is the best factual description, I think, but brands are a
whole different ballgame.

Alec