[Wikipedia-l] Re: foundation of a German registered association

Fri Jan 23 17:55:08 UTC 2004

> One idea is to use the money for prefinancing merchandising. I think that way 
> we could offer t-shirts and such things much cheaper. Thus we could increase 
> the income of the "e.V." and promote wikipedia/wikimedia much more.
> 
> Another ideas is to finance courses, meetings and so on, to teach 
> editors/hackers.
> 
> Also sending money to the Wikimedia foundation is an option (but we do not 
> know yet if this is allowed). But even if this is no option, there are other 
> options to support the wikimedia foundation. May we could print t-shirts here 
> and send 500 (?) pieces to the foundation which sales them in America?
> 
> But as you can imagine it makes no sence to think about all that in detail, 
> since we do not know, if we collect enough money to finance that.
> 
> --Ivo Köthnig

It reminds me of the fate of so many foundations, such as one I 
supported many years ago, against cancer. These foundations fest on 
donations. Most of the money collected is not used toward the presumed 
goal of the foundation, it is used for maintenance, for promotion, to 
look for more donations, to finance meetings, to pay for members travel 
costs.

It is true that anything that can enhance the cancerous growth of 
Wikipedia might be good, but what is that goal ? the real goal ?

Is it just to favor the growth of Wikimedia foundation ? Or is it to 
actually "bring" knowledge to those who don't have access to it ?

dunno, I may have missed something at some point :-(