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[Dror Kamir]

Well, the WMF needs money, and Jimmy Wales' picture brings money. I 
believe this is where it starts and this is where it ends. It is a bit 
of a problem that Jimmy Wales has become "the face of Wikipedia", but it 
is hard to argue with financial figures. I personally feel a bit 
uncomfortable with the call to donate to Wikipedia, while in fact, this 
is a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation and its chapters. Part of the 
money goes indeed to the logistic infrastructure of Wikipedia, but quite 
a lot of it to other projects whose relation to Wikipedia is somewhat 
vague (though they are important in their own right). I also feel that 
the WMF alienate itself from Wikipedia, claiming that the project runs 
by itself without any need for intervention (I disagree with this 
claim), but when it comes to fundraising campaign, WMF is presented as 
Wikipedia.

Dror

בתאריך 02/12/10 16:03, ציטוט Geert Lovink:
> Talkin' about becoming critical and the different ways one can
> practice it.... how about the current donation campaign?
>
> On Dave Winer's scripting.com blog
>
> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/11/29/jimmyWalesDayOnTheInternet.html
>
> Gregory Kohns writes:
>
> "I wonder when the news media will figure out that the Wikimedia
> Foundation spends on program services only 41 cents of every dollar
> they scam from donors, which earns them ONE STAR (out of four!) from
> Charity Navigator in organizational efficiency. In fact, their KPMG
> audit discovered that it only takes about $2.5 million to keep the
> servers running, provide ample bandwidth, and staff a team of code
> developers to keep things running smoothly. Why, then, is the ask for
> $20 million?
>
> I also wonder why the news media never thought to cover the 2009 story
> of how the Wikimedia Foundation needed extra office space, and as if
> by magic, they hand-picked Jimmy Wales' for-profit corporation to be
> their landlord, THEN obtained competitive bids, THEN asked Wales'
> for-profit company to match the average of the competitive bids.
>
> I too wonder why the media don't seem to care that the 2010 market
> research study of past Wikimedia Foundation donors was awarded to the
> former employer of the WMF staffer running the project, without any
> competitive bidding whatsoever. And when the Executive Director of the
> Wikimedia Foundation was asked how much the project cost, the guy
> asking the question was banned from the online discussion."
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