The press release Q&A, http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009QA , notes the following:
"Wikimedia and Omidyar have developed targets related to financial sustainability (the percentage of operating expenses supported by individual donations), global reach (global unique visitors monthly, as reported by comScore Media Metrix), global participation rates (defined as the number of editors with 5+ edits in the previous month) and the completion of the Wikimedia Foundation's strategy project." What are the specific targets for percent from individual donations, reach, and participation rates? It seems to me that hard targets for global participation rates, in particular, could tie our hands in terms of prioritizing resources. In flagship projects like English and German Wikipedias, participation rates have started to decline and may be very difficult to raise again. Thus, depending on the target, the only way to reach a certain global rate might be to focus inordinately on immature projects or start new ones that put participation rates over core mission issues. Wikia is still seeing exponential growth, and one can imagine a wide range of similar very loosely educational projects to what Wikia does that might attract participants but create little actual educational value. If things were really desperate, one could even imagine Wikimedia trying to poach participants by starting advertising-free Wikia forks. Not that I think any of that is likely, but the targets are important for the community to know. -Sage _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
