Frequently Asked Questions: Difference between revisions
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The '''Wikimedia Foundation Inc.''' is the parent non-profit charitable organization of various [[Our projects|free-content projects]], most notably [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia], the award-winning online encyclopedia. |
The '''Wikimedia Foundation Inc.''' is the parent non-profit charitable organization of various [[Our projects|free-content projects]], most notably [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia], the award-winning online encyclopedia. |
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Wikimedia is a [[w:en:non-profit|non-profit]] corporation organized under the laws of [[w:en:Florida|Florida]], [[w:en:United States|USA]] |
Wikimedia is a [[w:en:non-profit|non-profit]] corporation organized under the laws of [[w:en:Florida|Florida]], [[w:en:United States|USA]]. |
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⚫ | In June 2004, an election was held for two user representative Board members. Following one month of campaigning and two weeks of online voting, Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected to join the board. They were reelected the following year. In July 2006, Angela Beesley announced her resignation and in September 2006, Erik Möller was elected as her replacement. |
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The complete list of board members may be found at [[board]]. |
The complete list of board members may be found at [[board]]. |
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=== The Board of Trustees === |
=== The Board of Trustees === |
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The Wikimedia Board of Trustees manages the nonprofit organization and supervises the solicitation and disposition of donations. The Board of Trustees is the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (article IV, sec. 1 of the [[Wikimedia Foundation bylaws]]). The Board has the power to direct the activities of the foundation |
The Wikimedia Board of Trustees manages the nonprofit organization and supervises the solicitation and disposition of donations. The Board of Trustees is the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (article IV, sec. 1 of the [[Wikimedia Foundation bylaws]]). The Board has the power to direct the activities of the foundation. |
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The existence of the Wikimedia Foundation was [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2003-June/028376.html officially announced] by Wikipedia founder [[Board of Trustees#Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales|Jimmy Wales]] on June 20, 2003. In January 2004, Jimmy Wales appointed Tim Shell and Michael Davis to the [[Board of Trustees|Board of Trustees]] of the Wikimedia Foundation and later made a call for candidates for community representatives [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2004-March/032501.html]. |
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⚫ | In June 2004, an election was held for two user representative Board members. Following one month of campaigning and two weeks of online voting, Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected to join the board. They were reelected the following year in july 2005. In July 2006, Angela Beesley announced her resignation and in September 2006, Erik Möller was elected as her replacement. |
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=== Income === |
=== Income === |
Revision as of 17:57, 9 December 2006
The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is the parent non-profit charitable organization of various free-content projects, most notably Wikipedia, the award-winning online encyclopedia.
Wikimedia is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Florida, USA. The complete list of board members may be found at board.
The goals of the foundation
The goals of the foundation are to maintain and develop free-content, wiki-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general encyclopedia, Wikipedia, there is a multi-language dictionary and thesaurus named Wiktionary, an encyclopedia of quotations named Wikiquote and a collection of e-book resources aimed specifically toward students (such as textbooks and annotated public domain books) named Wikibooks. All projects work thanks to a wiki software package called MediaWiki.
The Wikimedia Foundation owns the Wikimedia servers along with the domain names and trademarks of all Wikimedia projects and MediaWiki. Contributors retain the copyright to their own content and free licenses, such as the GNU FDL, are used on these projects prevents anyone from controlling the content.
The continued growth of each Wikimedia project is dependent on donations. The Wikimedia Foundation aims to increase revenue by finding alternative means of support, including grants and sponsorship.
The name Wikimedia is a portmanteau of wiki and multimedia.
See also our mission statement.
Organization
Bylaws
The bylaws of Wikimedia Foundation Inc. are available online.
The Board of Trustees
The Wikimedia Board of Trustees manages the nonprofit organization and supervises the solicitation and disposition of donations. The Board of Trustees is the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (article IV, sec. 1 of the Wikimedia Foundation bylaws). The Board has the power to direct the activities of the foundation.
The existence of the Wikimedia Foundation was officially announced by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on June 20, 2003. In January 2004, Jimmy Wales appointed Tim Shell and Michael Davis to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation and later made a call for candidates for community representatives [1].
In June 2004, an election was held for two user representative Board members. Following one month of campaigning and two weeks of online voting, Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected to join the board. They were reelected the following year in july 2005. In July 2006, Angela Beesley announced her resignation and in September 2006, Erik Möller was elected as her replacement.
Income
As of January 2006, Wikimedia is funded in most part through private donations, but also through several grants and gifts of servers and hosting (see benefactors).
There are regularly discussions of finding alternate sources of income, such as applying for grants or selling WikiReaders (textbook or pdf version of articles from Wikipedia). For the time being, we want the Wikimedia projects to remain free of advertisements. There has also been discussion of selling a print version of a significant portion of Wikipedia, such as a "Wikipedia 1.0" project.
For more information about donations, see our fundraising page.
Expenditures
For details on what we have done with donations since the start of 2004, and how we plan to use our funds, see What we use the money for.
One of the main expenditures for the Foundation is hardware.
- Description of the hardware that powers Wikimedia : Wikimedia servers, hardware orders
- Frequently updated status of this hardware : Wikimedia hardware status
The Foundation also employs a small staff.
Domain registration is another part of Wikimedia's expenditures. The Foundation already owns some of its active and secondary/tangentially-related w:en:domain names, while others are still free or already owned.
See also meta:Wikimedia budget for a detailed list of other potential expenses. See budget for official budgets.
Local chapters
The following active Wikimedia chapters have been formed:
- Wikimedia Deutschland, founded on June 13, 2004
- Wikimédia France, founded on October 23rd, 2004
- Wikimedia Italia, founded on June 17th, 2005
- Wikimedia Polska, founded on August 14th, 2005
- Wikimedia Србије и Црне Горе (Serbia and Montenegro), founded on December 3rd, 2005
- Wikimedia CH, founded on May 14th, 2006
- Wikimedia Nederland, a chapter since September 24, 2006
Other local chapters are also being planned.
Contacting the Foundation
See the "Contact us" page for details.