Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20/Working Groups/Product & Technology/Scoping/Funding

What is your area of inquiry?

Funding (might overlap with revenue stream WG)

What is the current situation?

• Most funding is brought in by individual donations and a few earmarked grants
• Tech is a cost center

Why this scope?

Based on earlier feedback from last year’s conference

What are the key questions within the scope of the Working Group?

1. Should software/tech be considered as a possible revenue-generating avenue? If the movement is to become “the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge”, should this position be leveraged financially?
2. If yes, who would the clients be, and who would/could be the service provider(s)?
3. How would we connect offer and demand? Or who would benefit from our tech, and whose tech would we benefit from?
4. What is the relationship between funding the Wikimedia Movement and funding the Mediawiki ecosystem?
5. What checks and balances do we need to make sure this serves the overarching goal of knowledge equity and does not become an end in and of itself?
6. What KPIs?

What are the questions the Working Group needs to ask from the wider community?

1. What limits or constraints would you see to the movement's platforms being used as potential income streams?
2. What scenarios do you imagine where Tech would or could be a direct source of income?
3. Do you know of any sustainable FOSS offer?

What are the areas where you see outside expertise is needed?

Internal expertise: Wikibase

External expertise: business analysis of the FOSS environment (beyond RedHat) and collaborative knowledge management.