Today's Not the Wikipedia Weekly discussion dealt with developing Wikipedias in African languages. The recording itself should be available for listening shortly, so a few issues I'll refer to the discussion there. One bottom line question is how to fund the starting effort for underserved populations.
I brainstormed one solution during the recording and I'll float it publicly now. The basic idea is this: it costs $50-$80 a month to hire a person full time to create basic content in a starting Wikipedia in a developing country. We're talking about seeding a project with basic articles so that it begins to get traffic and a community of volunteers. Question is how to raise that money.
I'll use my volunteer skills to help generate that funding. Here's an example of the work I'll do--Photoshopping Cary Bass of the Wikimedia Foundation onto an Albrecht Dürer painting. In return for a donation to a dedicated fund (and with no share of the money for myself), I'll edit a photograph onto a famous public domain painting.
If you like this idea, please comment and/or e-mail me. We need to set up the place to accept the funds. As a starting donation level I'm looking at $25 per picture. So two to three images would fund a full time person for a month to develop Wikipedia material in Africa.
A good cause, with a fun benefit in return. What do you say?
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