Financial Sustainability Task Force Question 1

There are many options available to seek out alternative revenue streams, for Example server and bandwidth cost could be sponsored by hosting companies or large vendors who might seek positive PR generated since Wikipedia has a global presence, its a more centralised and viable option of reaching millions potentially hundreds of millions of users who use their product and services directly, the benefactor might require a Thank you page or a small banner mentioning their support or some press release. some kind of licensing agreement has also been discussed, there are devices like the kindle that use off-line versions of Wikipedia currently and clearly mentions the fact, a centralised effort to form collaboration for such hand-held reading devices could be beneficial for Wikipedia, an off-line or customized version of Wikipedia for the Kindle or any other e-reader device. The foundation can grant license to third parties or form reciprocal agreements. Large grants seem to be of the utmost importance and benefit, some dedicated personnels should seek them at every opportunities from corporate grants to indirect government grant or private institutions, they would have the highest pay-off but grants would be more likely to benefit if they contributed to a long term solution like a Fund instead of flipping the bill for the year and worrying about the next, the benefactors would also be more likely to contribute if its a one time grant for a permanent solution rather than till next year when someone else makes the same grants and older contributions are forgotten.

This might be a too early to consider but Wikimedia Repository is growing at a decent speed. A direction to consider in future might be to serve as a repository for images for professional purposes on licensing terms for publication, a special copyright agreement would have to be drafted where up-loaders can choose to provide all rights to the project with the up-loader receiving a payout for his IP if their pictures are used. Similar services could be considered for news as well but exclusive content would be the key. It might seem a bit early or far-sighted to consider right now but a decision to pursue the avenue further would have to be made now and it would grow on its own in the future.