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Frequently asked questions

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-{{AboutLang}}
-The '''Wikimedia Foundation Inc.''' (also known simply as '''Wikimedia''') is the parent organization of various [[Our projects|free-content projects]], most notably [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia], the award-winning online encyclopedia.
-Wikimedia is a [[w:en:non-profit|non-profit]] corporation organized under the laws of [[w:en:Florida|Florida]], [[w:en:United States|USA]]. Its existence was 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. 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.
-==The goals of the foundation==
-The goals of the foundation are to maintain and develop [[w:en:free content|free-content]], [[w:en:wiki|wiki]]-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public [[w:en:gratis|free of charge]]. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general encyclopedia, ''Wikipedia'', there is a multi-language [[w:en:dictionary|dictionary]] and thesaurus named Wiktionary, an encyclopedia of [[w:en:quotations|quotations]] named Wikiquote and a collection of e-book resources aimed specifically toward students (such as [[w:en:textbook|textbooks]] and annotated [[w:en:public domain|public domain]] books) named Wikibooks. The Foundation also manages a memorial collection of articles about the [[w:en:September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11 attacks]] and the operations of the largely dormant Nupedia project (which is not a wiki,  but is open content). All projects work thanks to a wiki software package called [[w:en:MediaWiki|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 the [[w:en:GNU FDL|GNU FDL]] license used on these projects prevents anyone from controlling the content.
-The continued growth of each Wikimedia project is dependent on [[fundraising|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. may be viewed online.
-===The Board of Trustees===
-A Wikimedia [[Board of Trustees]] manage the nonprofit and supervise the disposition and solicitation of nonprofit donations. The Board of Trustees are 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. It also has the authority to set membership dues, discipline and suspend members (article III), and to amend the corporate bylaws (article VI).
-===Income===
-As of January 2005, 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. 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. Finally, a membership system is planned for 2005.
-For more information about donations, see our [[fundraising|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 ''[[m:What we use the money for|What we use the money for]]''.
-One of the main expenditures for the Foundation is '''hardware'''.
-* Description of the hardware that powers Wikimedia : [[meta:Wikimedia servers|Wikimedia servers]], [[meta:Wikimedia_servers/hardware_orders|hardware orders]]
-* Frequently updated status of this hardware : [[meta:Wikimedia hardware status|Wikimedia hardware status]]
-<!--
-* Next planned order(s) : [[meta:Q3 and Q4 2004 hardware order worksheet|Q3 and Q4 2004 hardware order worksheet]]
--->
-Six servers are now being hosted in France as squids, with another eleven in the Netherlands, and a further 23 in South Korea donated by Yahoo. The hosting and bandwidth have been donated.
-The Foundation also employs a [[Current staff|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 [[m:Domain names]].
-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:
-* [http://www.wikimedia.de/ Wikimedia Deutschland], founded on June 13, 2004
-* [http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Wikimédia France], founded on October 23rd, 2004
-* [http://www.wikimedia.it/ Wikimedia Italia], founded on June 17th, 2005
-* [http://pl.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia Polska], founded on August 14th, 2005
-* [http://www.wikimedia.ch/ Wikimedia CH], founded on May 14th, 2006
-Other [[Local chapters|local chapters]] are also being planned.
-==Contacting the Foundation==
-See the "[[Contact us]]" page for details.