2016-2017 Virtual Reality Fundraising campaign

Donor acceptance testing

It is with great pleasure to announce that later this year the Wikimedia Foundation will be launching its first Virtual/Augmented Reality fundraising campaign.

2016 will see Virtual Reality as the next technology to emerge from out of the trough of disillusionment and begin its slow climb up the slope of enlightenment. With mobile already supplanting traditional desktop computing, the next nail in the coffin for antiquated online fundraising models will be the advent of VR headsets like that of the Oculus Rift or the Microsoft HoloLens.

As the pinnacle of non-profit websites we aim to get ahead of the curve, abandoning the, soon to be mythical, browser based experience and instead taking our first plunge into the new and immersive world we are about to find ourselves in.

When you look at the new technology, you realise just how inefficient and restricting a static monitor can be. In a typical PC setting a potential donor can look away from a banner or get distracted from the donation experience by watching a television, a petulant small child or even exercise. With Virtual Reality we can have banners following people around the room, sitting in their peripherals all the time or even simply taking up their whole field of vision.

We hope that this new wave of innovation will sustain the movement until holodecks are invented and we can simply dispatch a holographic Jimmy Wales canvasser to interrupt people whilst they dress up in the guise of Robin Hood and his merry men.

-- Seddon

Advancement Associate (Community Engagement) Wikimedia Foundation