Wikipedia is one of my favorite resources on the web. It is clearly one of the most popular reference sites out there. Which is why I found this blurb referenced on Jason’s weblog strange:
“At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappearâ€. The warning by Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation was certainly dire, and Lift07 was as good a venue to make an appeal. But it is another illustration of how difficult it is to find the proper business model in the digital age, and more precisely in this case in what Florence called the “gift economyâ€.
The solution seems as easy as a couple text ads or a banner on the page. I really hope Wikipedia doesn’t choose to take some ridiculuous moralistic stand against ads. I would gladly put up with a few for free access to a constantly updated and growing body of knowledge on practically any topic. Wouldn’t you?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Alex Shalman 02.11.07 at 9:41 pm
They should definitely just slap some adds on there if it makes the difference between keeping it up or not.
David Gerard 02.12.07 at 11:43 am
The context of Florence’s comment was that we have three or four months’ reserves on hand. Our auditors recommended we keep at least six months’ reserves on hand. So we’re short on that.
The main argument against ads is that quite a lot of the unpaid volunteers who write the whole content for free really hate the idea. Also, early in Wikipedia’s history, most of the contributor base of the Spanish Wikipedia got up and *left* because of speculated plans for advertising, and formed a fork, Enciclopedia Libre. Which was an unfortunate fork, because both EL and es:wp have pretty much identical aims. So we have good reason to take the volunteer concerns about ads seriously!
ravisraman 02.13.07 at 5:28 am
thanks for visiting and the added perspective. ultimately, I hope that this gets figured out. Perhaps even a “fund drive” to raise funds specifically for operating costs would work…..its not like anyone would profit from that!
Bradley Woods 02.22.07 at 4:20 pm
They just got done doing a “fund drive” a couple months ago. Not sure how it turns out. I dont think wikipedia will go anywhere because alot of people are coming to rely upon it. Me included.