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Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Not Funny
From Haaretz Today Similar to Haaretz Headline Friday.They have not Learnt the Lesson of last July Lebanon War.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Hope Wikipedia Recovers!!!
Wikipedia's cash crunch
February 08, 2007
In a speech at the Lift 07 Conference in Geneva today, Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, made an appeal for funds to keep the online encyclopedia afloat. "At this point," she said, according to a report from Philippe Mottaz, "Wikipedia has the financial resources to run its servers for about three to four months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear.”
As Wikipedia has expanded, its computing costs have gone up substantially, putting the nonprofit in an apparent pinch. According to another report on the speech, from Bruno Giussani, Devouard said the encyclopedia is currently running 350 servers and needs about $5 million to sustain itself. It raised about $1 million in its recent fundraising drive, she said.
Mottaz says Devouard's warning was "certainly dire" and that "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 economy.'" Not even gifts scale for free.
Wikipedia has made a pledge to remain free of advertising and sponsorships. That pledge, it seems, may soon be tested as never before.
UPDATE: Devouard also, according to Giussani, seems to have aligned herself with Wikipedia's Inclusionists (who don't want restrictions on what topics are covered in the encyclopedia): "We used to have this notion that information has boundaries, that it's possible to define what information is relevant (and belongs in an encyclopedia) and what is not. But what is relevant to you is different from what's relevant for me." That's interesting because, from my outside perspective, it appears that the Deletionsists, who very much want "to define what information is relevant (and belongs in an encyclopedia) and what is not," currently have the upper hand in guiding Wikipedia's policies.
UPDATE: In a comment on this post, Wikimedia's communications director, Sandy Ordonez, writes: "Ms. Devouard's comment was taken out of context. Wikipedia will not be closing any time soon. Ms. Devouard was simply referring to the ongoing, pressing needs for funds that Wikipedia, like most nonprofit organizations, face."
Posted by nick at February 8, 2007 01:58 PM
February 08, 2007
In a speech at the Lift 07 Conference in Geneva today, Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, made an appeal for funds to keep the online encyclopedia afloat. "At this point," she said, according to a report from Philippe Mottaz, "Wikipedia has the financial resources to run its servers for about three to four months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear.”
As Wikipedia has expanded, its computing costs have gone up substantially, putting the nonprofit in an apparent pinch. According to another report on the speech, from Bruno Giussani, Devouard said the encyclopedia is currently running 350 servers and needs about $5 million to sustain itself. It raised about $1 million in its recent fundraising drive, she said.
Mottaz says Devouard's warning was "certainly dire" and that "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 economy.'" Not even gifts scale for free.
Wikipedia has made a pledge to remain free of advertising and sponsorships. That pledge, it seems, may soon be tested as never before.
UPDATE: Devouard also, according to Giussani, seems to have aligned herself with Wikipedia's Inclusionists (who don't want restrictions on what topics are covered in the encyclopedia): "We used to have this notion that information has boundaries, that it's possible to define what information is relevant (and belongs in an encyclopedia) and what is not. But what is relevant to you is different from what's relevant for me." That's interesting because, from my outside perspective, it appears that the Deletionsists, who very much want "to define what information is relevant (and belongs in an encyclopedia) and what is not," currently have the upper hand in guiding Wikipedia's policies.
UPDATE: In a comment on this post, Wikimedia's communications director, Sandy Ordonez, writes: "Ms. Devouard's comment was taken out of context. Wikipedia will not be closing any time soon. Ms. Devouard was simply referring to the ongoing, pressing needs for funds that Wikipedia, like most nonprofit organizations, face."
Posted by nick at February 8, 2007 01:58 PM
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