Hardrock69
12-20-2012, 04:48 PM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/20/cash_rich_wikipedia_chugging/
Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you?
'Excuse me, just a second. Excuse me. Yes you, sir. Excuse me'
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Media, 20th December 2012 09:02 GMT
Special Report It's that time of year again. As the Christmas lights go up, Wikipedia's donation drive kicks off. Wikipedia claims that the donations are needed to keep the site online. Guilt-tripped journalists including Heather Brooke and Toby Young have contributed to Wikipedia in the belief that donations help fund operating costs. Students, who are already heavily in debt, are urged to donate in case Wikipedia "disappears".
But what Wikipedia doesn't tell us is that it is awash with cash - and raises far more money each year than it needs to keep operating.
Donations are funding a huge expansion in professional administrative staff and "research projects". Amazingly, this year for the first time Wikipedia - the web encyclopaedia anyone can edit - has even found the cash to fund a lobbyist.
All this has been met with dismay by the loyal enthusiasts who do all the hard work of keeping the project afloat by editing and contributing words - and who still aren't paid. For the first time, Wikipedians are beginning to examine the cash awards - and are making some interesting discoveries.
First, let's have a look at the finances.
The original intention, according to the site's co-founder Jimmy Wales, was to fund Wikipedia through advertising revenue. "If Wikipedia were to become wildly successful, in terms of web traffic, then it would be easy to introduce just enough (and hopefully non-intrusive) advertising to continue to cover expenses," Wales wrote in 2001.
In 2006 Wales rejected that option and pointed to other revenue sources - "leveraging our brand into radio, television, games, etc" - but left the door to advertising open just in case it was needed.
The vast potential for advertising attracted venture capital firm Elevation Partners (whose investors include Bono from U2) to court Wikipedia, a very curious relationship we covered in depth in 2008. Elevation made substantial donations - including one totalling $1.2m - to Wikipedia.
Bono also urged Wales to drop the volunteers and hire professionals instead. It's not hard to see why: as Wales had acknowledged, Wikipedia is one of the best-known brands in the world. But the courtship with the rapacious VC firm never blossomed into a formal relationship.
Today, the funding is organised by a non-profit corporation, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), and the growth in funding has been dramatic. In 2006, the foundation had just three employees, and operated on a budget of $3m. It was amateurish, too. In 2007 evaluators at Charity Navigator gave WMF just one star (out a possible five) for efficiency (a fact deleted from WMF's Wikipedia page). The Wikimedia Foundation hired a convicted felon as its chief operating officer to look after its books while on she was on parole. The executive's convictions included cheque fraud and unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gunshot to the chest.
Today the foundation is a very different beast. It's cash-rich - with a headcount of 119, 53 per cent higher than 2010/11 - and raised almost $35m in the last donations appeal. The architect of the latest highly aggressive funding drive is Sue Gardner, executive director of the WMF.
Described by one insider as "very savvy politically and excessively diplomatic", Gardner has been lauded as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. Gardner, who takes home at least $196,000 annually, has also improved the online encyclopaedia's professionalism: Charity Navigator now gives it four stars.
Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you?
'Excuse me, just a second. Excuse me. Yes you, sir. Excuse me'
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Media, 20th December 2012 09:02 GMT
Special Report It's that time of year again. As the Christmas lights go up, Wikipedia's donation drive kicks off. Wikipedia claims that the donations are needed to keep the site online. Guilt-tripped journalists including Heather Brooke and Toby Young have contributed to Wikipedia in the belief that donations help fund operating costs. Students, who are already heavily in debt, are urged to donate in case Wikipedia "disappears".
But what Wikipedia doesn't tell us is that it is awash with cash - and raises far more money each year than it needs to keep operating.
Donations are funding a huge expansion in professional administrative staff and "research projects". Amazingly, this year for the first time Wikipedia - the web encyclopaedia anyone can edit - has even found the cash to fund a lobbyist.
All this has been met with dismay by the loyal enthusiasts who do all the hard work of keeping the project afloat by editing and contributing words - and who still aren't paid. For the first time, Wikipedians are beginning to examine the cash awards - and are making some interesting discoveries.
First, let's have a look at the finances.
The original intention, according to the site's co-founder Jimmy Wales, was to fund Wikipedia through advertising revenue. "If Wikipedia were to become wildly successful, in terms of web traffic, then it would be easy to introduce just enough (and hopefully non-intrusive) advertising to continue to cover expenses," Wales wrote in 2001.
In 2006 Wales rejected that option and pointed to other revenue sources - "leveraging our brand into radio, television, games, etc" - but left the door to advertising open just in case it was needed.
The vast potential for advertising attracted venture capital firm Elevation Partners (whose investors include Bono from U2) to court Wikipedia, a very curious relationship we covered in depth in 2008. Elevation made substantial donations - including one totalling $1.2m - to Wikipedia.
Bono also urged Wales to drop the volunteers and hire professionals instead. It's not hard to see why: as Wales had acknowledged, Wikipedia is one of the best-known brands in the world. But the courtship with the rapacious VC firm never blossomed into a formal relationship.
Today, the funding is organised by a non-profit corporation, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), and the growth in funding has been dramatic. In 2006, the foundation had just three employees, and operated on a budget of $3m. It was amateurish, too. In 2007 evaluators at Charity Navigator gave WMF just one star (out a possible five) for efficiency (a fact deleted from WMF's Wikipedia page). The Wikimedia Foundation hired a convicted felon as its chief operating officer to look after its books while on she was on parole. The executive's convictions included cheque fraud and unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gunshot to the chest.
Today the foundation is a very different beast. It's cash-rich - with a headcount of 119, 53 per cent higher than 2010/11 - and raised almost $35m in the last donations appeal. The architect of the latest highly aggressive funding drive is Sue Gardner, executive director of the WMF.
Described by one insider as "very savvy politically and excessively diplomatic", Gardner has been lauded as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. Gardner, who takes home at least $196,000 annually, has also improved the online encyclopaedia's professionalism: Charity Navigator now gives it four stars.