Update: Story is now on digg.
While on the subject of media philanthropy....
I sat next to Jimbo at a Wikipedia dinner over the summer. I begged him to put a leaderboard on Wikipedia and told him I would get AOL to sell it and host Wikipedia--for free. He declined saying there will never be ads on Wikipedia. I then explained to him in detail how that one leaderboard could make over $100M per year. I told him that they should take the $100M and give it to charity. They could help fund MediaWiki, the EFF, Firefox, and dozens of other open source projects.
Jimbo: please reconsider!!! I know I can get AOL to sell the inventory at zero cost to you guys and we will donate the bandwidth. Just give us a little 25x25 pixel thank you (i.e. "Hosted donated by AOL." That's it.
Note: I'm bringing this up again a good friend pointed me to this very, very conservative valuation of Wikipedia. Wikipedia if it was a private company would be worth $5B.
Note2: I'm not a saying change anything else about Wikipeda. I'm not saying make it commercial--I'm saying put a leaderboard up to make the world a better place. $100M in donations would really help the world--heck, it would change the world!
Note3: In my mind it is unconscionable to not monetize the Wikipedia when a leaderboard would do NOTHING to take away from the project. Let's do it people! Even if it's not with AOL, give the inventory to John Battelle or Google to sell--every day that goes by we lose a million bucks that could change the world.
Wikipedia leaves $100M on the table (or "PLEASE Jimbo, reconsider--media philanthropy could change the world!")
Reader Comments
(Page 3 of 3)43. What, a note as being a supporter of the Wikipedia isn't enough, there's a need for a billboard too?
Come on...
Posted at 11:02AM on Oct 30th 2006 by Taran Rampersad
44. The ad hominem attacks on Jason are pretty silly.
[see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem]
Debate the point, not the person.
And I hate to distract from the main discussion, but to everyone who decided to take the ad hominem tack, have any of you actually contributed $$ to Wikipedia?
... it's easy to be holy with words
Posted at 2:25PM on Oct 30th 2006 by Gabe
45. Re: "What about having two URL's, e.g. Wikipida.com and WikiAd.com, and letting the user choose which to use."
I'll keep on using "wikipedia.ORG", the noncommercial address at which the site is located now, thank you.
Posted at 8:27PM on Oct 30th 2006 by Dan Tobias
46. What should Jimbo do when the owners (the authors - the Wikimedia Foundation is a GFDL licensee except for a few copyright assignments to it) don't like the ads and go elsewhere? Ads are one of the most divisive issues and there's always been sufficient money raised through donations to operate the site.
Bandwidth is available free and very cheap without ads if it ever matters enough to spend the time it takes to arrange it. Been there, planned how to do it, it wasn't worth doing. If it becomes worth doing it'll be done.
What you're offering is a great way to fork the project away from the Wikimedia Foundation hosting in exchange for money it doesn't need. If you want to help other causes, publicise them and perusuade Jimbo and others to do the same.
Assuming the money is raised, how will the revenue be split among the owners of the work? Or are you planning to ignore the authors and let the hosting Foundation get it all?
Posted at 12:13PM on Oct 31st 2006 by James Day
47. I agree with the general idea. Impact to wikipedia would be minimal, possibly even beneficial if the ads were subtle and relevant. And the money generated could be put to a lot of good uses.
I'm sure AOL wouldn't be the only one willing to donate the resources to sell the inventory. Wikipedia should shop around for the best deal (one that doesn't require a 25x25 fixed placement on such an extremely valuable piece of web real-estate).
Posted at 10:36AM on Nov 1st 2006 by Marc Limotte
48. I think putting just one ad on the wikipedia site will be the beginning of the end. No matter how loud it will be guaranteed that the advertisor has no influence on the content of the site, it just won't be reliable anymore, because that influence will be just a matter of time and the right amount to the right person. Wikipedia will have sold it's soul.
Posted at 9:01AM on Nov 4th 2006 by Theo
49. It just occurred to me, that there are similarities with a little story of some 2000 years ago. Picture the Farrizees convincing Judas to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver by telling them: "think of all the good you can do with all that money..."
Posted at 9:04AM on Nov 4th 2006 by Theo
50. Jimbo is well aware of the money-making potential of wikipedia. However, he cannot place advertisements on wikipedia without destroying it, due to internal and external political and legal reasons.
A spinoff called wikia does run advertisements.
Posted at 2:24PM on Nov 5th 2006 by Kim Bruning
51. Wikitravel has been long overlooked but has managed to get thousands opon thousands of links inserted into Wikipedia. Guess who bought Wikitravel, Internet Brands.. can someone say commerical!! Just wait a see what they do with this. Does Wikipedia get a cut? doubt it. Just start peeling the onion :)
Posted at 4:52PM on Nov 17th 2006 by Dan Taylor
53. just leave them alone.. stop trying to monetize ideas from a solely non-profit organization..
Posted at 8:24AM on Nov 19th 2006 by jared l.
55. Do not donate to Wikimedia. If you need convincing, just delve a bit deeper and look at some of their internal political nonsense. Then ask yourself, could *these* people ever be trusted to do something useful with your money.
The information on Wikipedia is useful, yes. But if this effort went into making real websites written by genuinely interested people, without all the wikimedia politics (i.e. people just there to feel important), we could get a lot more quality for our money.
What's that phrase Wales keeps using... "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment." Well, there are so many poxy regulations elsewhere that some component of the "Sum of all knowledge" is bound to violate them. Finally, when he gets all emotional about wikipedia educating underprivileged children in Africa in a ploy to elicit donations, he fails to mention that a) Wikipedia is far to limited to be used as any form of major reference material for teaching, and b) Poor underprivileged children in Africa do not have access to computers connected to the internet.
Encyclopedia? Fine. The sum of all knowledge to everyone in the world - admirable, but forget doing it with Wikipedia. You have better things to donate to.
Posted at 6:29PM on Dec 17th 2006 by Dieter Franck
56. I completely agree with you. One small leaderboard would not mean nothing to the project, but it could really make them a lot of money. $100M per year is not something to ignore.
Posted at 4:28PM on Mar 18th 2007 by Alex
57. Not that I completely disadgree with you but I really want to know what’s the difference between putting a leaderboard to not making Wikipedia a commercial? You see if there are many ads in a particular page it becomes nothing but plain advertising ground and in the case of Wikipedia it can create this notion to readers that it’s no longer a credible source of facts but of stuff to confirm or support any ad that goes with it.
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41. I put Google ads on my blog just because I like to see what their engine will consider relevant to my meandering posts. I do make money out of it - even if it is only cents a month.
I wonder if there is a way - analogous to Jason's proposal for Wikipedia - in which we micro earners could pool our money and direct it to charity? I would sign up for that is a shot.
Posted at 8:04AM on Oct 30th 2006 by Nick Browne