Will Wikipedia Run Out of Money and Disappear

[KenR]

They need Mouser take over and show em how to do things! 

Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation, has touched off a tempest with her suggestion in a talk at the Lift07 conference that Wikipedia has funding for only another quarter and "might disappear" if donations don't pick up.
Dire stuff ... if true.
According to this post by media producer Philippe Mottaz, Devouard told the audience: "At this point, Wikipedia has the financial resources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months...

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/11376

from www.slashdot.org

[tinjaw]

I guess the $10 I donated wasn't enough. I'd hate to see Wikipedia go.

[Darwin]

I use Wikipedia A LOT and should go donate, as I haven't yet. Right, off to do it now...

[mouser]

this is what makes me hate capitalism..
we could fund wikipedia into the next century if we cut in half a few sports stars salaries or advertisement contracts.
or cut in half the salaries of a few oil company executives.
god forbid the government fund something like this instead of building some fancy new jet fighters.

[app103]

If every high school in America donated 10% of what they raise in fundraisers for things like prom to Wikipedia, there would be no problems.

[Darwin]

Right. Monies donated and we'll wait to see if it made a difference  Well, it made me feel better anyway. I feel kind of funny because I get a fair number of undergraduate papers that have plagiarised wikipedia articles extensively... So, I've helped fund one of my nemeses! Oh well, at least if they are ripping off wikipedia the plagiarism is easy to catch

[brotherS]

this is what makes me hate capitalism..
we could fund wikipedia into the next century if we cut in half a few sports stars salaries or advertisement contracts.
or cut in half the salaries of a few oil company executives.
god forbid the government fund something like this instead of building some fancy new jet fighters.

Well, capitalism isn't perfect, but I don't see a better alternative.
You don't kill your cat because she pukes on your carpet every now and then, right?

I bet wikipedia won't disappear, should they really run into *serious* problems some cool billionaire or corporation will help.

[Martin_130286]

I'd be an awesome shame to see Wikipedia go... it's often my most used resource in learning some obscure idea or technology and has helped me so much over the last few years.

I can't help notice that Wiki has no obvious third-party advertising, perhaps if they are desperate to raise funds... offering advertising on such a visited website would bring in some more money to support them... it's not ideal, but better than leaving the internet all together.

[mouser]

well i should say, i don't believe for 1 second that wikipedia is going anywhere.  I think it's mostly (as that article says) crying wolf.  there is not a chance in hell it would go away - as the author points out it's worth huge sums of money and there are tons of alternative ways to fund it.  It would be trivial for them to raise enough money to pay for their servers.  I suspect soon they will be rolling in more money than they know what they can do with.  But that doesn't alter my frustration at the fact they they have to go raising money each year which will force them to do things they'd rather not do and spend time on raising money which they shouldnt have to, in order to ensure they get their funding each year.

[tinjaw]

The need to find an endowment so they can live off the interest.

[dk70]

They probably will imitate Mozilla - find some big daddy like Google and put worries to rest.

[mouser]

making google their daddy would end financial worries and stir up a huge well-deserved hornets nest of others.

[dk70]

It would but other players than Google - dont think a search engine is good example. Google probably would like to though! I just heard that woman in charge of PR saying reason they bought Youtube was embeeded clips are all over the web! Wikipedia must have caught their eyes as well so possible target. Can almost see a "Keep Wikipedia free"  movement Some rich guy with no direct interests in internet services would be perfect.

Project with a fraction of Wikipedias impact/importance gets funded with much more money. May be they have such policies  "investors" have no interest and cry for help is based on reality? Usually such people want something in return, hard for Wikipedia to deliver perhaps.