On Jan 8, 2008 12:54 AM, Ned Scott <ned(a)nedscott.com> wrote:
Is that just a guess, or is Wikia in a financial
bind?
It was based on the product they just released. I don't think Wikia
has released any information on their revenues.
About Jimbo, that's crazy. There are tons of CEOs
that are also on non-
profit boards that have similar areas of interest.
I don't dispute this, but I can't think of any off-hand. I'd be
surprised if there were a lot of CEOs that founded their for-profit
company while sitting on the non-profit board. The other way around,
a prominent CEO who gets elected to a non-profit board, that's very
different.
Jimbo's for-profit
companies are what originally helped fund Wikipedia in the first
place. For a guy who was so willing to put that money into Wikipedia
instead of into his own pockets, I find it hard to believe there is
any kind of conflict simply because his latest venture also uses
MediaWiki software, or that it is even a viable business strategy.
You're talking about Bomis? Bomis put money into Wikipedia to try to
make a profit. They spun it off into a non-profit after they realized
they couldn't make a profit - they couldn't even afford to pay Larry
Sanger. According to Alex T. Roshuk, Jimmy has even said that he
regrets the decision to make Wikipedia a non-profit.
Jimbo himself was even clear in the early days that Wikipedia was
*not* an act of altruism.