Hr. Daniel Mikkelsen wrote:
What are the expenses involved? What is the bandwidth
consumed? The
storage space required? The load on servers?
1. The physical expenses are minimal and easily absorbed. So none of
the things you mention are worth worrying about -- I can continue to
pay for those things indefinitely. (If Wikipedia were to be 100 times
more popular, though, these things would start to add up!)
2. The programming expenses are drastically lower for Wikipedia than
they ever were for Nupedia. Volunteers are to thank for this.
Nupedia was very expensive to build, because I paid programmers
(chiefly Toan) to do it. Currently, Jason and I spent a few hours
per week on Wikipedia.
3. The major remaining expense is Larry's editorial leadership, which
I believe has been a major factor in the success of the project to
date. Fans of random anarchy may disagree, of course. And if they
do, I'm happy to provide them (so long as the license is free!) with
web space to have a totally unmanaged project. I think they'll get
crap, though.
--Jimbo