[WikiEN-l] Corporate Donors - Status?

[Jason Calacanis]

On 3/11/07, Bartning at aol.com <Bartning at aol.com> wrote:
> There's been a lot of talk about paid editors, but what about conflicts of
> interest with Wikipedia when it accepts donations from corporations?

There are no conflicts--none.

It would be a HUGE leap for someone to think that a donation to a
non-profit from a corporation would give them the ability to trump a
encyclopedia edited by *consensus* by *volunteers* -- most of whom are
anonymous.

Would an unpaid editor on the Wikipedia think "gosh, I should lie on
Google's wikipedia page because they are one of dozens (hundreds?
thousands?) of companies that have donated to the foundation."

Furthermore, for this theory to work it would require that the
thousands of other editors think EXACTLY the same way and would not
revert the biased revisions.

You're always going to have a contingent of conspiracy theorists out
there who think Wikipedia (or any other organization with any level of
success) is in on the take. It's the reward you get for being
successful at what you do. :-)

I don't think we can't base our fund raising behavior on the
conspiracy theories of a the few (and in some cases insane).

best regards,

Jason
---------------------
Jason McCabe Calacanis
Entrepreneur in Action, Sequoia Capital
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