On Jan 8, 2008 12:54 AM, Ned Scott ned@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.