Brian McNeil wrote:
I'd like to see the Foundation have a
"security blanket" too. Although, the
way I see this is you're more likely to get support from developing
countries before you get it from the developed - in terms of a government
actually giving money.
That's an interesting theory.
I'm curious about what impact a project like
Wikipedia has on a country's
economy. The database of information at your fingertips has to save a
fortune in research costs for companies all over the world, and from my
perspective I'd be delighted to see a portion of my taxes - no strings
attached - going to the Foundation.
I think that most of the national economic effects will be
infrastructural, and not easily visible. Education is a part of a
nation's infrastructure. Investments in this sort of thing does not
produce an immediate bang for the buck, and that holds back some
companies from investing.
People in the developing
world need practical information, and they can share it via wiki. Simple
things like the cheapest way to dig a reliable well, or how to efficiently
irrigate a crop are the things that interest them. Ways to incrementally
improve their standard of living because they learn something new.
We've had editors who believe that how-to articles are too POV to
include in the 'pedia. :-)
I expect in 5 or so years Uruguay's economy will
start to see the payoff
from investing in OLPC, and a significant percentage of the students who've
got the machines will rely on Wikipedia as well as contribute to it.
It will take much longer than that, and the effect will be gradual.
Ec