2016-02-29 19:24 GMT-08:00 Chris Sherlock <chris.sherlock79(a)gmail.com>om>:
With the greatest of respect, I'm not sure how
could come to the conclusion that general
Internet search was not a core component of the Knowledge Engine.
It's important to remember that this is a $250K grant, with a grant
period that ends later this year. It's clear that this was done
because everyone involved realized that the plans are likely to
change. Knight has given grants to WMF in the past, including a $600K
one with a longer grant period [1], so this isn't a particularly bold
step for them or for WMF. Within the scope of a grant with these
parameters, it's completely reasonable for WMF, at the end of the
grant period, to go back to Knight and say: "We've done everything we
committed to for the grant period [improve internal search etc.], but
we won't be doing anything beyond that."
That is not to say that this process was managed well -- obviously it
wasn't. But at least there are no catastrophic long term consequences
for the organization or for the movement, as far as I can tell. That
is, unless Larry Page read one of the early news stories and decided
to send a DESTROY WIKIMEDIA memo to all Alphabet companies, in which
case I expect Boston Dynamics robots to show up at New Montgomery
Street any day now. [2]
Erik
[1]
http://knightfoundation.org/grants/20123673/
[1]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY