On 5/21/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
Any idea how much the cost is to the WMF to add a datafeed
client? As
I've said, I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is. Give me a datafeed, at 2x cost, with no restrictions on reselling it. I'll
set
up a non-profit organization dedicated to distributing the data, and I'll take out a $25,000 personal loan at prosper.com which I'll turn around and reloan to the non-profit at the same interest rate. I'll then set up a server with a MySQL database containing the data and offer shell accounts on the server for $10/month.
Deal?
Honest to god, and I am not a relgious man, I hope the Foundation takes you up on this bluff,
Good, that's one board member down. Any other takers?
I'm sure as one of the 100 most influential people in world you could
make
it happen. Use that persuasive power. It should be a no-lose offer for everyone.
I can't see any reason for anyone to reject it. If you want to mirror Wikipedia, then you are free to do so, and if you want to mirror it near-live and are willing to pay for the bandwidth, why would anyone stop you? I'm not quite sure what you intend to prove. You could provide a valuable service, though.
My intent isn't really to prove anything, though Jimbo's calling my offer a bluff does add a little bit of "I told you so" to the deal. My intent is to put access to the data in the hands of people who will do interesting and useful things with it. I hope my offer will be accepted. If not I think I might just set up such a service anyway, using the database dumps. But with the database dumps being updated so infrequently, this would be significantly riskier.
It's also a fortunate coincidence that I happen to live in Tampa. The most efficient solution would probably be for me to set up a colo at Powermedium and get the feed through their internal network. Might very well be the cheapest solution too. Powermedium doesn't put it's colo fees online though, and if you have to ask, it's usually pretty expensive. Maybe they wouldn't even be willing to do a 1U or 2U colocation for starters.
Anthony