[Foundation-l] Answers.com and Wikimedia Foundation to Form New Partnership

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 10/24/05, Chris Jenkinson <chris at starglade.org> wrote:
>
> Jimmy Wales wrote:
> > I will never bow to any sort of pressure of that kind, and one of the
> > reason partnerships like answers.com <http://answers.com> are so
> important is precisely to
> > avoid our having to rely on a few large donors.
>
> [...]
>
> > NPOV is non-negotiable.
>
> So what happens in this hypothetical scenario where we accept a
> significant contribution from a corporation, and 6 months into the
> partnership they turn around and say "we don't like that bit on the
> article which criticises us, remove it or we pull the funding"?

 We say no and then publicise the fact that they asked us to do so, ensuring
that not only do they not get their way but if they pull funding they'll
wind up getting bad publicity out of it.
 What would be the alternative? The board announces that they are protecting
the page permanently and that any admin who unprotects it or adds criticism
on company X will be deadmined immediately? Do you really think that's going
to happen?

I understand the need for money for the Foundation, I just disagree with
> the idea that going to a corporation for donations is the best way to do
> it. I am open to persuasion on this (of course), so please don't think I
> am arguing for argument's sake.
>
> Chris


I agree with this to some extent, and that's why I think Wikipedia should
just advertise directly. Then any single corporation is going to have a
negligible effect on revenues. But it seems that
answers.com<http://answers.com>is only beginning, even with them there
is probably a contract in place that
doesn't let them back out for such a trivial reason, and they're unlikely to
put us in such a position anyway, because they'd either not get their way or
get their way and destroy Wikimedia by causing the community to abandon
them. The latter certainly won't happen as long as the current board is in
place. I trust Angela, Anthere (sorry I don't remember your name), and Jimbo
not to abandon NPOV at any cost.
 Anthony