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

[Angela]

> With people saying they could lead to an income of $26m a year, or pay
> for all of our normal hosting costs in a fortnight, I'd like to know
> what these other reasons are!

It's purely speculation to imagine the income would be that high. From
my experience with Wikicities, $26m seems an exaggeration. Also, would
the number of people visiting stay as high if we had ads? Would there
still be the same level of motivation to use Wikipedia.org as opposed
to a much faster loading mirror?

The threats of forking and boycotts over the last day highlight one of
the biggest reasons for not doing this, or certainly for not rushing
into it - Wikipedia.org would be nothing without the community behind
it. Would they still be behind it if AdSense was used on the site?
Even if for just two weeks a year? Would we be jeopardising our
non-profit status? What effect would turning Wikimedia into something
commercial have on the project? Would it make people less likely to
donate / less likely to use Wikipedia / less likely to edit?

We also need to bear in mind that covering the basic costs is only the
beginning. Our goal, of providing free knowledge to every person on
the planet, is a much larger aim than buying servers for Wikipedia,
and 2 weeks AdSense isn't going to cover it. Would those 2 weeks
prevent us getting the grants, donations, corporate sponsorship, and
volunteer effort, needed to attain those wider goals?

These are more questions than reasons at this stage, but the fact that
so many questions exist is a reason in itself not to even consider
this until they can be answered.

Angela.