[Foundation-l] [announcement] new staff member in businessdevelopment

[Anthony]

On 5/21/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at 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