[WikiEN-l] What to do with $1.000.000

[James Hare]

Also, how would we determine who to give out the password to? I don't think
they'd let us put it on the Internet unless we're willing to pay for
database access to 6.5 billion people.

On 12/17/06, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/15/06, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I remember a post way back about what the Wikimedia Foundation should do
> > in
> > case it receives a large grant or donation.
> > For the past few days I've been collecting data for a number of new
> > articles, and I realized how lucky I am.
> > A lot of people don't have access to things like Pubmed and LexisNexis
> and
> > those are particularly useful in citing articles.
> > Buying a set of books and making their contents available is nice, but
> > still
> > growing databases of information are more useful, especially now we
> should
> > focus more on sources instead of new content as Jimbo said at the
> > Wikimania
> > conference. As soon as I finish my study, my access to those databases
> > will
> > cease to exist. I don't know the numbers, but perhaps a number of
> > Wikipedians, say those in a referencing taskforce, should get access to
> > such
> > services with the help of the foundation...
> >
> > Mgm
>
>
> One note -- for those who don't know, PubMed (in a slightly less fancy
> version) is free!
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
> it's pretty much *the* database to go to for medical research information,
> at least for English speakers. Agricola and Eric, for agriculture and
> education respectively, are also large U.S. government-produced databases
> and are also free:
> http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/
> and http://www.eric.ed.gov/
>
> Sadly, Lexis-Nexis and most other commercially-produced research databases
> are very very very unfree (and take up the bulk of your library's
> purchasing
> budget, generally).
>
> I think trying to provide source access is a great side project for the
> foundation. However, there's a bit of a problem. Most databases like this
> are priced based on the size of the potential user base -- e.g., a school
> with 50,000 students will pay more than a school with 3000 students; a
> large
> law firm pays more than a small one. Now someone just has to figure out a
> good formula for the size of the potential user base for WMF-sponsored
> databases... (or a way to restrict the user base to a reasonable number)
> :)  In the meantime, I and others with access will help when we can:
> [[Wikipedia:Newspapers and magazines request service]]
>
> -- phoebe
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