[Wikimedia-l] The value of Wikipedia for the economy

[Fred Bauder]

The value would be obvious if Wikipedia were a for profit company listed
on the stock markets. Not that it would have a real value identical to a
computation based on imagined advertising revenue. It is in the billions
though.

Fred

> Hi all,
>
> Last weekend we had a discussion about how to 'sell' the importance of
> Wikipedia to economics-focused people (a.k.a. politicians etc), and the
> question came up on how much Wikipedia contributes to the global economy.
> Many people access it daily, and the information they get from that might
> help them to run businesses, be more efficient etc. Third world countries
> (and maybe even the rest of the world) might have better educated people
> thanks to Wikipedia, which might make better and more efficient workers,
> higher literacy and cheaper university educations.
>
> Has there been any scientific (or other) research on the effect Wikipedia
> has (or had) on the world economy, or even the economy of a specific
> country/region? There are some numbers what Wikipedia would be 'worth' if
> it were a commercial company, but that is not what I'm looking for. What
> is
> Wikipedia worth to society, the way it currently runs.
>
> Alternatively, are there similar studies to other knowledge compendiums,
> or
> even 'the internet'?
>
> Thanks for any pointers!
>
> Lodewijk
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