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

[Tilman Bayer]

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 5:36 AM, Andrew Gray <andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk> wrote:
>
> The Economist had an estimate recently:
>
> http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21573091-how-quantify-gains-internet-has-brought-consumers-net-benefits
> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/03/technology-2
>
> - of approximately $50m "value" to readers. It's a pretty vague
> estimate, but it's an interesting start.

It's worth keeping in mind that this estimate was based on 2006 data,
and that the Economist article commented that "such numbers probably
understate things", proceeding to cite different methodologies which
give vastly larger estimates for the economic benefit of the Internet
(or online search) as a whole - without breaking them down for
Wikipedia share, though.
>
>
> Andrew.
>
> On 8 April 2013 13:28, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org> wrote:
> > 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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>
>
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk
>
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--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB