Wikipedia - Ads Or No Ads, You Choose!

Free online encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Web, and Jimmy Wales has operated the multilingual virtual encyclopedia for??6 years without the first ad. If you think about this for a minute the significance of operating one of the world’s most popular web sites without a scrap of adverting for years really sinks in. Who does this kind of thing, governments?

News from Reuters/Yahoo!??today announced that Wikipedia may add some trivia games and quiz programs in an effort to boost funds in support of the site. Wales told Reuters that the firm will hold off on advertising for now, but turning down millions of dollars in ad revenue that could be applied to humanitarian causes had caused Wales to take pause to consider the lesser of evils.

As for ads Wales told Reuters: “Right now I don’t think it would be a good strategy for us, I think we will pursue other means of revenue,” he said on the sidelines of a digital freedom conference in Cape Town.

Wikipedia raised $1 million last year in donations and is expected to spend around $3 million this year. Wikipedia is rated as one of the world’s top five fund raising sites and Wales is searching for additional ways to capitalize on the Wikipedia name. Wikia-Search, and enterprise launched through the for-profit Wikia Inc. is one of the ways Wales sees to help fund Wikipedia, though the two entities are totally unaffiliated. According to Wales Wikia is hoping to take as much as 5 percent of the lucrative Internet search market when the engine is rolled out later this year.

My Take

My affinity for Wales and his method??of operation is pretty well known, and this news is really demonstrative of what the man is trying to accomplish. How many other Web developers would have waited 6 years to monetize a site as popular as Wikipedia? I was doing some research not long ago which revealed that the absolute worst page on Wikipedia got something like 80 page views per day. Wales has stuck to his guns even in the face of literal begging to throw money at him for an ad on Wikipedia probably. How many billions of dollars might this have been???

As for the Search-Wikia project, that has been one of my pet projects for some time and especially since my interview with Wales. The idea of “the start” of a semantic web scrutinized by humans is a hairs breadth away from reality in the next several months if all the cards fall correctly.

The Web Quadrisect

Many argue that a semantic Web will never become a reality, but a lot of very smart and powerful people are pushing in that direction. Detractors for the most part are simply fighting to maintain the status quo and their relative comfort with it. After all my excursions in cyberspace over these months I have identified 4 distinct entities at working Web 2.0; the money grubbers, the idealists, the clueless and the cells.

The money grubbers are the group that just wants your money, no matter what it takes to get it. Included in this group would be Google, MySpace??and about 90 percent of the SEO companies out there, as they just give the mob what they want and plenty of it.

The idealists want to create basically art for humanity, or something lasting that may also include some monetization to support the system. Wales, hakia search and several others are in this group with the “art” and its function at their forefront.

The clueless are basically the people who are enthralled and oblivious to anything other than their instant gratification. This group would be comprised of the mindless life wasters that inhabit the Web as some facsimile of a real life. They either use the Web for entertainment or to fill emotional voids that cannot be filled elsewhere.

The cells represent the bulk of the Internet. These people inhabit the Internet in various niches both purposeful in intent and digressing to simple entertainment on any given day. As in the physical world, these people are the “Salt of the Web”. They work, read, create, watch, play and literally make up the community of Web 2.0. They are sometimes the hardest element to reach as they are not nearly as visible or loud as the other groups. You see them, I see them, but all of us are not able to categorically motivate or contact them. They are like the atoms that hold together a fine piece of fabric.

Wales Wants You!

Now that I have described the orbit of the stars and spheres of the universe, which I did not intend to do, perhaps some of you will help this Web 2.0 thing along. Take this news about Wales for what it represents, a subtle call to the idealists and cells of Web 2.0 to contribute. Wikia and Wikipedia are imminently open to suggestions and conversation, throw some ideas or other assets in the pool and make some large or small difference. You may not believe it, but you really are the difference you know. Let’s go with idealists and cells for all the marbles, final answer.