Wikipedia nets more than US$6 million in donations
Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 5, 2009 at 10:54 PM
Contrary to numerous newspaper Web sites, Wikipedia will not be implementing advertisements or ask users to pay to access content, The Independent reported Monday.
An Internet campaign launched on November 3, 2008 raised more than US$6 million for the user-generated encyclopaedia, which is what the site needs to cover costs for 2009.
An Internet campaign launched on November 3, 2008 raised more than US$6 million for the user-generated encyclopaedia, which is what the site needs to cover costs for 2009.
Although funding was flowing at almost $30,000 per day, it was predicted that the figure would not be reached since it was $4.5 million more than the donation Wikipedia asked for last year, according to The Independent.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote a personal memo outlining the reasons why users have to provide donations. He mentioned that advertising shouldn't "have a place" on the "largest encyclopedia in history," warning that if not enough financial backing is received the site "might be forced" to feature ads and might install a subscription fee.
After Wales appealed to the public, Wikipedia began receiving $215,000 per day and soon surpassed the $6 million mark, The Independent reported.
Wikipedia was founded by Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. The Web-based encyclopaedia allows the public to create and edit content and currently has 150,000 volunteer editors and 23 staff members, according to The Independent.
However, the site's reliability has been in doubt, since anyone can edit Wikipedia entries and author's names may be kept anonymous. Google launched Knol last year, which claims to have articles on various topics written by experts from given fields. Wikipedia co-founder Sanger, who left the group, has launched Citizendium in 2007, which attempts to offer more reliability by enforcing the use of real names.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wrote a personal memo outlining the reasons why users have to provide donations. He mentioned that advertising shouldn't "have a place" on the "largest encyclopedia in history," warning that if not enough financial backing is received the site "might be forced" to feature ads and might install a subscription fee.
After Wales appealed to the public, Wikipedia began receiving $215,000 per day and soon surpassed the $6 million mark, The Independent reported.
Wikipedia was founded by Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. The Web-based encyclopaedia allows the public to create and edit content and currently has 150,000 volunteer editors and 23 staff members, according to The Independent.
However, the site's reliability has been in doubt, since anyone can edit Wikipedia entries and author's names may be kept anonymous. Google launched Knol last year, which claims to have articles on various topics written by experts from given fields. Wikipedia co-founder Sanger, who left the group, has launched Citizendium in 2007, which attempts to offer more reliability by enforcing the use of real names.
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