Funding
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Historical content!, moved text from village pump on 5 Feb 2003. You can finde more update status on en:Wikipedia:Donations
Funding matters. It determines who runs the IP Death Squad and kicks people on or off it - under the misleading title of sysop - some think this is probably not run as democratically as it should be, and have other ideas of fairness, but until the funding issue is resolved that's unlikely to matter.
Right now Jimbo Wales is the Wikipedia's sole benefactor. He pays for the Wikipedia's bandwidth and for its domain names (which are all cheap anyway) and last year he bought a new $US 3,000 server solely for Wikipedia and its related projects. On the other hand, he has set policies unilaterally and doesn't seem that interested in governance - although he's offered to set up competing projects with the software.
There are serious plans, however, to form a non-profit organization to manage Wikipedia's and Wiktionary's finances. Such an organization would be able to accept donations. It could also recruit ideal Wikipedia board members.
- Jimbo has stated that he doesn't need any help right now supporting Wikipedia. He has also stated that he would continue to at least provide bandwidth for Wikipedia and Wiktionary even after the non-profit is set-up. So financially there is no crisis. We do however need a developer who is an expert in database optimization. --mav
- I've got meetings next week with people who I might persuade to fund qualified experts ( proof is in the pudding! ) for this open source programming initiative. Rate determining steps to are unknown at this point: I don't know how long it may take to secure funding. But I have started so there will be funds made available either through an existing NGO, Canadian Government or Venture Communist source. -- Two16
