Home » The new frontier of Wikipedia, paid content? Yes, but only for the giants of the web

The new frontier of Wikipedia, paid content? Yes, but only for the giants of the web

by admin

Just last January Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, turned twenty. Just as the US and European antitrust authorities envisage a “stew” to the galaxy of hi-tech and internet giants, the web’s Cinderella has entered her second decade of activity relying only on donations from users and organizations, therefore without the obligation to serve the interests of this or that shareholder. Far from the sirens of the stock exchange, from the lure of finance, anchored to its statute as a non-profit project. Yet, perhaps, it is not enough. The platform is in fact working on a new paid service.

Do not worry: it certainly will not concern the tens of millions of users (hundreds of global scale) who consult millions of entries every day (1.6 just to stay in the Italian edition). Rather, it will be an offer reserved for companies and large groups, especially in the digital economy, which already today take advantage of its free API, i.e. the protocols for integrating pages and information within their services. And who may have an interest in being part of the work at the Wikimedia Foundation, the Californian foundation that deals with the infrastructural part of the platform for 300 languages ​​and for several other “wiki” projects. You know the Google “box” that appears on the right after many searches, especially the more encyclopedic ones? Or, more simply, who do you think provides most of the answers to the many digital assistants, from Apple’s Siri to Amazon’s Alexa to Big G’s Assistant? Wikipedia, of course.

But now with a service on Wired Us the creature of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, who has always resisted the temptation to speculate on the need for widespread knowledge, explained that he will launch Wikimedia Enterprise. And the initial interviews give the idea of ​​what could be the first customers: Google (with which Wikipedia has grown arm in arm for twenty years), Amazon, Facebook and Apple. The offer could be launched at the end of the year and will consist of new options for companies that use the contents of the encyclopedia for profit. In technical terms it should be a premium version of the API (application programming interface): instead of having to collect data from individual items and having to “clean up” them to adapt them to their services, customers could obtain ready-made content packages from Wikipedia Enterprise, updated and formatted properly or new methods of publication, new formats, in short, an enrichment in terms of flexibility and versatility of the Api that will remain free, with a so-called bi-weekly “data dump”. Translated: contents available more quickly and better organized, without that job having to be done internally or having to deal with an ad hoc system.

See also  Record Heat Extends Mosquito Season: Health Risks Remain

The agreements with the first, large customers could be signed in June: “It is the first time that the foundation has recognized that commercial users are also users of our service – explains Lane Becker, senior director who oversaw the project with a small team of experts – we know they’re out there but we’ve never treated them like a user base. ” In short, it’s time to try to understand if they are willing to pay for a product that, due to its size and diffusion, has become irreplaceable even for giants that would seem more irreplaceable than anything else on the web: Google.

“All platforms have teams dedicated to managing Wikipedia content, very large teams – adds Becker to Wired Us, adding that getting the different content to talk to each other requires “a lot of low-level work, cleaning and management, a very expensive job.” That “binary” will remain available to all users, including commercial ones. Reason why, as he rightly points out Lisa Seitz-Gruwell, chief revenue officer of the foundation, the main competitor of the new creature – which will have to convince large and small customers to buy the content organized on measure, set up an efficient support service and guarantee teams for the technical support of every problem – will be the Wikipedia itself.

Not only: Wikipedia Enterprise, at least according to the project for what is known at the moment, it will use the cloud services of Amazon Web Services and not the proprietary ones to manage its contents and services. This is precisely to guarantee superior speed and quality of service for those who will pay for the best organized information. Not a small step, for a platform born and raised on the principle of the free web and in some ways among the few to retain a certain pioneering charm. But on the other hand, without the support of those giants to which it is now turning to better structure its income, it would not exist. After all, among the first results of our searches on Google there is always a Wikipedia entry, when in fact it is not even highlighted in a dedicated regard.

See also  Google Maps, from indoor navigation to sustainable routes: all the news coming soon

According to the foundation, both parties would be earning it – apart from money. Enterprise would in fact guarantee customers the latest and most updated versions of its rumors, intervening more quickly on the vandalism that has never left the platform. But a contractual relationship would also formally acknowledge that the giants are generating value from a project that remains fundamentally voluntary (in Italy there are over two million registered users, 9,516 active users, 113 administrators) and that “they must therefore give back to everyone” , as Seitz-Gruwell adds. Not to mention that Wikipedia could legally claim to be accredited in a certain way and increase its recruitment of volunteer-authors to strengthen the work. In short, a virtuous circle.

Donations, grants, offers from people around the world and from those giants themselves will remain the main source of the foundation’s budget, which currently stands at $ 100 million. But undoubtedly a further and additional channel would give excellent results: it would provide stability to the foundation and above all it would allow to feed the diffusion of the encyclopedia in other versions and other languages, even those less spoken therefore with an important cultural role, and to solve some of the structural problems such as the imbalance in the items and issues addressed, repeatedly accused of being focused on the West and of reaching an incredible level of detail on certain topics, leaving many others in generality.

Will the balancing act of the “third way” succeed? Difficult to say. In particular, the foundation that orchestrates its activities will be able to save the non-profit ideals of the original inspiration with the challenges that the platform faces twenty years later, throwing itself into contractual and legal labyrinths with the giants of technology? And what does Wales think? From a resource standpoint, the Enterprise team explains in a dedicated and just published article, “it’s about strengthening the movement to thrive for decades to come, to withstand any storm, and to really have a chance to reach the mission first conceived 20 years ago. We will need more resources, more partners and more allies if we are to achieve the goals implicit in our vision statement and strategic direction for 2030. The key will be to ensure that support is diversified. unlimited and without any direct influence on the program. That is why it is important to ensure that the movement can sustain itself both now and in the future. “

See also  Tips for Achieving Your Wellness Goals: Planning and Sustainability

.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy