A Billion Dollars Isn’t Cool. You Know What’s Cool? Basic Human Decency

Makes some very good observations about Web 2.0.

Note this bit:

This blogger evidently doesn't know about the deep connections between Wikipedia and Wikia. Nor about Jimbo charging $50k to give a one-hour speech. He's trading on his status as a "famous Web 2.0 superstar" to make a nice living as a speech-making, airliner-riding gadfly. Not getting rich, but getting his name in the media regularly--something that is probably far more important for his little ego.

Yes, he gives the impression of being a "dedicated altruist" when it comes to making $$ from Wikipedia. It is my suspicion that he does that, not out of agape. He does it because his free-culture buddies have repeatedly warned him that if he started to act like Mark Zuckerberg in public, the other frei-kultur nerds in WP would hang him from the nearest yardarm. And then kick him from their precious "project", publicly, with much embarrassment for all.

So, Jimbo's already lost the unconditional goodwill of WP's insiders -- it comes with a number of conditions.