A Personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, More damned lies from a desperate man? Options

[powercorrupts]

Please read - A personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

Please read this appeal from our founder and then donate to Wikimedia UK using the form opposite. Your donation will go towards supporting the global projects as well as activities in the UK.

I got a lot of funny looks ten years ago when I started talking to people about Wikipedia.

Let’s just say some of the business types were skeptical of the notion that volunteers from all across the world could come together to create a remarkable pool of human knowledge – all for the simple purpose of sharing.

No ads. No profits. No agenda.

A decade after its founding, more than 380 million people use Wikipedia and its sister sites every month - almost a third of the Internet-connected world.

It is the 5th most popular website in the world. The other four have been built and maintained with billions of dollars in investment, huge corporate staffs and relentless marketing.

But, Wikipedia isn’t anything like a commercial website. It is a community creation, written by volunteers making one entry at a time. You are part of our community. And I’m writing today to ask you to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Together, we can keep it free of charge and free of advertising. We can keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. We can keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone.

Each year at this time, we reach out to ask you and others all across the Wikimedia community to help sustain our joint enterprise with a modest donation of $20, $35, $50 or more.

If you value Wikipedia as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now.

All the best,

Jimmy Wales

Founder, Wikipedia

P.S. Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it, one donation at a time. It's proof of our collective potential to change the world.

Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited.
Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom

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I can't quite believe he's simply going for the cash this time (and didn't we have a donation push just a while back?) - unless he's worried about someone pulling a plug somewhere. This partly looks like a propaganda campaign to me. Either way, I reckon he's a worried man. He must know the flak he will get. I mean, apart from all the bullshit, asking for £100, £50, £30 or £20? Pound sterling for Christ's sake? Has he been over here lately? And "If you value Wikipedia as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now." - it's a bit damn pushy.

And what are the "activities in the.. UK"? The bloody dodgy-as-Hell nationalistic 'Chapters', that's what. "It's proof of our collective potential to change the world."

This post has been edited by powercorrupts:

[Peter Damian]

The plan is here

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foun...FOR_WEBSITE.pdf

It's important to concentrate on the absolute numbers rather than percentages, as percentages disguise the high level of dollar increases. The main increases are on slide 30.

There is an increase of $3.8m to fund a new datacentre. $2.6m for 'other staffing and stakeholder database' - what on earth is this? $1.3m for 'additional office space and support staff'. $1.1m for 'community outreach' - mostly travel expense. A million dollars for travel expenses? $400k for 'chapter development'. Chapters are essentially organisations of cultists in different countries.

Why are people donating money for this? How is this going to bring the sum of human knowledge to everyone on the planet? Why don't they spend some money on correcting the distortions and errors in their encyclopedia?

There's another page of this but I gave up. Page 44 has the total breakdown - is there any way of copying tables onto this site? For 91 staff the total salary of about $9m comes to about $100k per staff. Does US salary cost include employer contributions to pension, health and tax? Typically you would have to subtract 10-20% to get the actual salary received. And the average tells us nothing about the distribution. What was the lowest paid? What was the highest?

Note this does not include $2m on 'exernal contractors'. Developers? Consultants?

This post has been edited by Peter Damian:

[powercorrupts]

The plan is here

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foun...FOR_WEBSITE.pdf

It's important to concentrate on the absolute numbers rather than percentages, as percentages disguise the high level of dollar increases. The main increases are on slide 30.

There is an increase of $3.8m to fund a new datacentre. $2.6m for 'other staffing and stakeholder database' - what on earth is this? $1.3m for 'additional office space and support staff'. $1.1m for 'community outreach' - mostly travel expense. A million dollars for travel expenses? $400k for 'chapter development'. Chapters are essentially organisations of cultists in different countries.

Why are people donating money for this? How is this going to bring the sum of human knowledge to everyone on the planet? Why don't they spend some money on correcting the distortions and errors in their encyclopedia?

There's another page of this but I gave up. Page 44 has the total breakdown - is there any way of copying tables onto this site? For 91 staff the total salary of about $9m comes to about $100k per staff. Does US salary cost include employer contributions to pension, health and tax? Typically you would have to subtract 10-20% to get the actual salary received. And the average tells us nothing about the distribution. What was the lowest paid? What was the highest?

Note this does not include $2m on 'exernal contractors'. Developers? Consultants?

(IMG:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/5171281907_f949e96cda.jpg)

(IMG:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/5173064080_77f0eaf6b6.jpg)

(IMG:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5173064240_1f2d033073.jpg)

(IMG:http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4090/5172460925_f3898cb2fc_b.jpg)

Who ever heard of a Total given as a division of 1,000, honestly. They must be embarrassed by their (predicted) riches.