Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. It was even adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman
A wildly popular video on the progression of information technology. Very interesting.
And it may just be the prototype of all big web destinations in the future.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the immensely popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia, just announced that it has reached its fundraising goal for 2008, which will allow the foundation to cover its operating expenses for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2009. Overall, a total of 125,000 donors gave over $6.2 million during 2008, …
According to Jimmy Wales, these donations will be used to pay for the day-to-day operations of the Wikimedia Foundation, including the costs of hosting and bandwidth, as well as the salary of its small staff of only 23 people. The Wikimedia foundation will also use these funds to support outreach events like the Wikipedia Academies and to help its volunteer community.
No Advertising
The Wikimedia Foundation has always declined to run advertising on its pages. Given that it is one of the most popular destinations on the Internet, it could surely make more than $6.2 million in revenue every year, but the organization, and Jimmy Wales in particular, have always vehemently rejected this idea in favor of direct donations from users.
So, the 9th most visited site in the USA runs on open source software. It’s content is generated by the visitors. It’s FREE. And does not even need advertising support.
WOW.
How could any other online encyclopedia compete?
WordPress.com (the site that runs this blog) is ranked #24.
It’s free. Open source. Has very, very little advertising. And has very few employees, just like Wikipedia.
Most of the code is written by volunteers. The content put up by bloggers, like me.
=== UPDATE === Rockin’ points to this post in response:
Just caught myself intrigued by an article about Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales possibly losing his board seat. It was on gawker.com and not very complimentary (understatement). Then these few sentences about Wikipedia and made me think it really ought to be called repupedia. “Incompetence and infighting are endemic to nonprofits, of course. But Wikipedia’s bureaucracy is distinctly, fearsomely awful. The site, which dictates the online reputation of countless living people and companies, itself operates by rules that are completely incomprehensible, determined by a self-appointed group of volunteer editors who can seldom stop arguing over obscurities to explain their ways to outsiders.” Food for thought about how Wikipedia catalogues all these institutions’ and individuals’ reputations online.
That’s from Valleywag / Gawker … not your most reliable source. Less reliable than Wikipedia, I’d say.
… of 1,489 adults in the U.S. conducted in early December, 40 percent said they get most of their national and international news from the Internet, compared to 35 percent from newspapers. The percentage of newspaper readers has been pretty steady since 2005. What’s changed is the number of people admitting they get their news from the Internet as well, up from 24 percent the last time the Pew Center asked this question in September, 2007.
TV still beats both as a news source …
Or not.
Facebook is growing at a rate of 600,000 users each day …
Facebook Growth Explodes, Site Reaches 140 Million Active Users
I note that it’s finally gotten popular in Idaho as I now have several new “friends” there.
Tech pundit David Pogue on the NY Times:
… I put in an order for a second Prius last Spring, but was told that there was a ten-month wait. Many readers asked why I didn’t just buy a Honda Fit. Great car, glowing reviews, costs 40 percent less, gets 35 mpg rather than 40 — and much more available.
So I test drove one. My readers were right. It’s a truly great car. I picked up my dark-blue 2009 Fit just today — and canceled my Prius order. Woo-hoo!
It’s an interesting story – Buying a Car? Go (and Stay) Online
The best of the Facebook-like social networks right now is Friendfeed, I think.
FriendFeed helps you discover and discuss interesting stuff that your friends and family find on the web.
I’m experimenting posting my own Friendfeed on this site. Scroll down to the bottom of the navigation if you want to check out my own contributions. All my blog posts, photos, videos, etc. will appear there in a chronological order from most recent to oldest.
I don’t have many Friendfeed friends as yet. There’s no telling whether this service will survive. Facebook could easily swallow this and the other social networkds over the coming years.
Garth — likely from his shiny new iPhone — sent me a link to a unique utility for writers.
Write Or Die: Putting the “Prod” in Productivity!
Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.
…
Consequences:
* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself
* Electric Shock Mode: …
try it yourself on Dr. Wicked
… Current Belgian Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem apparently stumbled into a Belgian bar in New York City on Monday evening with his entourage. Following his visit, bartender Nathalie Lubbe Bakker blogged about their visit (in Dutch), talking about how disgusted she was of how drunk De Crem was and how embarrassed she was about his behavior. Worst part, she wrote, was the fact that one of the politician’s advisors admitted to her that the meetings they were there for on taxpayer’s money were in fact canceled because the UN was meeting in Geneva (which is about 330 miles from Brussels). He reportedly told her they had decided to come to NY anyway despite being aware of the cancellation because the policital situation here was ‘calm’ and that he’d ‘never visited the city anyway’. …
When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record
Yup. She got fired.
I hope this souse was, at least, a big tipper.
From the gmail blog:
… today we’re launching voice and video chat — right inside Gmail. We’ve tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video — all for free.
You must download and install a small bit of software from mail.google.com/videochat
… This is obviously a big jab at Skype. With VoIP and video chat functionality in Gmail’s familiar surroundings, many users will feel less need to ever use Skype. Sure, Skype’s client has a ton more options than Gmail’s simple video chat, but many users will prefer Gmail for precisely that reason. …
The Anti-Skype Arrives – Mashable
Rick McCharles 