Comments on: Predict what will be free

By: Half-life of Microsoft Products (possibly proprietary products?) at rejon.org

Half-life of Microsoft Products (possibly proprietary products?) at rejon.org — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:57:31 +0000

[...] Mike Linksvayer has another great little snippet at the end of a post about wikipedia that is a great theory about Microsoft’s products having a half-life: However, regarding widely deployed software (e.g., operating systems, productivity applications) I have a theory explaining why it will be free: Microsoft Windows and Office have a half life–eventually a release of each will be a failure, at which point the only viable alternaives will be free, and any non-free alternaitves will face slow death–think commercial Unixes in the face of Linux. I’m not going to stand by this theory–it probably assumes too little change, of any sort. [...]

By: Mike Linksvayer » I support advertising on Wikipedia

Mike Linksvayer » I support advertising on Wikipedia — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:11:53 +0000

[...] I strongly agree and will repeat exactly what I said during last year’s Wikimedia fund drive: Wikipedia chief considers taking ads (via Boing Boing) says that at current traffic levels, Wikipedia could generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year by running ads. There are strong objections to running ads from the community, but that is a staggering number for a tiny nonprofit, an annual amount that would be surpassed only by the wealthiest foundations. It could fund a staggering Wikimedia Foundation bureaucracy, or it could fund additional free knowledge projects. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has asked what will be free. Would an annual hundred million dollar budget increase the odds of those predictions? One way to find out before actually trying. [...]

By: Mike Linksvayer » Defeatist dreaming

Mike Linksvayer » Defeatist dreaming — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:48:24 +0000

[...] But if I were a donor with $100 million to give I’d try really hard to quantify my goals and predict the most impactful spending toward those goals. I’ll just repeat a paragraph from last December 30, Outsourcing charity … to Wikipedia: Wikipedia chief considers taking ads (via Boing Boing) says that at current traffic levels, Wikipedia could generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year by running ads. There are strong objections to running ads from the community, but that is a staggering number for a tiny nonprofit, an annual amount that would be surpassed only by the wealthiest foundations. It could fund a staggering Wikimedia Foundation bureaucracy, or it could fund additional free knowledge projects. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has asked what will be free. Would an annual hundred million dollar budget increase the odds of those predictions? One way to find out before actually trying. [...]

By: Mike Linksvayer » Blog Archive » Outsourcing charity … to Wikipedia

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:20:04 +0000

[...] Wikipedia chief considers taking ads (via Boing Boing) says that at current traffic levels, Wikipedia could generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year by running ads. There are strong objections to running ads from the community, but that is a staggering number for a tiny nonprofit, an annual amount that would be surpassed only by the wealthiest foundations. It could fund a staggering Wikimedia Foundation bureaucracy, or it could fund additional free knowledge projects. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has asked what will be free. Would an annual hundred million dollar budget increase the odds of those predictions? One way to find out before actually trying. [...]