[WikiEN-l] World domination. Step one

Wed Jul 9 18:09:43 UTC 2003

I think right now we need to focus on publicity.  But as pointed out on [[Wikipedia talk:Press release: Wikipedia surpasses Britannica]], we shouldn't do that until the wikipedia foundation is open for donations.  So...
...What's being done about this?  What can I do to help?  I know there is a website for a company somewhere that will do donation transactions for non-profits for free (I'll go look into that now.)  Anyhow, who is working on this, and what can I do to help move it along?

--
Michael Becker
a.k.a. Mbecker
a.k.a. MB

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales at bomis.com>
Reply-To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
Date:  Wed, 9 Jul 2003 08:21:00 -0700

>Is it true that GNU/Linux is to MS Windows as Wikipedia is to MS
>Encarta?  A reporter from Wired Magazine asked me a similar question
>the other day, except regarding Britannica.  (Mav was making a more
>subtle point here, the reporter was just asking about our competition
>with traditional proprietary products.)
>
>My answer was that unlike an operating system, in which there is a
>significant learning curve and significant network externalities that
>prevent people from switching, there is basically no cost for users of
>Britannica to switch to a GNU-free alternative of equal or better
>quality.
>
>Here I am a total linux and free software geek, and yet, I have two
>computers on my desk -- one is Linux for actually doing work, and one
>is Windows because, as a businessman, I'm always getting proposals and
>contracts in Microsoft .doc format, and people are always asking me to
>put together spreadsheets in Excel format.
>
>None of those kinds of considerations apply to texts.  The field of
>competition is much more level for upstarts, because there are very
>low costs of switching.
>
>Consider our textbook initiative.  There's a small cost to professors
>or teachers to switch from existing proprietary texts to our new texts
>(which don't exist yet, of course), but it's pretty darn small.  In my
>experience, they already undergo those costs from time to time anyway
>as department heads or administrators change to the latest new
>textbooks from a competing publisher.
>
>So, unlike the software world where entrenched use is slowing the
>adoption of free alternatives, there's really nothing standing in our
>way of "World domination. Fast."
>
>--Jimbo
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