Assignment – 1

Chapter 1 p.7 - New Business Models: Wikipedia

Questions & Answers

1. How do the business models of Britannica and Wikipedia
compare?
Creating Content

Britannica: To generate and maintain its material, the traditional encyclopaedia

relies on a group of knowledgeable writers, editors, and fact-checkers. These
specialists are often compensated for their efforts and are professionals in their
specialties.

Wikipedia: Content is created and edited by volunteers from all over the world
using a collaborative, crowdsourcing methodology. Although there are rules
and editors to preserve quality, anyone with internet connection can
contribute, and it is essentially open and decentralised.

Income Generation

Britannica: Britannica's main sources of income are subscription sales, content

licencing to educational institutions, and the sale of printed encyclopaedias.
Traditionally, they have relied on a publication paradigm that uses paid
specialists.

Wikipedia: The Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, runs

Wikipedia. It relies on user donations and fundraising efforts to pay for
operating expenses. Wikipedia's main goal is to provide free and accurate
information, and it does not display advertisements on any of its content
pages.
Dependability and Trust

Britannica: Britannica is renowned for its strict editing standards and subject-
matter specialists, which typically contribute to a high level of trust and
dependability in its material. It might not always be as current as Wikipedia,
though.

Wikipedia: Depending on the article and the amount of editorial scrutiny it

receives; Wikipedia's reliability can change. Despite having quality control
measures, it is prone to errors and vandalism. Nevertheless, it is frequently
complimented for its openness and capacity for error correction over time.

2. What are the business model options for Wikipedia?

Donations and fundraising: The majority of Wikipedia's operating costs are
met through user donations. They hold annual fundraising drives to entice
users to make financial contributions. A "donation-driven model" is what
underpins Wikipedia and has supported it for many years.

Funds and sponsorships: To support their work, organisations, charities, and

even governments frequently provide funds and sponsorships to Wikipedia and
the Wikimedia Foundation, which is the latter's parent organisation. These
grants may be used to defray costs and broaden Wikipedia's scope.

Sales of Merchandise: Wikipedia has an online shop where they sell branded
goods like T-shirts, mugs, and other stuff. These sales' earnings may go towards
financing them.

Licensing of Content: The possibility of licencing Wikipedia's material to other

businesses, websites, or academic institutions for a charge has been raised.
This would enable people to utilise Wikipedia's content in a variety of contexts,
including websites, research papers, and textbooks.

Collaborations & Partnerships: Wikipedia is open to forming alliances with

institutions or companies that share its goals and ideals. These collaborations
may involve co-branded materials, activities, or campaigns that receive
financial or in-kind assistance from the partner.
3. Do you think Wales has made the right decision in making
Wikipedia a not-for-profit organization?

Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), usually referred to as Jimbo

Wales on Wikipedia, is an American-British webmaster, Internet business
owner, and former financial trader. Wales and two colleagues established
Bomis, a website recognised for its emphasis on pornographic content, in
1996. The free, peer-reviewed encyclopaedia Nupe Dia (2000–2003) was
first funded by Bomis. Wales co-founded the free open-content
encyclopaedia Wikipedia on January 15, 2001, along with Larry Sanger
and other individuals.

The plan was to have tens of thousands of volunteers write articles for a
multilingual online encyclopaedia. We initially discovered that we were
structuring the job in a very top-down, organised, academic, and
traditional manner. Because we had numerous academic peer review
panels that would critique articles and provide suggestions, it was not
enjoyable for the volunteer writers. It was scary to take part because it
was like turning in an essay for graduate school.

Wales established the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), a non-profit group

with its headquarters in San Francisco, California, and its roots in St.
Petersburg, Florida. The new foundation, which was created with the aim
of establishing general guidelines for the encyclopaedia and its sibling
projects, received ownership of all intellectual property rights and
domain names related to Wikipedia. Wales has so far rejected the idea
of using Wikipedia to raise money from businesses or to make money.
Donations to the WMF are used to fund the project. Wales calculated
the value of Wikipedia to be $3 billion.

Name – Tajinder Singh

Student Id - 202203648