5 ms·

I guess I should note here as well that the Wikimedia Foundation does not write or curate any of the content of Wikipedia. All of this is done by unpaid volunte

by akolbe 4y ago

I guess I should note here as well that the Wikimedia Foundation does not write or curate any of the content of Wikipedia. All of this is done by unpaid volunteers. When Wikipedia first became a top-ten website in 2007, the Wikimedia Foundation had just 11 employees. It has expanded to something like 600 employees now, paid from funds that have always been collected on the premise that Wikipedia required money to remain online (not that the Foundation required money to expand its organization and staff headcount). Speaking as a 15-year Wikipedia volunteer, I don't think the general public is quite aware of this.

WalterGR 4y ago
How has the quantity of work required to run the Foundation changed since 2007? Has it taken on additional goals? How has the architecture of the site changed since then? What's the volume of edits? Or do they have 589 employees who do nothing?
- akolbe 4y ago
  The volume of Wikipedia edits has been fairly constant since 2007: https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-wikipedia-projects/contributing/edits/normal|bar|all|~total|monthly https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-wikipedia-projects/contrib... And, just to repeat the point, Wikipedia edits are not made by Wikimedia Foundation staff, but by unpaid volunteers. Nor do Wikimedia staff check or review the edits: that too is done by unpaid volunteers. What the Wikimedia Foundation staff does do is programming work (this used to be handled by volunteers as well in the early days), PR work, fundraising (about 50 people work on fundraising alone), legal work, outreach ... https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/staff-contractors/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/staff-contractors/ They are also trying to position the Wikimedia projects as "the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge", globally. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strategic_direction:_Service_and_Equity https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/... Of course, the bigger a bureaucracy, the more people you need to run the bureaucracy. The time when Jimmy Wales used to tell people how "lean" Wikipedia is – the only expense being hosting – are long gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQR0gx0QBZ4#t=275 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQR0gx0QBZ4#t=275 The WMF's most recent annual salary bill was $68 million, up $12 million on the year prior. And as long as the money is coming in, that bill is going to grow.
  - akolbe 4y ago
    Some staff are also working on a for-profit project, assisting Big Tech companies with access to wiki data: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise This is designed to bring in additional revenue in the years to come.

by akolbe 4y ago

WalterGR 4y ago

How has the quantity of work required to run the Foundation changed since 2007? Has it taken on additional goals? How has the architecture of the site changed since then? What's the volume of edits? Or do they have 589 employees who do nothing?

akolbe 4y ago
The volume of Wikipedia edits has been fairly constant since 2007: https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-wikipedia-projects/contributing/edits/normal|bar|all|~total|monthly https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-wikipedia-projects/contrib... And, just to repeat the point, Wikipedia edits are not made by Wikimedia Foundation staff, but by unpaid volunteers. Nor do Wikimedia staff check or review the edits: that too is done by unpaid volunteers. What the Wikimedia Foundation staff does do is programming work (this used to be handled by volunteers as well in the early days), PR work, fundraising (about 50 people work on fundraising alone), legal work, outreach ... https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/staff-contractors/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/staff-contractors/ They are also trying to position the Wikimedia projects as "the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge", globally. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strategic_direction:_Service_and_Equity https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/... Of course, the bigger a bureaucracy, the more people you need to run the bureaucracy. The time when Jimmy Wales used to tell people how "lean" Wikipedia is – the only expense being hosting – are long gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQR0gx0QBZ4#t=275 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQR0gx0QBZ4#t=275 The WMF's most recent annual salary bill was $68 million, up $12 million on the year prior. And as long as the money is coming in, that bill is going to grow.
- akolbe 4y ago
  Some staff are also working on a for-profit project, assisting Big Tech companies with access to wiki data: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise This is designed to bring in additional revenue in the years to come.