Foundation plans to double in size by next year by adding 44 employees and hopes to raise $20mn in donations
After years of spectacular growth, frequent derision and bitter controversy, Wikipedia may have found its ultimate challenge: success and public acceptance.
Hundreds of contributors and supporters gathered in Poland over the weekend to meet and greet, talk and listen, and think about the future of Wikipedia, the user edited online encyclopedia that many remember from its earliest days.
But after six Wikimanias, there are more practical questions hanging over the proceedings: Who took our mojo? And how can we get it back? Should we get it back?
"It is growing less quickly," said Liam Wyatt, a longtime Wikipedia contributor and advocate from Australia. "By definition, as it gets bigger, people don't have as many places to start. It is a good problem to have, but it is a problem to have, but it is a problem." Wyatt arrived by way of London, where he spent five weeks as the British Museum's first Wikipedian in residence.
In a speech, the foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, said the foundation planned to double in size in the next year by adding 44 employees and hoped to raise more than $20 million in donations. Her focus, however,was on the area she called the Global South - India, South America, the Middle East - where the goal is to have 12% annual growth in unique visitors.
A new board member from Mumbai, Bishakha Datta, a documentary maker and advocated for women's issues, was appointed, despite having little familiarity with Wikipedia, because of her experience in running a nonprofit in India.
A report by A Ravishankar of the Wikipedia in Tamil - one of the under represented South Asian languages - noted that in mid-2009, the site's administrators suddenly noticed articles appearing out of nowhere. Only months later did the Wikipedians learn that they were witnessing the benefits of Google's project to improve their site and increase the amount of content online in Tamil.
In understated phrasing, Ravishankar explained what the surge in content was lacking. For example, the entries covered "too many American pop stars and Hindi movies, which Tamils may not need as a priority." There was sloppiness in language and coding. And the content was mostly not original, having been translated from English Wikipedia entries.
Despite these concerns Tamil Wikipedia plans on working with Google to continue the additions.
The Bengali Wikipedia, however, took greater umbrage and simply deleted the Google-generated content. The Bengali Wikipedians were in the audience, and afterward explained that the material simply did not meet their standards.
The Bengali encyclopedia is a small project with about 20,000 articles and a core of the site's administrators, Belayet Hossain, said afterward. But that does not mean the site is desperate for content. "The are doing an experiment on Wikipedia, and it is not a place for experimenting," Hossain said of Google. Mojo in full display.
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