Wikipedia's Appeal

I love the evolution of the Wikipedia's Personal Appeal for Donations campaign.

In 2010, Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales reached out to the community riding high on the wave of social media and crowd sourcing. Heading into 2012, things are still financially shaky at Wikipedia since "the crowd" has not accepted that they are "the source" of revenue. Jimmy's appeal this year seems less certain. His photos are pleading, a little hurt, and sad. In one shot, he looks like turtle that can't make up his mind whether he should leave his shell.

On the other hand, Wikipedia Programmer Brandon Harris is not uncertain. In fact, he is pissed off at YOU personally for using Wikipedia without making a single contribution. His photo has a judgmental and angry quality that says, "Yeah, I'm looking at you, Mister Back-Again-But-Not-Gonna-Pay."

In 2012, Wikipedia will take the gloves off and employ the unique appeal of Megadeath guitarist Dave Mustain. Dave’s appeal is simple, "Stop being a cheap dick and give Wikipedia $5!" Who can argue with Dave Mustain?

All personal appeals aside, there are three reasons I support Wikipedia:
1) I find myself referencing articles ALL THE TIME
2) Their hearts are in the right place (information should be free and universally accessible)
3) The immutable Laws of Infonomics and Accounting

For end-users, Wikipedia is a market place where the Law of Infonomics presides rather than the Law of Economics. During the Industrial Age, Economic Law emerged to dictate that the more scare something is, the more valuable it becomes. During the dawn of the Information Age, Infonomic Law emerged and recognizes that the value of information is tied to access and adoption. The more widely a piece of information is adopted (e.g., vetted, distributed, and understood), the more valuable it becomes. Wikipedia is a renewable font of valuable information and wonderful manifestation of the Information Age.

However, for the administrators of Wikipedia, the Laws of Accounting still apply. As their exponentially valuable Infonomic engine increases in adoption, so do the costs required to support infrastructure and remain a going concern. Sure, things scale nicely in Infoland, but there are still hard costs that need to be accounted for and met.

To date, Wikipedia has stuck to their guns and not given into advertising or paid subscription business models. In the end, matching a crowd sourced encyclopedia with a crowd sourced business model is the right approach (even if it is a bit scary at times).

But hey, who said freedom was going to be without thrills and near death experiences?

Long live, Wikipedia!

…and give ‘em a couple of bucks.