Wikipedia: The Marvel

I’m sure you’ve all seen Wikipedia in your searches, it just can’t help but come up in most Google searches. Wikipedia is a non-profit, not for profit, that’s right, that FREE word again. It’s free, its contributors post for free, that’s right no one is paid, they contribute for a number of reasons, generosity, ego and mostly because they can.

The founder, Jimmy Wales has been quoted as saying nobody works for free, instead “What people do for free is have fun … We don’t look at basketball games and people playing on the weekends and say these people are real suckers doing this for free.” Seems people are willing to contribute their time if they feel that they can influence and claim ownership. It’s an interesting note that this is a real community, with about one percent of Wikipedia users actually contributing. You can look for my entry under lithography, you should actually take 20 minutes and make an entry to get a real sense of what Wikipedia is all about.

Wikipedia is an incredible collection of knowledge, all open source, and actually more up to date, more inclusive, than any other resource. It’s a real indication of how the world is changing for you and your business, so have a look, make an entry … again we are back to getting started. Wikipedia is the perfect example of the gift economy, that’s right, no one gets paid and it costs nothing. Wikipedia is a modern day marvel.

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd, June 2010

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