There's a minor war [signpost overview] raging in the blogosphere after Jason Calcamis, CEO of Weblogs Inc., said it was unconcionable for Wikipedia not to run advertising.
Of course, Wikipedia's adlessness is one of the things that makes it work -- it's community-powered, and rather utopian -- but you already knew that. Wikipedians have been talking about this issue for years, and the idea that there are millions of dollars at stake is not new.
What's telling about this exchange is that almost everyone in the wider blogging world has come to the same conclusion the wikipedians did. (Calacanis has taken a lot of abuse, not all of it deserved.)
Speaking of which. I'm on the fundraising committee, and we should be rolling out some exciting new stuff over the next month -- none of it ad-related. The difference between Wikipedia's model and Weblog Inc.'s typifies the difference between blogging and wikis generally, I think.
Monday, October 30, 2006
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Hey, I got cited. Does this make me famous? =)
Calacanis has indeed taken a beating -- some of it from me -- for his suggestions, and it's worth mentioning that a LOT of it was undeserved. While some of his posts were written casually and under the stress of knowing about the hoard of angry people watching his blog -- and it shows -- it's a little distressing to see people characterise a genuine attempt at charity as the raving of a capitalist loony. Putting it gently.
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