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Wikimedia Endowment Gets New $1 Million Backing From Amazon (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the further-development dept.

Amazon has donated $1 million to the Wikimedia Endowment, a fund supporting Wikipedia, the e-commerce giant said this week. From a report: The gift was intended to support Wikipedia and its nonprofit parent Wikimedia, which Amazon relies on for answers on its Alexa voice assistant. It was Amazon's first ever to the free online information and education organization. "We are grateful for Amazon's support, and hope this marks the beginning of a long-term partnership to supporting Wikipedia's future," Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement.

43 comments

  1. 1 million dollars by Danathar · · Score: 2

    Wow Amazon! Big of you to pull a quarter out of your pocket and plink it into the donation jar...

    1. Re:1 million dollars by Halueth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They could also have done nothing. Sometimes it's just a time to be grateful; not every action by $bigcorp deserves a sour face... At least them Wiki folks can keep their servers humming along a bit longer, which is a good thing(tm).

    2. Re:1 million dollars by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Informative

      This isn't exactly a huge deal for the Wikimedia foundation anyways. If you look at their financial reports, they've got plenty of money.

    3. Re:1 million dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not bad...

    4. Re:1 million dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They could also have done nothing. Sometimes it's just a time to be grateful;" - More realistically it's a time to be skeptical of their motives.... This is Amazon.

    5. Re:1 million dollars by DerekLyons · · Score: 2

      At least them Wiki folks can keep their servers humming along a bit longer

      Yeah, instead of having fifteen years of operating capital in the bank, now they have fifteen and a couple of months. Seriously, despite they hype they generate with their annual begging campaigns the Wikimedia Foundation/Wikipedia are swimming in buckets of cash.

    6. Re: 1 million dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been donating to them regularly for the past few years, but if they are doing really well right now then I may consider choosing a different org for a while. I'd be curious to see which orgs other /. users donate to.

    7. Re:1 million dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All for the lousy price of not having negative shit about Amazon and Bezos on their site.

  2. and what have you done? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Edited an anime article?

    1. Re:and what have you done? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I peed in your dad’s butt.

  3. Alexa and Wiki by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wikipedia is the free source for a lot of information providing products.

  4. Expenses by balsy2001 · · Score: 1

    Why does wikipedia need so much money? Isn’t most of the work done by unpaid people? I get there are servers and power etc, but they could have donated use of AWS. If they had free servers they would have to constantly be running a fund raising campaign.

    --
    GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    1. Re:Expenses by balsy2001 · · Score: 1

      *wouldn’t

      --
      GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    2. Re: Expenses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jimmy has acquired some expensive tastes. Not everyone needs a hooker each night and an 8 ball. However, not everyone produces the great wikipedo like jimmy.

      There may be some factual issues with the above statement as I acquired the information from wickedpedos.

    3. Re:Expenses by GuB-42 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Servers represent only 6% of Wikimedia foundation operating expenses. Staff is about 50%. For the details, see for yourself.

      https://meta.wikimedia.org/wik...

  5. It's not the money by xack · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wikip(m)edia has tons of money due to the regular begging campaigns it puts on it's website. Wikipedia instead could do with professional administrators with social skills (Unlike the abusive ones they have now) plus get rid of the notability policy and allow the true sum of human knowledge. I reckon Amazon with it's large AWS/S3 infrastructure and it's large amount of books could source a more reliable free encyclopedia.

    1. Re:It's not the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " I reckon Amazon with it's large AWS/S3 infrastructure and it's large amount of books could source a more reliable free encyclopedia." -If you trust them as the arbiters of determining truth or consensus in summaries. I sure don't!

      I'll take Wikipedia editing battles over corporate whitewashing any day. No question.

    2. Re: It's not the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If so, can you please personally tackle the Imelda Marcos page? The Beatles formed the opinion that one of their number would be kidnapped so Imelda Marcos could have her very own Beatle. The Beatles never toured again.

      Curiously, such doses of reality don't make it into the dizzying confection of hagiography that is the Imelda Marcos web page.

  6. They still want your $5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They still want your $5 because they never have enough, no matter how much they have.

  7. 3rd time I've been IMPERSONATED today... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & the rest listed here + why (butthurt ac who destroyed himself on hosts kernelmode) https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=12012911&cid=56473441/ vs. slower usermode (the little fuck that's doing this is a SERIOUS screwup, lol, hence the WEAK butthurt effete attempts @ "impersonating" me, via harassing others).

    * Unbelievable... lmao!

    APK

    P.S.=> That's probably the RESULT of being raised as a "soyboy" weasel for the whimp trying to make me look "bad" impersonating me - RoTfLmAo... apk

  8. Re: c6gunner IMPERSONATING me again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're either a fake APK or even more screwed up than any of us realize. You were harassing Zontar The Mindless with the same spam in the "MX Player" article. Or do you deny that you reply to Zontar and attack him?

  9. It's not the books. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Books aren't theirs, any more than Barnes and Nobles. Also I'd like to see a Wikipedia of visual images. Example a diagram of a suit of armor with everything clearly labeled.

    1. Re:It's not the books. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Like this?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Components_of_medieval_armour
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Components_of_medieval_armour#/media/File:Gothic_armour_with_list_of_elements.jpg

  10. Walk Away from CoCs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Free Software developers of the world, open your eyes! Our communities are bring raped, our work pillaged.

    Detestable villains - mean spirited, bigoted, belligerent, vicious - are using underhanded tricks to force hypocritical "Codes of Conduct" on the projects we built.

    The only purpose of these CoCs is to allow so-called "Progressives" to conduct witch hunts against anyone who opposes them. Thereby they plan to steal our work for their shadowy corporate paymasters.

    You can readily tell these CoCs are not about "just being nice" - because they are ALWAYS supported by the very LEAST NICE, most aggressively mean and shamelessly bigoted people you can imagine.

    If a project to which you contribute has been raped by CoC-mongers there is a simple solution: WALK AWAY. Never contribute again. If you have a patch almost ready, count the time you spent on it as a loss and throw it away. If you see a security issue, remain silent and do nothing. IT'S NO LONGER YOUR PROJECT. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME THERE.

    If you are evaluating new software, don't even consider any projects burdened under the tyranny of a CoC. It doesn't matter if they are technically superior - just don't consider them. Never be openly political, always make up a technical reason for rejecting CoCed projects.

    Don't argue in public about the CoC. Doing so only exposes you to needless risk. You might be dis-employed, blackballed, and even set up for a #MeToo purge. Just stay far away.

    Comrades: Individually we are powerless, and easily crushed beneath the iron boot of Corporate Social Just-Us. But together in solidarity we are millions and we are strong. The very Internet itself depends on our collective labor. If we stop working, the internet stops working.

    Free Software developers, save yourselves and save your communities! Just WALK AWAY from any project with a CoC. Without our labor they are nothing.

    1. Re: Walk Away from CoCs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Best advice ever--avoid anything to do with these oppressive codes of conduct.

      Here's some more: stop going to and especially stop presenting at meetings/conventions that adopt them as well. There's far too much of that going on in the IT world now too.

  11. I love Bezos now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just kidding, he should still be publicly executed

  12. Wikipedia editors are unpaid by AnthonywC · · Score: 1

    Amazon can just paid for all their hosting cost and Wikipedia should have zero expense. The $ going to Wikipedia ain't going to the editors, it is going to some board of directors and other big shot who probably doesn't even normally edit any article.

  13. Wikimedia Endowment by annysmithh · · Score: 1

    The main problem was that voice assistants were now serving as intermediaries between people and the encyclopedia, reducing the chances that people would contribute as publishers or respond to donation campaigns.

    --
    https://www.hptechsupportnumbers.com/hp-chromebook-laptop/
  14. c6gunner IMPERSONATING me again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: his FAKEname on a post impersonating me https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & altering /.er's words.

    c6gunner tried to mock me 1st https://linux.slashdot.org/com...

    So I challenge c6gunner to show he did better work than mine & he CAN'T!

    YOU DEMAND PROOF of others here? "I've yet to see you provide any evidence of that." by c6gunner on Monday March 15, 2010 @10:02PM (#31490942) ?

    So now I DEMAND IT OF YOU & YOU FAIL!

    c6gunner = "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!

    * c6gunner's LYING saying I did a MacOS X one - I haven't yet & c6gunner's LYING impersonating me hosts work vs. Intel CPU issues (spectre/meltdown).

    APK

    P.S.=> You say hosts = shit here https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? /.ers & security pros SAY DIFFERENT: /.ers https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments....

    SECURITY PROS https://slashdot.org/comments....

    REAL RESULTS w/ hosts vs. threats https://slashdot.org/comments....

    EAT YOUR WORDS!

  15. c6gunner IMPERSONATING me again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: his FAKEname on a post impersonating me https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & altering /.er's words.

    c6gunner tried to mock me 1st https://linux.slashdot.org/com...

    So I challenge c6gunner to show he did better work than mine & he CAN'T!

    YOU DEMAND PROOF of others here? "I've yet to see you provide any evidence of that." by c6gunner on Monday March 15, 2010 @10:02PM (#31490942) ?

    So now I DEMAND IT OF YOU & YOU FAIL!

    c6gunner = "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!

    * c6gunner's LYING saying I did a MacOS X one - I haven't yet & c6gunner's LYING impersonating me hosts work vs. Intel CPU issues (spectre/meltdown).

    APK

    P.S.=> You say hosts = shit here https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? /.ers & security pros SAY DIFFERENT: /.ers https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments.... https://slashdot.org/comments....

    SECURITY PROS https://slashdot.org/comments....

    REAL RESULTS w/ hosts vs. threats https://slashdot.org/comments....

    EAT YOUR WORDS!

  16. Different AC here, can confirm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They looted the GNOME foundation and spent all of the money on "diversity training" aka embezzlement to their friends to preach the virtues of their "social justice" religion. Look into who is attacking Linus and the Linux Foundation right now. It is the EXACT SAME PEOPLE.

    This is an organized and coordinated attack on Linux by third and fourth generation rich idiots using Standard Oil / JP Morgan money and more recent Pentagon contractor money in the case of the Strykers. They follow the same pattern every time: Infiltrate, invent a problem, expel the nonbelievers with fake claims of racism and sexism, spend all the money on themselves and positive PR, and promote themselves as the voices of the captured organization in their newspapers. They are all associated with the Rockefeller group of "social" organizations and "charitable" foundations like Arcus, MacArthur, and Kellogg. They have essentially infinite money backing them and you cannot call their bosses and get them fired because they are being paid to do exactly what they are doing.

    "Social Justice" is the religion of the Society of Jesus, the black operations division of the Vatican. If you are getting this in a publicly funded school, it is just as illegal as teaching any other kind of Christianity. Find a lawyer. Also be aware that al-Qaeda has started calling themselves "Social Justice" as well.