Google Commits $3.1 Million and Free Cloud APIs To Wikimedia (venturebeat.com)

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Google Commits $3.1 Million and Free Cloud APIs To Wikimedia (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @06:50AM from the perfect-match dept.

Google is expanding its support of Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia, as the search giant chases the next billion users. From a report: At World Economic Forum this week, Google committed to offer Wikipedia an additional $3.1 million, along with providing several of its machine learning tools to the editors of Wikipedia at no cost, the companies said. Google.org, thanks in part to contributions from employees, will be giving $1.1 million to the Wikimedia Foundation and $2 million to the Wikimedia Endowment, an independent fund that supports Wikipedia and other long-term Wikimedia projects.

As part of the announcement, the companies said they will be expanding Project Tiger, a joint initiative they launched in 2017 to increase the number of articles in underrepresented languages in India. They intend to provide editors with resources and insights to create new Wikipedia articles across 10 languages in India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The initiative is being rebranded as GLOW, which is supposed to stand for Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia.

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Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:56 · Score: 0

Will this mean that sad bearded guy stops begging on every Wikipedia page?
1. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:20 · Score: 0
  
  Will Jimbo Wales finally quit posting creepy pictures of himself on the main page demanding all readers to buy him a cup of coffee OR ELSE? These are worse than the X10 "Watch your guests pee" pop up ads.
2. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:23 · Score: 0
  
  Its all over people get a life. Especially the DBAs and so called help desk associates
3. Re:Good by Penguinisto · 2019-01-23 07:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Worse - it means that Google is taking a bigger interest in Wikipedia.
  Now whether it's just to get a fat tax write-off somewhere, or if there a strategic plan to slowly consume Wikipedia (by becoming its sole monetary/financial support), remains to be seen.
  Okay, that was all tinfoil-like, but the possibilities still exist. But, like it or lump it, Wikipedia is the first place people go to get info about something, and Google goes out of its way to prominently display the Wikipedia page for whatever subject you're searching for. The growing 'integration' is becoming more of a thing between the two entities.
  Now whether this is a good thing or bad, I leave to the reader... would it give Google control over what people learn? A little perhaps, but perhaps keeping Wikipedia independent enough to resist any such attempts isn't a bad thing, folks.
  
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  Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
4. Re:Good by bill_mcgonigle · 2019-01-23 10:08 · Score: 1
  
  Do we want the people who deplatformed Scott Horton and fired James Damore to control Wikipedia? Supposedly Google employees share internal blacklists of other employees who don't have Right Think and keep them away from projects of influence.
  https://youtu.be/uQ1JeII0eGo
  On the other hand, I think I've donated a higher percentage of my net worth to Wikimedia than Google is doing here, so it's probably just a token.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
5. Re: Good by backslashdot · 2019-01-23 11:51 · Score: 1
  
  No woman felt comfortable working around James Damore after he wrote what he wrote so they fired him. Makes sense to me unless he was more skilled than all of them combined. Itâ(TM)s just business sense. He stupidly brought it on himself, by his own actions he made women get creeped out by him.
  This has nothing to do with whether what he wrote was right or wrong. It made zero sense from a productivity standpoint to keep him hired.
  What did he expect Google to do? They had no choice. Keeping him as an employee would have reduced their profitability.
6. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 13:02 · Score: 0
  
  He looks just like that creepy blond bearded porn guy that has been in some videos for 15 years and started showing up in every other video a few years ago. And most of the time he insists on creampieing the chicks. Really creepy guy.
7. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 18:39 · Score: 0
  
  Women shouldn't be working in tech, because just like every other industry forced to integrate women, they perform poorly relative to men, and thus men end up doing all the "heavy lifting" anyway.
8. Re:Good by azcoyote · 2019-01-24 00:17 · Score: 1
  
  ... would it give Google control over what people learn?
  I don't know what you're talking about. I just asked Google Home, "Hey Google, Is Google taking over Wikipedia?" and it said, "My apologies, I don't understand." Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see what articles Google suggests for me on Google News.
  
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  Incipiamus, fratres, servire Domino Deo, quia hucusque vix vel parum in nullo profecimus.
9. Re: Good by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-24 04:14 · Score: 0
  
  You All want his cream bitches
  Just admit it already
How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:56 · Score: 1

So Google commits .0028% of their 2018 revenue. And we're supposed to be impressed?
How about Google stop raping people's privacy?
1. Re: How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:18 · Score: 0
  
  No. Far too little far too late to free up such resources. Truly is all anyone needs to hear
2. Re: How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:34 · Score: 0
  
  Oh look, one of the so-called """Great White Males""" is thrasing about uselessly again, knowing that their day is over, that they either have to evolve with the rest of our species, or be relegated to the scrapheap -- and, of course, being the totally rigid, inflexible, calcified fossil he is, flatly refuses to re-evaluate his attitudes and worldview, preferring to stick with a 1940's mindset (which any normal kid grows out of by about age 15) and two-dimensional thinking.
  
  MAGA! MAGA! TRUMP! TRUMP! STICK IT TO THE LIBERALS!
  You're an embarassment to the entire human species. Why can't you just die already? You're at least 70 years old, you're obese, high cholesterol, heart failing, why can't you just gracefully die, instead of thrashing about and causing all the damage you cause to everyone and everything around you? Seriously someone should just put you and your kind out of your misery so the rest of the world can get on with life without your bullshit holding back progress. Your day is OVER and you have to ACCEPT THAT. Being white and male is MEANINGLESS now. Women and minorities have the vote, that's not going to change, we have Civil Rights for all, that's not going to change, we have the Internet and fast, cheap travel to anywhere on the planet, that's not going to change. We're not going to have World War 3, that's not going to happen either. Either change your worldview and mindset or go sit somewhere and BE QUIET until you die. Go watch your Matlock reruns and STFU, old man.
3. Re: How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:43 · Score: 0
  
  You're one of those mixed breeds of negrillo and a stupid monkey, aren't you? Can't find your place in society so you have to turn it into shit for everyone.
4. Re: How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 08:24 · Score: 0
  
  Says the pinkie dick incel.
5. Re:How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 09:05 · Score: 0
  
  I'd like them to commit a few hundred dollars to fixing google groups
6. Re: How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 11:17 · Score: 0
  
  You burger chewing, soda guzzling amerifats are funny. Your fake "leftists" peddling anti-white racism and identity politics are a disgrace. In civilized countries, it's the far right that is playing identity politics games.
7. Re:How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 11:54 · Score: 0
  
  Can you just imagine the user DATA they will get from being intimately involved with Wikipedia? Ooh, it makes me just SWOON!
8. Re:How generous! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 12:07 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah there's no way Google is doing this out of altruism.
Did I donate to Wikimedia for this? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:57 · Score: 0

I feel suckered into donating this during Wiki's drive. If they announced the purpose of their funding along with their donation request, they would not have received the same support. They've lost credibility.
1. Re:Did I donate to Wikimedia for this? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 09:24 · Score: 0
  
  Soooooo..... are you saying that, if you knew this was coming you would NOT have donated to Wikimedia?
  Do you think they've lost credibility because they've accepted a huge chuck of money from a corporation instead of only collecting money from anonymous cowards like you and me?
The real reason by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:58 · Score: 0

Anything to get rid of the damn headers of Jimmy Wales on top of every article.
GLLCOW by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:58 · Score: 0

I appreciate fun acronym names as much as the next guy, but isn't it the rule that you have to hamfist the words so the starting letters at least match the acronym?
Editorial control? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 06:59 · Score: 0

"Cloud Vision API will enable editors to digitize public domain books in Indic languages to include more diverse and reputable sources for citations."
Somehow I don't feel good about Google's software "including more diverse and reputable sources".
Machine Learning by phantomfive · 2019-01-23 07:10 · Score: 1

Why does Wikipedia need machine learning?

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
1. Re:Machine Learning by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:13 · Score: 0
  
  Machine Learning is great for language translation
2. Re:Machine Learning by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:23 · Score: 0
  
  I hope it is a funny way of saying they're finally adding a spellchecker.
3. Re:Machine Learning by Desler · 2019-01-23 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  Who doesn't need machine learning?
Bots by JBMcB · 2019-01-23 07:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

They already use bots to do basic housekeeping - looking out for vandalism, updating links, flagging dead links, applying style templates, stuff like that. I could see where some basic machine learning algorithms might come in handy looking for vandalism - IE loads of unsigned edits coming from a particular IP address, copypasta, etc...

--
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Wippidum Cum Bum by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:25 · Score: 0

Fuckle dee dee. Fuckle dee doo.
I'm just a monkey who like to fling poo.
1. Re: Wippidum Cum Bum by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 08:04 · Score: 0
  
  Stupid fuckin honky. Fuckin white bread fuckin whitie cracker honky fuckin white trash. Get back in the trash where you belong you fuckin racist bigot trash honky cracker.
Bing? Yahoo? DuckDuckGo? Baidu? Amazon? Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 07:28 · Score: 0

I'd like to see other powerhouses of data collection step forward and ALSO donate money to Wikimedia.
Google subverting Wikimedia/Wikipedia? by Rick+Schumann · 2019-01-23 07:36 · Score: 1

Subject line says it all. Is this Googles' plan? Take over Wikimedia/Wikipedia through 'donations'? Why not, Special Interest Groups have been doing it with politicians since time immemorial..
1. Re:Google subverting Wikimedia/Wikipedia? by rtb61 · 2019-01-23 16:19 · Score: 1
  
  There has been a distinct shift in Wikipedia, there are a lot more 'PAID' contributors than there used to be as in paid by government and corporations to creatively contribute to articles for marketing and political purposes. It can definitely feel that tilt in many articles, propaganda replacing truth. I would guess there are now thousands of paid Wikipedia contributors, not paid by them of course, simply squatting and spreading their propaganda poop there.
  
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  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Need any more proof of insourcing? by Shaitan · 2019-01-23 07:40 · Score: 1

"As part of the announcement, the companies said they will be expanding Project Tiger, a joint initiative they launched in 2017 to increase the number of articles in underrepresented languages in India. They intend to provide editors with resources and insights to create new Wikipedia articles across 10 languages in India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region."
Not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth by slack_justyb · 2019-01-23 07:42 · Score: 1

This should be the norm for service providers that utilize a service not in house. Google, Apple, and Amazon among others routinely query Wikipedia for all kinds of things and then provide the results of the query as part of their service. Google, Apple, and Amazon need to step up to providing meaningful support to third parties that they use for their service, just not the most visible one, in this case Wikipedia. IMHO tossing a million here and a million there to Wikipedia is definitely a step, but Google providing no-cost usage of their services is much better than what I've seen and heard other big players providing them. It would definitely be a whole lot better if Google et al was providing that which was listed in level of support from Google to all of the third party services.
1. Re:Not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 08:56 · Score: 0
  
  and if somebody wants to save Wiki from one evil giant corpus, then arranging to have 3 of them share it sounds like a plan.
or just download wikipedia by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 08:02 · Score: 0

Let's put it on the internet! It's ALWAYS better on the internet!
Itâ(TM)s a trap by Midnight+Thunder · 2019-01-23 13:45 · Score: 1

Theyâ(TM)ll lure Wikipedia in and the decide they donâ(TM)t want to support those APIs anymore. What LTS plan?

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Jumpstart the tartan drive.
That worked out really well for Deja-News. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-23 17:38 · Score: 0

That worked out really well for Deja-News.