Wikimedia

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF, or simply Wikimedia) is an American foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It owns and operates the Wikimedia projects. It was established in 2003 by Jimmy Wales as a way to fund Wikipedia and its sibling projects through non-profit means. The Foundation has grown rapidly throughout its existence. By 2022, it employed around 700 staff and contractors, with annual revenues of $155 million, annual expenses of $146 million, net assets of $240 million and a growing endowment, which surpassed $100 million in June 2021.

Quotes

• I hope so. :-) Although the wiki process sometimes strikes people as being inherently favoring egalitarianism or anarchy, there is a certain sense in which the wiki editing tool is neutral to social structures. As a matter of simple description, it does turn out that users who do quality work end up having a lot more power than users who do bad work. So in that sense, yes, it is a meritocracy, but an informal one.
  • Jimbo Wales in Interview with Jimbo Wales (December 10, 2005) answering the question: Do ... Wiki projects qualify as a meritocracy?

• The fact that the banner is still up there means that Wikimedia is okay with it. That they allow the use of their brand assets in this way, including their logo and the virtual 'real estate' used by the banner outside the defined article content, means a tacit endorsement. This is especially striking, as organizations are usually very protective of their brand assets and don't normally allow their use in this manner.

There are many terminology-related issues, which are smaller but still very important. There is an ongoing and extensive effort to change previous references to the IDF as 'the (Israeli) occupation army,' and 'Civilians' are sometimes referred to as 'settlers.' There's an attempt to legitimize the massacre based on Hamas's 'Our Narrative' document and to hide or downplay any harm done to civilians.

Wikipedia is used in universities as a starter for any research and is used popularly as an almost automatic fact-checking apparatus. The next big challenge will also involve AI and the language models that will train them. This is a front no less important than the physical battlefield.

• • Shira Gutgold, an independent researcher on Arabic Wikipedia according to Wikipedia in Arabic: A hotbed for bigotry, misinformation, and bias - investigative report (NOVEMBER 3, 2024)