Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia

Michelle CosicoBA 190 - Strategic Management

University of the PhilippinesProf. Mita Angela M. Dimalanta

VisionImagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.

MissionTo empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

• Freedom• Accessibility and quality• Independence• Commitment to openness and diversity• Transparency• Our community is our biggest asset

Values

Competitive Environment

1768 Late 1980s

1993 Late 1990s 2001

Business Strategy• Innovation: - Open-source model

• Social Entrepreneurship: - Crowdsourcing approach

The crowdsourcing approach – per Wikipedians– is vital to the success and growth of Wikipedia. Wikipedians are attracted to the idea of contributing to the site because of its social impact. Since there is no monetary compensation in return, Wikipedia could consider other ways to retain its core contributors. Wikipedia could continuously innovate and develop new services over time. By incorporating other educational and ease of access tools, editors and readers will have a better experience with Wikipedia as compared to new online encyclopedias. Wikipedia needs to ensure that its open source software is updated, easy to use, and truly inclusive. Wikipedia could allot time and resources in creating a good support system for the software which will guarantee undisrupted work for the editors.

1. How can Wikipedia maintain and grow its ability to harness the crowdsourcing of its “Wikipedians” to maintain high-quality (and quickly updated) content?

Wikipedia received a steady amount of donations large enough to support its operations. It raised $24 million in 2011, $35 million in 2012, $51 million for 2013-2014, and $ 75 million for 2014-2015. Funds are used for software support and improvement, server maintenance, creation of global projects focused on maintaining and increasing its contributors, other projects that enable the site to be accessible, and salaries for site operators, administration, and staff. Should Wikipedia choose to adopt other business models like those proprietary in nature, it will gain in the short run. However, since this new business model is not in line with its vision, mission, and core values, its strategies will become distorted and Wikipedia will suffer in the long run.

2. As Wikipedia keeps growing, do you think it can continue to rely exclusively on donations? Why or why not? What other “business models” could be considered? Would any of those “violate the spirit of Wikipedia”? Why or why not?

This is why Wikipedia refuses to adopt online advertising as a source of revenue, and chooses to rely on crowdsourcing and donations it receives. Wikipedia adheres to its principle of being a non-profit organization. Even without adopting a proprietary model, Wikipedia can rely on donations, both in money and time. Wikipedia’s main resource is its more than 32 million volunteers with 300,000 of them providing edits at least monthly. It’s cost of providing its main product, information, is low and sustained by crowdsourcing. Donations received can sufficiently cover for other costs which include site improvement to retain its volunteers and donors.

A “neutral point of view” matters greatly to the sustainability of Wikipedia. Failing to maintain this perspective results to loss of its contents’ credibility and reliability. Since Wikipedia has a number of competitors in the online encyclopedia and reference industry, it stands to lose a large number of readers or customers could they regard Wikipedia as biased. Crowdsourcing ensures objectivity if editors and the users have a clear understanding of neutrality. The Wikipedia site provides guidelines, the ways to achieve neutrality, and proper ways of handling neutrality disputes and controversial subjects for editors to follow.

3. What, if anything, could Wikipedia do to ensure that its articles indeed present a “neutral point of view”? Couldn’t the crowdsourcing approach ensure objectivity? Does a “neutral point of view” matter to Wikipedia’s sustainability? Why or why not?

Since Wikipedia already has these policies, key concern now is implementation. Wikipedia could focus more on making editors understand guidelines better and creating incentives for them to follow. Wikipedia can create a rating system for each article (especially those political in nature) that readers can use to grade content based on its neutrality. With this, an article perceived to be biased can be edited by more users, thus weakening tendency of leaning towards just one point of view. A more neutral point of view is emerging in the Wikipedia site as more users from different generations and cultures contribute.

The long tail reflects 80% of the product category that’s not considered part of the mainstream portion. The remaining 20 % of the category is comprised of products that are popular and able to bring in revenues to the firm. The latter portion is called the short tail and is responsible for bringing 80% of total sales in a given product. The long tail is an avenue for a company to acquire a significant amount of their revenues from selling a small number of quantities from unlimited choices.

With the commercialization of Internet use and rapid growth of technology, businesses are shifting to e-commerce because of its low cost advantages. There is an improved process of matching the individual demand with the supply and increasing the number of units sold due to lower transaction costs. With this, the long tail is created.

4. How has the “long tail” affected Wikipedia?

For Wikipedia, the short tail is represented by the printed encyclopedia industry dominated by Encyclopedia Britannica. Content and information offered by Britannica represented only 20 % of the product category. By using the technology, Wikipedia created a repository of knowledge far larger than what Encyclopedia Britannica and other printed encyclopedias offer. This resulted to creation of the other 80 % of the product category or those articles that were not considered before as pertinent or worthy of being included in encyclopedias. This portion becomes the long tail portion of the encyclopedia product category which is used by Wikipedia as its advantage. By operating in the long tail portion, Wikipedia has access to an untapped and broader market of readers compared to the saturated market faced by those operating in the short tail.

Crowdsourcing. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing

Open-source software (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management (Vol. 2). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Fundraising 2012/Report. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/Report

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Fundraising/2013-14 Report. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2013-14_Report

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). 2014-2015 Fundraising Report. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2014-2015_Fundraising_Report

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Mission Statement. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mission_statement

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Values. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Values

Wikimedia Foundation. (n.d.). Vision. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vision

Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view

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