September 10, 2008
Written by Ameed Taylor
Jimmy Wales sat down this week with a group of Bloggers and analysts prior to his keynote address opening the 2008 SAP TechEd conference in Las Vegas and discussed a number of topics relating to Wikimedia.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization set up to encourage the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.
The Wikimedia Foundation also operates Wikimedia Commons, the repository of free images and other media and MediaWiki, the popular open source wiki software behind a huge number of corporate wikis.
I asked Mr. Wales what the Wikimedia Foundation’s plans were to increase revenue, especially now that the foundation has increased its staff.
Mr Wales said that the Wikimedia Foundation has to date relied on individual donations and volunteer efforts to achieve its mission and one of the longstanding goals of the foundation has been to increase revenue so that it can expand its mission and keep Wikipedia and the various Wikimedia projects running.
Mr. Wales mentioned that the foundation has recently hired dedicated fundraising staff and is looking at several strategies to increase revenue including:
- Working with additional philanthropic Institutions like the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to increase grants and donations to the Wikimedia Foundation
- Spending time contacting wealthy donors who the Wikimedia Foundation in the past could not engage due to the small size of the foundations staff
- Utilizing the Wikipedia brand in co-licensing deals with Mobile Carriers for example, who want to offer a quick and easy way for thier customers to access Wikipedia
- Creating Wikipedia Branded Books
- Launching Wikipedia Branded Games
Mr. Wales said that all of the ideas for raising addition revenue have to adhere to the Wikimedia Foundations values and that the Wikimedia Foundation will never considered offering advertising on its varied projects. But with a dedicated fundraising staff in place he and the Wikimedia team look forward to working through the various ideas and strategies.
August 6, 2008
Written by Ameed Taylor
Kitchener, Ontario based IGLOO’s foundation began with a not-for-profit research centre called the Centre for International Governance(CIGI) founded by Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM)
In 2003, CIGI, created a free online research network called IGLOO (International Governance Leaders and Organizations Online) that connected researchers, practitioners and educators around the world.
By 2008 Igloo.org had further evolved into a for profit firm with a focus on creating On Demand Corporate Social Networking software with Web 2.0 tools for content management, collaboration, social networking and administration.
IGlOO offers 3 versions of it’s Corporate Social Networking (CSN) software:
- Lite Edition
- Pro Edition
- Enterprise Edition
IGLOO’s Lite Edition contains IGLOO’s content management platform and social networking tools and is optimized for corporate pilots, or group work spaces for teams. Priced at $4,999 USD annually or 449 USD per month, the Lite edition comes with a basic self service support portal.
IGLOO’s Pro Edition is designed for company-wide networking and knowledge sharing. Pro Edition adds Corporate Social Networking tools, Blogs, Wiki’s and forums. Data Storage and Data Transfer are increased to 50 GB in the Pro Edition. Pro Edition is priced at $9,999 USD annually or $999 USD per month.
Available add on support packages for both the Lite and Pro Editions include a Silver level of Support for $1,000 USD per year and a Gold Level of Support for $2,500 USD per year.
IGLOO’s Enterprise Edition is designed for use outside of the corporate firewall and adds multiple domains, up to ten online communities, multinational deployment support and free silver level support. Data storage and data transfer clock increase to 100 GB in the Enterprise Edition. Pricing for the Enterprise Edition is based on a number of factors and is not disclosed on the IGLOO website.
IGLOO offers a Wizard based Setup for each of its edition’s. The Setup Wizard allows a user to choose what WEB 2.0 features will be used in the CSN, look and feel of the CSN in addition to administrator tasks such as permission setup and reporting.
IGLOO Web 2.0 tools are similar to tools in competing CSN offerings with the IGLOO differentiator being that the tools are a bit more polished than some of the newer entrants in the CSN Space.
IGLOO is utilized by 150,000 end users at customers including Amnesty International, Arizona State University, Deloitte, Motorola and the Royal Bank of Canada. Future updates of IGLOO will include features like social graphing, Microsoft Outlook integration, additional mobile device support and connectors to Enterprise Apps and Microsoft SharePoint.
IGLOO offers a very comprehensive Corporate Social Network solution that can fit any size non-profit or corporate site. Smaller companies and non-profits may have a hard time digesting the pricing of the Lite Edition but the pricing of IGLOO’s offerings is in line with most of its competitors.
March 14, 2008
Written by Ameed Taylor
2008 TED Prize winner David Eggers wish at the recent TED 2008 conference in Monterey was to ask anyone in a position to help “to find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area” and then share the story of their involvement with the public school on the OnceUponASchool.org website.
826 National, TED & Hot Studio stepped up and helped make the first part of David’s wish come true by creating the Once Upon A School website.
In the 2 weeks that the website has been live there have been a number of potential project ideas created where technology companies could pledge to help. Once Upon A School is seeking 1000 pledges nationwide from individuals and or companies ready to help their local public school.
A few of the recently listed project ideas that would make excellent pledge projects for Enterprise 2.0/Web2.0 companies include:
- Scaling up the OnceUponASchool.org website site so that it includes social networking functionality.
- Building out a robust tracking system for projects/ideas/stories.
- Institute an internship program that actively recruits from the nearest struggling public school.
- Help a school develop a useful website presence.
At Applation we are discussing making a pledge to start an internship program with a local Phoenix Area High School in the fall.
This is a very worthwhile cause and effort that hopefully will gain traction nationwide. The OnceUponASchool.org website mentions that there have been 100 pledge committments so far but there is still a gap to get to the goal of 1000 pledges.
