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Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

wikimediafoundation.org

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Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#51

Post by danuker »

jerry1979 wrote: post #37
flipbrad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a read of this: https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay... ?

So summarize, are they more-or-less capping their APIs and charging for content they serve beyond that cap?

Not quite.

> access to Wikimedia content by reusers is currently achieved through three broad means: Scraping of web pages; data dumps; and APIs. These services are provided freely to all reusers of Wikimedia content. They are and will remain free, libre and gratis, to everyone.

> What many of the largest commercial technology organizations require in order to effectively utilize Wikimedia content goes beyond what we currently provide.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#52

Post by abbe98 »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #19

Google already scrapes and utilizes all of Wikipedia's contents to use in its "knowledge graph", and donates a substantial amount to the WMF in return. This simply formalizes the financial agreement and moves the data exchange to an api that is presumably more convenient and less resource intensive for both parties, while offering the same access for any other enterprise customer (and the internet archive gets it for…

It also ensures that Google follows the license requirements of Wikimedia data as as it becomes a contractual issue rather than a license issue with each contributor.

It seems for example that Google has recently resolved some long standing issues with attribution in various products(YouTube Music comes to mind).

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#53

Post by themitigating »

robonerd wrote: post #33
exolymph wrote: post #30

At this point, Wikimedia the organization is parasitic on Wikipedia the open-source information project. The latter generates all the goodwill and the former fucks around doing vanity projects with the ensuing resources. What's that pithy "law" about eventually any organization existing simply to perpetuate itself and serve the insiders who work there, rather than further its mission? Ironically what came to mind is…

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective…

Doesn't this apply to any organization? If you care about the goals of an organization you are going to be promoted because of your value to that task nor would you seem it. Those that don't are going to care more about the organizations structure and focus on improving their standing.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#54

Post by abbe98 »

I think the big benefit for Google and Co here is SLA and support, Wikimedia gives contributors and partners access for free...

A win for Wikimedia beyond diversified funding is also that Google and other corporations gets an contractual obligation to follow Wikimedia licensing.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#55

Post by wmfanon9973 »

onphonenow wrote: post #36
exolymph wrote: post #30

At this point, Wikimedia the organization is parasitic on Wikipedia the open-source information project. The latter generates all the goodwill and the former fucks around doing vanity projects with the ensuing resources. What's that pithy "law" about eventually any organization existing simply to perpetuate itself and serve the insiders who work there, rather than further its mission? Ironically what came to mind is…

I think they are doing 100M+ per year to run the servers, manage PR / legal / HR issues.

They have so much more money than they need, they're giving away donor funds to other organizations:

https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@list...

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#56

Post by danuker »

endisneigh wrote: post #7
cgb223 wrote: post #5

So now, if a Google related Wikipedia article has something added to it that Google doesn’t like, they can suggest to Wikimedia they might not renew their contract unless things are “made right” Google is just one example of this. Any company now has a pathway to do so. I think this is terrible incentives, and destroys the goal of having an Encyclopedia free from interference where only truth can come through

Google could already do this per your hypothetical given that Google donates millions.

That doesn't argue for going further in serving Google.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#57

Post by danuker »

robonerd wrote: post #28
LordDragonfang wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read it again, it gives them quicker notification that an article has been vandalized/changed in an important way by normal editors, it doesn't give them any special control over any page's content.

Quicker notifications means a tighter OODA loop, e.g. more control.

Time for me to look into downloading Wikipedia and using it offline.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#58

Post by danuker »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #19

Google already scrapes and utilizes all of Wikipedia's contents to use in its "knowledge graph", and donates a substantial amount to the WMF in return. This simply formalizes the financial agreement and moves the data exchange to an api that is presumably more convenient and less resource intensive for both parties, while offering the same access for any other enterprise customer (and the internet archive gets it for…

> to an api that is presumably more convenient and less resource intensive for both parties

Not quite. It sounds like they will increase bandwidth for the API.

> What many of the largest commercial technology organizations require in order to effectively utilize Wikimedia content goes beyond what we currently provide.

Re: Wikimedia Enterprise announces Google and Internet Archive as first customers

#59

Post by jrochkind1 »

david_allison wrote: post #39
jrochkind1 wrote: post #35

OK, can anyone explain succinctly what "Wikimedia Enteprise" actually is, as a product? It is described as a product. What does it do? The press release isn't helping me much.

https://enterprise.wikimedia.com/ - an API to access Wikimedia content: * Snapshots of a Wikimedia project - updated daily * On-demand access to articles * Hook into a stream of changes to articles

Huh. Some of that I think some people hoped would be available (for free) via things like WikiData. I guess nobody should wait for that.

My somewhat concern is that the wikipedia project has kind of put a flag in the ground to say that providing free access to wikipedia is no longer part of their mission if it's automated/bulk access.

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