Wikimedia Gets $2 Million Grant From Omidyar Network

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 25, 2009 - 12:02pm.

Redwood City, Calif. - Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm launched in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, on Tuesday announced a grant of up to $2 million over the next two years to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates user-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Wikimedia also has appointed Matt Halprin, a partner at Omidyar, to its board of trustees.

Separately, The New York Times reported that Wikipedia plans to begin imposing a layer of editorial review on articles about living people.

"There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion -- whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now," Wikimedia board chairman Michael Snow told The Times.

An experienced editor will now have to first approve any edits to a public figure's entry before they are posted.

The German version of Wikipedia has been experimenting with this system, and counts nearly 7,500 editors empowered to improve changes.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/r39so

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html

http://wikimediafoundation.org