| Revision as of 19:36, 28 June 2003 view sourceMartinHarper (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers24,927 editsm rm user: link← Previous edit | Revision as of 19:37, 28 June 2003 view source MartinHarper (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers24,927 editsm rm another user: linkNext edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| The '''Wikimedia Foundation''' is the parent organization of ], ] and ]. It is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of ], ]. Its existence was officially announced by ] CEO |
The '''Wikimedia Foundation''' is the parent organization of ], ] and ]. It is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of ], ]. Its existence was officially announced by ] CEO Jimbo Wales on ], ]. The name "Wikimedia" was coined by ] in a ] mailing list post and the domain name http://wikimedia.org was secured for the then future Foundation by Daniel Mayer. | ||
| The goals of the foundation are to encourage the growth and development of ], ]-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge and without advertising. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general ] and ] named Misplaced Pages, there is a multi-language ] and ] named Wiktionary and plans to start a project to write open-content ]s. The Foundation will also manage the operations of the largely dormant Nupedia project (which is not a wiki but is open content). | The goals of the foundation are to encourage the growth and development of ], ]-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge and without advertising. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general ] and ] named Misplaced Pages, there is a multi-language ] and ] named Wiktionary and plans to start a project to write open-content ]s. The Foundation will also manage the operations of the largely dormant Nupedia project (which is not a wiki but is open content). | ||
Revision as of 19:37, 28 June 2003
The Wikimedia Foundation is the parent organization of Misplaced Pages, Wiktionary and Nupedia. It is a non-profit corporation organized under the laws of Florida, USA. Its existence was officially announced by Bomis CEO Jimbo Wales on June 20, 2003. The name "Wikimedia" was coined by Sheldon Rampton in a WikiEN-l mailing list post and the domain name http://wikimedia.org was secured for the then future Foundation by Daniel Mayer.
The goals of the foundation are to encourage the growth and development of open content, WikiWiki-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge and without advertising. In addition to managing the already developed multilingual general encyclopedia and almanac named Misplaced Pages, there is a multi-language dictionary and thesaurus named Wiktionary and plans to start a project to write open-content textbooks. The Foundation will also manage the operations of the largely dormant Nupedia project (which is not a wiki but is open content).
With the Foundation's announcement, Wales also transferred ownership of all Misplaced Pages, Wiktionary and Nupedia domain names to Wikimedia along with the copyrights for all materials related to these projects that were created by Bomis employees or Wales himself. The computer equipment used to run all the Wikimedia projects is still the property of Bomis but Wales mentioned the possibility of transferring these assets to the Foundation in the near future.
Wales previously mentioned on several occasions that bandwidth and power will continue to be provided by Bomis free of charge for these projects. It is hoped that the existence of the non-profit foundation will make it possible to generate enough revenue through donations and grants to ensure the continued growth of each of the Wikimedia projects.
External links
- Wikimedia.org website (under construction, no content yet)
- Announcement of Wikimedia's founding
- Wikimedia's meta page
- Sheldon Ramptom's WikiEN-l post