It would be the end of one of the greatest Web domains every created on the Internet. Wikimedia says funding issues could force it to shut down in less than half a year.
“It seems that Florence Devourad, chairwoman of the Wikipedia Foundation, has warned the audience this morning…that they need more funds to keep servers up and running,” writes one blogger in a recent post.
According to news coming from the blogosphere, the popular Web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia might be in some financial trouble that could result in disaster for millions of online folk who now call Wikipedia their online resource for everything.
“At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months,” Devourad said. “If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear”.
The announcement was made at Lift07, a conference about technology.
As this author notes, it’s a good example of how difficult it is to find a viable business model in the days of the Internet.
There are a number of sites reporting this, but I’m not entirely certain about this story yet. Anyone who finds more up-to-date info is welcome to post more links below.
Here’s to hoping something can be done to save the Wikis.
