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[edit] Holler about the Dollars

A lot of our ideas on what to investigate next on Wikipedia comes from our loyal fans, who write in with suggestions of impropriety, wastefulness, misguided priorities and hubris. And that's just in Jimbo's interviews!

But seriously, these qualities show up in describing issues of money. Yes, it's a free world and how and what is involved in the money of Wikipedia is not 100% anybody's business... although as a non-profit organization, there are definitely requirements of oversight and accountability. That said, people just can't look away when they start thinking about what Wikipedia costs, what it's doing with incoming cash, what money goes to Jimbo, to his staff, to projects related to Wikipedia. And we really do get a lot of mail about it, but none of the stuff we get really adds up to a whole new "article".

So, we're just going to dump all the "money" stuff in this page, and let us all wallow in our grimy little insistence on knowing just what the hell is up with the bucks.

For the purpose of this catch-all collection of money, we're going to include actions of the Wikipedia Foundation, Wikimedia, Wikia, and a number of other little side-projects of Jimbo Wales, Danny Wool, and various Wikipedians under this header. As you'll see below, some of them are good at shuffling money around and keeping up "appearances" that seem kosher on first view. Just because something isn't part of the direct Wikipedia doesn't mean we're not talking about relevant stuff.

So SHOW US THE MONEY!

[edit] My Name is Jimbo Wales, I own a Mansion and a Yacht

Naturally, eyes are on Jimbo himself, who is known to have yanked in some major bucks in at least two endeavors, one an options trading company called Chicago Options Associates, Inc. (COA) and a later pornographic search engine called Bomis.

COA was located in Chicago (incorporated in Delaware, of course) and is where Jimbo has claimed in several interviews to have gotten independently wealthy, trading futures on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange. Among the people who he worked with was a fellow named Michael E. Davis. At some point, Jimbo got either bored or scared and left COA to move to the west coast.

While at the west coast, Jimbo started up Bomis, which was a search engine with a real "Maxim"-like bent; include lots of pictures of barely-dressed chicks and throw a little text input box in there somewhere, and get some money. And he definitely got some money from it, no doubt.

It was at Bomis that Jimbo started working on a variety of information services, one of which became the Nupedia. The history of Nupedia becoming Wikipedia is well-documented in many places, as well as the story of how Jimbo kept kicking the co-creator of Nupedia/Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, in his academic nuts after Sanger left the organization.

We're not qualified to know what was going through Jimbo's head at the time of the creation of these endeavors, but it's worthwhile to mention that there is a well-defined template in the lives of many people who got to the top on the shoulders and faces of others having a change of heart later in life. Andrew Carnegie, Prescott Bush, Joe P. Kennedy and William Gates III all did semi-questionable things in the crux of their financial lives which they later slathered over with charitable and good works. It's not too much of a stretch to figure out the "evil" in Wikipedia's creation isn't there at all, but represents a rich man's musing, "Now, what the hell else do I do?".

Jimbo lives in St. Petersburg, Florida (near it, actually) with his family, and the Wikipedia-related organizations all make their home there as well.

Jimbo, being the Lord God All Hail His Name Supreme Benevolent Leader Of The Greatest Website Mankind Has Ever Known, is available for speaking engagements for a fee. (He does plenty for no fee, of course.) His page at the International Speakers Bureau tells you an interesting little biography of him, but holds back on what his fee is; we have had it told to us that the fee is in the range of tens of thousands of dollars plus travel expenses, but we're still waiting for some confirmation on that.

What we're not waiting for is to mention the little trickery that Jimbo does with regard to his speaking engagements. As discussed in this Wikimedia Foundation thread, Jimbo does not consider talking about Wikipedia to conventions, conferences and events to be something he's doing for Wikimedia, but speaking specifically as Jimbo Wales:

I think this concept of the Foundation receiving speaker's fees makes a lot of sense for employees of the foundation, just as it might for any organization where speakers are being paid by the organization and the speaking is a part of what their salary covers. For volunteers, this makes significantly less sense to me. I have for a very long time now stressed to everyone who invites me to speak that they are inviting me in my personal capacity. So this policy will have no impact on me. But it could have impact on many others. — Jimbo Wales [1]

What Jimbo is basically saying is that if he gets paid to talk, the money's ending up in Jimbo's wallet, baby. But if someone else who works for the Foundation talks, well.... they might want to tithe a bit to the Foundation's piggy bank.

This even got the attention of Queen Beesley, in the same thread:

This is where, in my opinion, we hit the borderline case. If you take every single speech in your personal capacity, what chance is there that organisations that would like to help the projects as a whole ever can? Of course they want Jimmy Wales. But if you never are tasked with the role of representing the Foundation, and hence bring some of the honoraria into the organisation, there is a big chance that we'll never see the first cent of anything. Although I do agree with you that people should be able to take whatever money is given to them, I also believe that *some* of it should go to the Foundation....I am not saying all of it, I am not even putting forward a percentage, but the Foundation has to see a return on investment in the time and money they put in providing speakers to the organisations that ask for them... This includes all volunteers, and in my opinion, you. — Angela Beesley [2]

Expect more of this "dissonance" about what Jimbo thinks is A-OK and everyone else thinks, over time.

[edit] Chicago Options Associates

As someone employed at COA, Jimbo Wales made what we call in the financial business "a blazing fuck-ton" of money. Enough money that he could move to pretty expensive cost-of-living areas of the US and ultimately set up the Bomis and Nupedia/Wikipedia server farm, as well as contract developers to do work on the projects.

Others made some good bank as well, including Michael E. Davis, who worked with Jimmy at Chicago Options Associates as the CEO, that is, the grand poobah, the big kahuna.

A number of folks have gone crazy e-mailing us the proceedings of a court case involving Mr. Davis, specifically one where Mr. Davis was sued by a Brian Dowling over contract agreements of compensation in lieu of negotiations to join COA. Ultimately, Davis lost this case and was found at fault, and was told in October of 2002 that he was to pay Mr. Downing the paltry sum of $817,830.45. That's a lot of money.

Naturally, Davis has been fighting this tooth and nail, and the two have been locked in battle ever since, but the most recent break in this situation regards attempts to get this money by Dowling. Here's the court case, in case you're wondering where we're getting this all from.

Feel free to read it all if you're into that kind of shit, but we'll summarize. After losing the court case, Michael Davis shifted a lot of money into a lot of directions, all of which he claims are legitimate, but which basically made it very hard for the winner in the case, Brian Dowling, to get his money. So Dowling filed appeals and tried to get the money back, including a lot of money that was given to Davis' lawyers as a "retainer".

Now, why do we give a flying goddamn about what happened to some ex-co-worker of Jimbo Wales 10 years ago?

Because Michael E. Davis is now on the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia foundation and Chief Operating Officer of Wikia, Inc. [3]

Attempts to put any of this information up on Wikipedia gets yanked down faster than you can say "Oversight with a dash of Office". This is to be expected, but it doesn't make any of what's being said here any less true.

We'll let you know how this story develops.

[edit] Paying to Speak at Wikimania

Traditionally at events such as Wikimania which are run by an organization like Wikipedia, the speakers are either compensated for their time and travel, or at least are let into the proceedings for free. The idea is that these speakers bring value, and therefore you want as many quality ones as possible.

This letter was sent to us in May of 2006; we're including the criticism of ourselves just to be complete:

I don't always approve of the form you put it, but I think it's good
what you are doing.

I don't like censorship. I don't like the "Wikipedia is an
encyclopedia so we don't want your shitty article" attitude. I don't
like secrecy about matters that should be open. Though I understand
that some secrecy can only be answered by secrecy. that's why I ask
you not to publish my name or nick name.

I also personally know some of the people you mock, and I think the
mocking is wrong. The message doesn't need the humour.

Well, here's my message, rather short actually:

I have been a presenter at Wikimania 2005 and now I wanted to present
a couple of distinct topics at Wikimania 2006. At least 2 of my talks
have been accepted. And it appeared that as a regular nitwit, to
attend the conference, you pay 70 US$ A DAY. And as a presenter it is
"only" 30 US$ A DAY. On top of that, even for presenters, lodging is
40 US$ A DAY. Compare that to last year's fees...

I think it's outrageous. But maybe it's because I am used to living on
400 US$ a month. (Hitchhiking, couchsurfing, living in South America.)

Sorry about the mocking, Couchsurfing South American Dude. It's what we do, it's who we are, it's what keeps people coming back. But let's address your mention of fees.

It is entirely outrageous that Wikimania would charge speakers for the privilege of being there. Nobody does this, from the tiniest Dragoriders of Pern fan convention to the largest industry wankfests; you pay speakers, because they make your conference worth coming to.