User:Smallbones/Wikicomparisons

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I'm looking for organizations that are comparable to the WMF, so that we can see how Wikipedia is doing. Are we wasting our efforts and money? Are we the greatest thing in the whole world? Surely somewhere in the middle, but it would be nice to see where.

Feel free to add specific, individual organizations below. Smallbones(smalltalk) 20:41, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Comparisons of Wikipedia to other organizations

I agree with NewYork Brad that the above discussion about Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't look like it will contribute much to do with Wikipedia's goals. But to get back to the original question of whether there are reasonable comparisons to be made of Wikipedia to other organizations (good done vs. amount spent), I should say something about the TED (conference) folks, supported by the Sapling Foundation.

The Sapling Foundation has about the same budget as WMF, $62 million in 2014 [1]. They also rely heavily on volunteer labor, e.g. the presenters. They have 2,000+ of their shorter-than-18-minute videos on their website. But they have something like 20,000 videos on YouTube, plus another 80,000 or so on TEDx talks on YouTube (all this should be checked). Altogether it looks like an interesting comparison could be made, after carefully checking the facts.

So there are at least 3 comparisons that look pretty reasonable to make.

Ted (conference). Can anybody think of another? Somehow a group of 5 non-profits would make a more convincing group to compare among. The only other I can think of is a for-profit Quora
. Not that the efficiency of non-profits and for-profits can't be compared, but ....

Smallbones(smalltalk) 23:44, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

You might want to look for other websites or organizations in Category:Educational websites. Also, the group of websites or organizations being compared might be suitable for a new article in Category:Online services comparisons.
—Wavelength (talk) 16:11, 27 December 2016 (UTC)
You might want to consider these websites.
—Wavelength (talk) 01:26, 28 December 2016 (UTC)
Here are some other websites for consideration.
—Wavelength (talk) 18:10, 28 December 2016 (UTC)
WebCite is quite similar to the Wayback Machine. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 19:28, 28 December 2016 (UTC)
A lot of these websites will generate a significant amount of revenues via advertisements, e.g. on YouTube where the videos start after a commercial, and there are typically always indirect links to other commercial activities for these so-called "non-profit organizations". Count Iblis (talk) 19:41, 28 December 2016 (UTC)
Someone has compiled a list of the "top 100 nonprofit organizations" at https://topnonprofits.com/lists/best-nonprofits-on-the-web/.
—Wavelength (talk) 21:49, 29 December 2016 (UTC)
Thanks to all of you. I'm slogging through looking at most of these websites and hadn't imagined there's so much stuff (good and bad) on the internet. Keep more suggestions coming, especially if they are about large websites that distribute educational material (broadly defined), are nonprofits, and reach a mass audience. Budgets between $10-$100 million wouldn't hurt either. Smallbones(smalltalk) 17:17, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
You can cast a wider net with these links, and then you can use your own methods for narrowing down your search.
(Incidentally, some editors may find that editing articles about non-profit organizations can be more satisfying than editing articles about big corporations.)
—Wavelength (talk) 20:19, 30 December 2016 (UTC) and 00:26, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
DuckDuckGo has search results for "most cost-efficient nonprofit organizations".
—Wavelength (talk) 02:49, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
DuckDuckGo has search results for "most cost-effective nonprofit organizations".
—Wavelength (talk) 02:56, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
Also, you can try variations of the two aforementioned searches, by using different search engines (Category:Internet search engines) or different search terms (for example, "most good for your charitable dollar", "most beneficial charitable organizations", "charities that give the most value for money").
—Wavelength (talk) 05:16, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
You can investigate microfinance and related topics and categories.
—Wavelength (talk) 00:16, 1 January 2017 (UTC)
The company iFixit (https://www.ifixit.com, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ifixit.com) provides free online manuals for fixing things, so it has economic and environmental benefits. (Maybe the Wikimedia Foundation can use some of its money-saving, earth-saving manuals. Maybe it has done so already.) The article "iFixit" is categorized in categories where you can search for other organizations.
—Wavelength (talk) 23:48, 1 January 2017 (UTC)
This article discusses comparisons of altruistic organizations.
Which parts of Wikipedia do the most good to society, and how can the Wikipedia community encourage editors to concentrate their efforts on those parts? How can the Wikimedia Foundation promote the aspects of other Wikimedia projects that do the most good to society?
—Wavelength (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2017 (UTC) and 17:02, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
Here are some additional leads.
—Wavelength (talk) 20:09, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
Comparing charities for different causes is like comparing apples and oranges. An apple farmer and an orange farmer might have a friendly discussion about the relative values of an apple and an orange of equal weight. In comparing Save the Arctic, Save the Children, Save the Elephants, and Save the Rhino, we need to identify the goals of each organization and the amount of good accomplished in the pursuit of those goals. Then we need to decide the relative values of the different accomplishments. For example, if one elephant has the same value as two rhinos, and if each respective organization saves 1,000 members of the species each year, then Save the Elephants has accomplished twice as much good as Save the Rhinos. If the annual revenue of Save the Elephants is twice the annual revenue of Save the Rhinos, then we might decide that the two organizations are equivalent to each other in the amount of good they accomplish in proportion to the money they receive.
—Wavelength (talk) 21:11, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
Here are some additional links.
—Wavelength (talk) 20:56, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
Lose Your Wikipedia Crutch: 100 Places to Go for Good Answers Online | Distance Degrees.com is inactive, but is archived at Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
—Wavelength (talk) 21:57, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
Smallbones, you posted at 17:17, 30 December 2016 (UTC) in this discussion "Keep more suggestions coming, ...", and I have continued to post links and comments. Are you continuing to plod through, looking at most of the websites? How well have you been able to keep pace with my postings? I am interested in reading about your observations and conclusions, preferably in this discussion before it is archived.
—Wavelength (talk) 18:26, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
@Wavelength: thanks for al the input - I was on vacation 2 weeks ago and barely managed to almost keep up with the reading you suggested (but not really doing anything with it). Last week I pretty much gave up and just said "I'll see how far he takes it." I appreciate your effort, but you may have put too much faith in me if you think I can adequately follow it up with the same enthusiasm as you've shown. I'll copy this all to a user page - say User:Smallbones/Wikicomparisons and deal with it all as I have time.
My main point - that we should have good comparisons between the WMF and other organizations before we make judgements like "the WMF wastes money" - that stands, and the main comparisons I'd use (for now) would be TED (conference), the Khan Academy, and EdX. It would be very nice to have a few more, but the closest organizations I see have something else going on that would get in the way of a good comparison, e.g. PBS/NPR stations, C-SPAN, maybe a few museums or universities. I would still welcome *specific* suggestions for comparisons (at User:Smallbones/Wikicomparisons).
Thanks again. Smallbones(smalltalk) 20:41, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Smallbones/Wikicomparisons&oldid=1044299765"