Wikipedia’s fundraising coup

In a great example of how creating a genuinely useful product and building a dedicated online community can result in big payoffs in the long run.

In what’s undoubtedly the worst financial times in recent history, open source online everything Wikipedia announced Friday that it has reached it’s goal of raising $6 million in donations.

Everyone knows and just about everyone uses Wikipedia for everything from quick fact checks to in depth research, and while the open format means that you run across the occasional obvious factual error and ultra-biased article, for the most part it’s an extremely useful service.  And judging from the way the money rolled in-$4 million from individual donors and another $2 mil from “major gifts”- a service worth paying for, even though it’s free. Read more

Big ideas and power thinking

I found an interesting review in the NYTimes book section on Samuel Huntington, a political theorist and noted “power thinker” who passed away on Dec. 24.

Far from someone to tackle small subjects, just looking at Huntington’s book titles including “Political Order in Changing Societies” and “The Clash of Civilizations,” gives you an idea of the kinds of intellectual issues he was taking on.

The review discusses these two books as well as Huntington’s relationship to philosophers Karl Marx and Giambattista Vico. Read more

Marketing tip: Flickr Creative Commons photos

While there are lots of stock photo sites out there, many of them offering cool images, some of them actually offering cool free images, I’ve found that most of the images found on these sites are just that-stock and non attention grabbing.  More elevator music than Miles Davis concert. So I’ve been finding myself clicking through the Flickr Creative Commons photo galleries with more and more frequency.  The galleries are a great place to find some really creative free images.  And since they’re all liscenced under a Creative Commons agreement, they’re free for the public to use (note-while free to use, different photographers use varying types of liscences with particular attibution and editing rules.  Be sure to check with the photographers before using).

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