Community Central:Press/2006

December 2006



 * Search Engine Land: Q&A With Jimmy Wales On Search Wikia - a lengthy interview, with good background and reader comments
 * Wired: Giving Search a Human Touch
 * Red Herring: Dikipedia Founder's Google Killer
 * Ars Technica: Wikipedia founder to create user-driven search engine
 * Wikipedia Founder Launches Human Powered Search Engine - clarification from WHIR
 * Wales speaks out: Wikiasari ‘people-powered’ search engine - clarification from ZDNet

Amazon invests in Wikia

 * Mercury News: Amazon puts faith -- and money -- in Wikia. Amazon.com has invested in Wikia, the San Mateo for-profit wiki company co-founded by Jimmy Wales, one of the brains behind online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the start-up said Wednesday.
 * Seattle Post Intelligencer
 * Amazon invests in Wikia
 * Motley Fool: Add Wikia to the IPO Watchlist

Wizard of Wikipedia
Newsday column on Jimmy Wales, Craig Newmark, Wikipedia, Wikia, and Craigslist

November 2006

 * New York Post: "Chief Wiki's Ad Play". An interview with Jimmy where he mentions Star Wars, Muppet, Psychology, and WikiFur.


 * "Tools that make the collaborative web work for you" - an article by Wikitravel founder Evan Prodromou which appeared on various IDG Sites such as ComputerWorld and LinuxWorld.
 * "Web 2.0 sites are also providing alternative business models for commercial open source development. Web services based on providing a Web interface to open source software, such as WordPad and Wikia, have been able to contribute to the FLOSS commons but continue to compete on the strength of their content, community, and "hard" resources, including hardware and bandwidth."

October 2006

 * Jimmy Wales interviewed on the Charlie Rose show (PBS), broadcast October 5th, 2006.


 * Extract from the Charlie Rose show: "I also have a desire to do more things, bigger things. At Wikia, my new company, we're taking the concept of Wikipedia and we're branching out now into everything. So whereas if you think about an encyclopedia, a traditional encyclopedia is about this big. And now think about a library and think about the magazine stand and think about all of the things, all of the collaborative media people might create, all of the books they might create. For me, that's the next big target, is we've proven that people can come together, collaboratively write an encyclopedia, but I think that's just the beginning. I think we're at the beginning of a real media revolution."


 * 20 minutes sur les sites wiki.

September 2006

 * Tech News covers Jimmy wales and Wikia's Polish launch
 * Wall Street Journal covers Campaigns Wikia
 * Inciclopedia. Chilean singer Monteanguilino indignated by Inciclopedia's moking of the national flag and shield, national herores and other national simbols. Senator Muñoz also not so pleased. Sept 16.
 * Wookieepedia gets an homage from TheForce.net Sept 12
 * SFGate mentions uncyclopedia, muppets and wookieepedia Sept 12
 * Wired mentions the campaigns wiki on Sept 7
 * Wired seperately mentions 6 wikia: Uncyclopedia, Memory-Alpha, Wookiepedia, Lost, World Wikia and Conferences also on Sept 7
 * Robert Scoble Covers Wikia - Famous video blogger interviews Wikia CEO about World Wikia and other projects Sept 5
 * New York Times, Robert Levine wrote an article for the The New York Times called "In wiki, everyone helps, but where's the profit?" (link is to a copy in the International Herald Tribune). The numbers are a little out - he claims wiki.com was bought for $2.86 million (since corrected in the NYT version) and that Wikia is making less than a dollar per page per month... which is true... but it implies it's somewhere close to that, which it certainly isn't.


 * Even Jimmy Wales, who founded Wikipedia, is looking for ways to broaden and profit from the wiki concept. With funding from technology luminaries like Marc Andreessen and Mitchell Kapor, he and Angela Beesley started Wikia, which includes 1,500 separate wikis, from the Wookiepedia for "Star Wars" fans to user-generated pages on depression. Although Wikia is a for-profit company, it was founded with some of the communitarian idealism of Wikipedia, and its business plan calls for it to donate money to that foundation.


 * "It feels to me like Craigslist," he [ Gil] said. "It's a small business, but it's a good business and it makes a lot of people happy."

August 2006

 * Wikia in the North Carolina, USA News Observer Paper
 * NPR on Wikia, Aug 30
 * Jimmy and Gil interviewed in Fortune on Wikia, Aug 31
 * Muppets and World Wikia mentioned in India, Aug 26
 * Contagious Behavior article in Information Week, Aug 23
 * World Wikia mention on Brian Solis's blog Aug 23
 * World Wikia hits 1,000 articles in less than 30 days on Yahoo News
 * Jimbo's interview on Marketwatch about world wikia - and wikipedia. Also Jimmy is looking for a volunteer to build a personal finance site.
 * Related article on Marketwatch, Aug 22.
 * World Wikia mentioned in French blog, Aug 17
 * Memory Alpha mentioned in video on The9 - a yahoo TV show!  August 16
 * Campaigns Wikia August 15


 * "The wiki faithful look beyond encyclopedias to activism" - Muppet Wiki got a mention in Boston Globe article about Wikimania:
 * "We do kind of get paid," he [ Danny Horn ] said. "We get paid with love, friendship, collaboration, and all this emotional stuff."


 * World Wikia announces launch, Aug 8
 * Wales' new wiki:post by SFGate.com. August 07 2006
 * Wikia launches community-edited travel site: post by Business Journal.com. 2006/08/07
 * World Wikia Launched For World Travelers:post by TechWeb. Aug 07, 2006
 * Muppet Wiki in the news. Check out The 9 (beta) at Yahoo! TV and select segment #4 using the buttons on the right. Congratulations to the Muppet Wiki team!
 * Churches of Rome and World wikia in the news at http://blog.travelpost.com/2006/08/07/world-wiki-travel-guides-launch/
 * World Wikia in the news at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/08/06/are-wikis-the-best-format-for-travel-guides/
 * Vancouver, Roman Churches, San Francisco, and Boston all mentioned in: Techweb and Jaunted
 * Wikipedia founder urges contributors to stress quality over quantity:Wales has also got enture funding for Wikia Inc, a for-profit wiki-creating company, and wants to see wikis for political campaigns, in hopes of improving the discourse.(section #7) August 06, 2006
 * Campaigns Wikia:post by Votelaw. August 4, 2006


 * Mitch Kapoor Comments on Wikia and wikis on Alternet.org

July 2006

 * Podcast
 * CNET Podcast with Wikia CEO
 * Podcast
 * NYTImes Memory-Alpha - the star trek reference site
 * CNET Campaigns Wikia launch

New York Times
"Everyone's an Editor as Wiki Fever Spreads to Shopping Sites", April 24, 2006.

Bob Tedeschi wrote an article focusing on shopping wikis in the Technology section of The New York Times. The end of the article focuses on Wikia:


 * Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.org, noted that wiki-centric communities were difficult to cultivate. "You're seeing a lot of people throwing up a wiki and saying 'Oooh, now we'll magically get all this stuff,'" Mr. Wales said. "But it's not about the software."


 * Mr. Wales announced last month that he had received $4 million in venture funding from, among others, Marc Andreessen, best known as a founder of Netscape, and the venture firms Bessemer Venture Partners and the Omidyar Network to fund his for-profit Web site, Wikia.com. On that site, authors collaborate on topics ranging from the Muppets to poker, often with more of a fan-club tone than the more clinical approach of Wikipedia's contributors.


 * ''That tone is a result of what the site's contributors want, not what Mr. Wales or other Wikia executives prescribe.


 * "You really have to take a stance where you're guiding the principles of the community rather than micromanaging them," he said. "You really have to respect the communities, not just say that."

The article was repeated in Cnet.

March 2006
Our press release in March 2006 with news of our first round of funding and the name change from Wikicities to Wikia led to a lot of coverage, especially in blogs. This is a selection of that, and other news in March.


 * Tampa Bay Business Journal: "Venture capitalists invest wiki-millions" by Michael Hinman was a two page article, focusing on the investment side of the news, with some nice quotes from Jimmy:
 * "We've had a lot of interest from investors, and it was really a matter of sorting through the investors to be sure that people who are investing were people who were believers in our mission," said Wales, who operates Wikipedia and Wikia separately from his St. Petersburg offices.
 * "Everything we do is under free licensing, and everything is designed in a way to be compatible with the Wikipedia community. And to me, those are the community ideals that makes this whole thing so attractive," Wales said.
 * New York Times: "Wikia Takes In $4 Million in Funding" was a small section based on the Tampa Bay Business Journal article that appeared in the DealBook section of The New York Times, edited by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
 * CNET: "Wiki honcho follows the money" was a short mention on the Blogma section of CNET.
 * Techcrunch: "Wikia Raises $4 Million" by Michael Arrington on Techcrunch reported that "current traffic for Wikia is fairly non-existent", which he didn't explain was because the site had just been renamed from Wikicities.com. "Wikipedia founder goes commercial", an article by Frank Barnako that was published on investors.com and marketwatch.com, picked up on this, reporting that "Traffic to the site has been lackluster". However, the weekly Alexa rank of Wikicities.com was 5,596 at the time and the rating of Wikia.com jumped to a very healthy 4,188 as soon as Alexa noticed the updated name.
 * National Post: "Co-founder has learned to roll with the punches" by Mark Evans was an article in the Canadian National Post about Wikipedia in early March with a brief mention of Wikia:
 * In the wake of Wikipedia's success, [Jimmy Wales] has created a for-profit company called Wikia, which manages more than 900 Wiki communities. Wikia generates money through relevant-based advertising on these Web sites.
 * BusinessWeek: "Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Gets $4 million in Funding" is an article by Heather Green in the Blogspotting section of BusinessWeek online.
 * "Wikia" by new Board member Joi Ito.
 * "Wikia, Jimmy Wales' Startup" by David Cowan from Bessemer.
 * "コミュニティ構築サイト「Wikia」、著名投資家から400万ドルの資金調達" is a post on the Japanese "Internet-Watch site, with many details from the Wikia press release as well as additional details on some of the investors.
 * コミュニティ構築サイト「Wikia」、著名投資家から400万ドルの資金調達" by Kobayashi Masashi in a Japenese venture capital blog.
 * "Wikia - Crea comunidades de Wikis". Juan Diego Pole writes "En wikia podéis crear sites sobre cualquier tema, en cualquier idioma" on his Spanish blog.
 * "Wikicities raises $4mm Series A" by Atlassian developer Jonathan Nolen.
 * "Wikia - Build Your Own Wiki" is a slightly critical post by Pete Cashmore on his "Mashable" blog.
 * "Wikia Gets Funded, All Components For Local Content Are Coming Together" on the Clickety Clack: Online Ad Blog.
 * "Wiki Startup Raises $4MM Series A" on Alexander Muse's Texas VC blog.
 * "Jimmy Wales Reels in Some Cash" by Mark Evans who writes "The magic behind Wikia is scale. The more Wikis created ... the more the company's platform is leveraged."
 * "Il dono dell'economia" is a post in Italian by Vittorio Zambardino.
 * "Wikipedia Founder's Commercial Venture Wikia Raises $4 Million" in Paid Content.
 * "Wikicities becomes Wikia" with congratualtions from Ourmedia founder JD Lasica.
 * "Wikicities receives $4 million and relaunces as Wikia" - Angela revives her dead blog Wikisearch to announce the press release.
 * "Wikia Raises VC" was an early announcement from Ross Mayfield.
 * "Wikicities relaunches as Wikia" by Wikian Lou Cypher.
 * "Jimmy Wales launches Wikia" by Matt Craven on The Blog Herald.
 * "Wikicities Re-Launches As Wikia" by Robert J. Safuto on the Awakened Voice blog.
 * Wikizine, issue 18, by Walter and others reported the investment before the press release on a mailing list aimed mostly at Wikimedia editors.
 * "Wikia: Crea tu propio Wiki" on the collective Spanish Genbeta blog.
 * "Wikia obtiene 4 millones de dolares". Gurús Hucky writes on the Spanish GurusBlog "Sin duda los wikis son una herramienta fantástica para el desarrollo ágil de una comunidad" (Without a doubt wiki is a fantastic tool for the agile development of a community).
 * "Wikicities + Joi + JLevine = Wikia, Mark II" is a very nice writeup from Sj:
 * "Wikia has only been getting better this past year. If you've had a burning idea you want to turn into a wiki, think about hosting with them.  Unlike every other online community aggregator I've seen to date, they really understand the need for free licensing, the importance of linking projects together and avoiding redundancy, and the utility of guiding communities towards producing meaningful lasting bodies of content, not just short-term attention sinks."
 * "Wikia" is an entry in Chinese by selfmagic which mentions the press release and links to the Beijing Wikia.
 * "Wikia" is an entry by oZzO in a Spanish blog which explains how easy it is to start a new wiki: "Wikia es una herramienta para crear páginas wiki de manera sencilla y rápida. Te permite crear un wiki tan fácilmente, que solamente tienes que registrarte y seguir unos sencillos pasos."
 * "Google WiFi and Wikia Look to Capture Hyper-Local Markets" by Tish Grier at Corante.
 * "In the beginning, there was Wikipedia, now there is Wikia" - Matt Marshall and Michael Bazeley report on Wikia on their Silicon Valley News site, even though Wikia is not based in the Valley.
 * "Wikicities gets $4 mill in VC funds, changes name to Wikia" - Marshall Kirkpatrick mentions the press release on the social software weblog.
 * "Wikia - Wiki-Hosting und MediaWiki-Entwicklung mit Wagniskapital" ( Wikia - Wiki Hosting and MediaWiki development with venture capital) by LH on the German netbib weblog.
 * "Wikia 「维基城社区」" (Wikia 'Wikicity Community') is a Chinese blog post by Danny.

Newsweek
On January 9, Benjamin Sutherland wrote an article on "The People's Encyclopedia", focusing on Wikipedia, which mentioned Wikicities:


 * "Wales has also established a separate, for-profit company called Wikicities in 2004, which provides a hosting service for themed Web sites on topics ranging from ancient coins to beer. Although Wikicities is also built by volunteers, it does carry advertising. Wales says Wiki purists don't seem to mind because the firm is not part of the Wikipedia Foundation, and its profit motive was made clear from the get-go. Wikicities donates much of its revenue to the Wikipedia Foundation."