volunteers

Wikipedia’s Pledge Drive Ends — So Do Those Jarring Testimonials!

Tricia Duryee in Media on January 2 at 4:35 pm PT

The Wikimedia Foundation’s annual fundraiser ended today after the nonprofit raised $20 million from one million donors worldwide.

Man Bites Dog! Web Publisher Pays Writers

Peter Kafka in Media on January 16, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

Financial chatter site Seeking Alpha, which has relied on free stories from thousands of contributors for the past seven years, shifts strategies.

Happy 10th Birthday, Wikipedia! What's Next? (Video)

Liz Gannes in Social on January 14, 2011 at 10:04 am PT

Wikipedia now seems like an enduring institution on the Web, but the site was only founded 10 years ago, tomorrow. In this video interview, Wikipedia Executive Director Sue Gardner tells us how far the site has come, and what’s next.

1000 AOL to Employees Go the Way of Dial-Up

John Paczkowski in News on January 11, 2010 at 10:00 am PT

AOL Begins Firing Employees Who Wouldn’t Leave

Peter Kafka in Media on January 11, 2010 at 9:33 am PT

In November, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he needed 2,500 “volunteers” to give up their jobs, but not enough of them got the message–only 1,100 walked away on their own. Now Armstrong is entering the second phase of his corporate slimdown and is firing another 1,000-plus employees.

Voices

Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages

Julia Angwin and Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal in News on November 23, 2009 at 8:35 am PT

Wikipedia.org is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting. That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet — the empowerment of the amateur.

AOL: We Need to Fire 2,500 “Volunteers”

Peter Kafka in Media on November 19, 2009 at 5:08 am PT

AOL, which has already told investors it will spend up to $200 million firing a good chunk of its staff, has now told employees. The company is looking for “up to 2,500 volunteers,” CEO Tim Armstrong told his staff today. That’s a third of AOL’s payroll.