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==Wikimedia Foundation===
==Wikimedia Foundation==
A more recent example of a failure in ethical accountability is the relationship between the non-profit [[Directory:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] and the privately-held for-profit corporation [[Directory:Wikia|Wikia, Inc.]] Wikia, co-founded by Jimmy Wales and capitalized by Amazon (reportedly $10 million), the Bessemer Partners, Omidyar Network, and other corporate sponsors, makes money off the back of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. How? Wikipedia is a commercial traffic engine. As of December 2008, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=10000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 14,300 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues. It is also interesting that there are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=40000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.amazon.com over 43,000 links] to Amazon's retail site from the supposedly non-profit Wikipedia site. The popular movie site IMDB.com is owned by Amazon, and one can buy Amazon products directly from IMDB pages. There are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=170000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.IMDB.com nearly 174,000 links to Amazon's IMDB site] from Wikipedia. It is no surprise that Amazon particularly wished to invest in Wikia, Inc. Its co-founder makes sure that the external linking environment on Wikipedia is hospitable for the Amazon link spamming machine.
A more recent example of a failure in ethical accountability is the relationship between the non-profit [[Directory:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] and the privately-held for-profit corporation [[Directory:Wikia|Wikia, Inc.]] Wikia, co-founded by Jimmy Wales and capitalized by Amazon (reportedly $10 million), the Bessemer Partners, Omidyar Network, and other corporate sponsors, makes money off the back of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. How? Wikipedia is a commercial traffic engine. As of December 2008, there are over [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=10000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.wikia.com 14,300 external links] from Wikipedia to Wales' Wikia.com sites, which are funded by Google AdSense revenues. It is also interesting that there are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=40000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.amazon.com over 43,000 links] to Amazon's retail site from the supposedly non-profit Wikipedia site. The popular movie site IMDB.com is owned by Amazon, and one can buy Amazon products directly from IMDB pages. There are [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LinkSearch&limit=5000&offset=170000&target=http%3A%2F%2F*.IMDB.com nearly 174,000 links to Amazon's IMDB site] from Wikipedia. It is no surprise that Amazon particularly wished to invest in Wikia, Inc. Its co-founder makes sure that the external linking environment on Wikipedia is hospitable for the Amazon link spamming machine.