The Wikimedia Foundation is creating a new paid service for companies using Wikipedia data. The foundation announced the news today in an article in the Wired, and is planning to be launched in late 2021. Wikimedia Enterprise, as it is called, will not change the way Wikipedia’s current services work. Instead, it will offer new options for companies that use its content, a category that includes giants like Google and Facebook.
Wikimedia is still finalizing how Wikimedia Enterprise will operate. But in general, it’s like a premium version of Wikipedia’s API – the tool that allows anyone to scrape and re-host Wikipedia articles. Corporate customers can get data delivered faster or formatted to meet their needs, for example, or get new options for classifying and publishing it. As the Wikimedia Foundation’s senior director, Lane Becker, explains Wired, companies may already be paying employees to clear Wikipedia data, and Enterprise will do this type of cleaning at the source. Or, if they want, companies can continue to use the existing API for free.
Many huge Internet services are partly powered by Wikipedia. Google’s “knowledge boxes” incorporate information from the free encyclopedia, as well as voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. As web platforms try to combat misinformation, Wikipedia has also become an indispensable fact-checking resource. But while some companies have offered donations in exchange for using Wikimedia’s free services, others have launched large initiatives powered by Wikipedia, even without telling the foundation.
Wikimedia’s frequently asked questions page insists that the Enterprise is not “forcing Big Tech to pay” for Wikipedia. But that it could solve specific and well-known problems of these companies. A potential service would allow companies to display edits verified by the community more reliably, rather than the most recent ones, preventing fake or vandalized offensive articles from ending up on their own platforms.
In an essay, the Wikimedia Enterprise team recognizes that it is balancing business realities with the mission to provide free access to knowledge. “It is about establishing the movement to prosper in the coming decades, to face any storm and to have a genuine chance to fulfill the mission conceived 20 years ago”, says the essay. “We will need more resources, more partners and more allies if we are to achieve the goals implied in our vision statement.” And as of the end of this year, this may include paid partnerships with the biggest companies on the internet.