<div>Shouldn't you boys be BBQing something, watching fireworks and drinking beer (or scotch) today?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>;)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Happy 4th of July to all US recipients of this email.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ash<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/4/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Jason Calacanis</b> <<a href="mailto:jason@calacanis.com">jason@calacanis.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">On 7/4/07, Jimmy Wales <<a href="mailto:jwales@wikia.com">jwales@wikia.com</a>> wrote:<br>> On Jul 3, 2007, at 2:14 PM, Seth Finkelstein wrote:
<br>> The difference between Mahalo and Wikia is pretty clear, isn't it?<br>> Mahalo is proprietary. Wikia is free. Or at least, I haven't heard<br>> Jason say that he's going to release either the software or data
<br>> under a free license. And so, for me, his project is just not that<br>> interesting. I mean, I am sure it is lovely and all, but I really<br>> don't care about it.<br><br>Mahalo for the feedback Jimmy--you are about 1/3rd correct.
<br><br>1. On software<br>------------------------<br>All the changes to MediaWiki, the software we are using, are being<br>contributed back. We've made a great threaded message board that I<br>think would be a great tool for Wikipedia to transition their
<br>discussion pages to and I hope they consider it.<br><br>In fact, you know this Jimmy because at Foo Camp I told you about our<br>Message Board while we drank scotch and offered it to you to use at<br>Wikia--I guess you forgot (maybe the scotch?). :-)
<br><br>In terms of search software we use Nutch right now and might use<br>Wikia's software down the road. Again, all software is free and we are<br>contributing all changes back. We are also using Squid and<br>contributing back changes.
<br><br>On the software front we are exactly the same as Wikia.<br><br>2. Editorial<br>------------------------<br>In terms of the hand-written search results we are paying people to<br>create them in the Greenhouse (<a href="http://greenhouse.mahalo.com">
http://greenhouse.mahalo.com</a>) and on<br>our staff. We are retaining ownership of the editorial we pay for so<br>we can continue to pay for it. That is where Jimmy and I diverge it<br>seems: we feel since we're paying for the results we should own them;
<br>Jimmy isn't paying editors so doesn't have the same worry.<br><br>Now, this is not written in stone. In the future we might move to a<br>Creative Commons model for the results--perhaps non-commercial so<br>someone doesn't just life the entire Mahalo index and dilute our
<br>ability to pay the contributors. That's my main concern: figuring out<br>a way to keep paying folks who want to get paid for their<br>contributions.<br><br>So, I like CC Noncommerical and I like paying people.<br>
<br>My previous company Weblogs, Inc. paid people to create amazing blogs<br>like HackADay, Engadget, Autoblog, Joysitq, etc. These folks were able<br>to make careers out working from home--many were stay at home parents<br>
with five hours to work while their kids were at school. I'm very<br>proud of the fact that we were able to pay them. In fact, I see being<br>able to create sustainable ways to pay folks for working on<br>distributed editorial projects as a great success--that is what I hope
<br>to do with Mahalo.<br><br>If folks do not want to be paid--if that kills the excitement for<br>them--we are letting them donate the fees to Wikipedia or Mozilla (we<br>might add more projects in the future). I think this is the best model
<br>going forward balancing Yochi's dreams while letting people keep a<br>roof over their head and take care of their kids.<br><br>My feeling on the subject of people getting paid for work is that<br>venture-backed companies should pay people for their work *if* those
<br>people want to be paid. If you're spending five hours a day editing<br>Mahalo I feel it's only right to give you something other than a pat<br>on the back or the rush of building a search engine/directory. If<br>
you're spending five minutes a month suggesting links? Maybe not.<br>There really are many classes of people in these systems and you can<br>create various compensation systems for them from monetary to<br>altruistic.
<br><br>Again, I take nothing away from folks who do it for the fun... I'm one<br>of them! My edits to the wikipedia are free. My podcast and blog<br>sponsorships go to a charity that puts foster kids into private<br>
schools with small class sizes.<br><br>Honestly, as a writer by trade, I always find it odd that the creative<br>people are the ones left behind when VC-backed companies start a<br>project. The management team, core developers, administrators always
<br>seem to get paid... the "content creators" (to use a horrible term)<br>always seem to get left behind. I hope we can turn that model on it's<br>head and help the creative/editors/artists make a living. This is just
<br>my vision... other people can--and have--created large systems that<br>thrive without paying creative types.<br><br>> I do wish he would stop spamming this list with<br>> irrelevancies, but of course he is welcome to contribute and welcome
<br>> to use our work if it suits him.<br><br>At this point Gil and Jimmy feel I am spamming the list, but are<br>telling me off list they want me involved in the project. Talk about<br>mixed messages!!!<br><br>My emails to the list have only been in response to people talking
<br>about Mahalo. If folks want to discuss Mahalo and Wikia I'm willing to<br>discuss it--I'm not sure why Jimmy and Gil want to censor this<br>discussion or consider it irrelevant--the people posting messages<br>
about Mahalo don't seem to think they are irrelevant Jimmy.<br><br>Also, Jimmy I'm kind of hurt (really--just crushed :-) that you're<br>resorting to using aggressive language like "spamming" when all I've
<br>ever done is offer to support the Wikia search project. I even offered<br>to share costs for the servers at Foo Camp. You said you wanted to<br>form a group of up and coming search companies who could leverage open<br>
software--that's what we want too. What happened to "assume good<br>faith?" thing?<br><br>Other folks are asking me to be involved on the list (and project),<br>Gil is asking me to be involved off list, so... it feels like I'm
<br>damed if I do and dammed if I don't to a certain extent. I mean, I<br>have to respond to this email because it's got wrong assumptions, but<br>is Jimmy going to continue saying I'm a spammer because I'm correcting
<br>the errors in his assumptions? Ugh.<br><br>I'm going to keep my position of only replying to direct questions and<br>Mahalo misinformation/clarifications (like this one) going forward. If<br>you want me to respond to anything else my email and phone number
<br>below and I'm more then willing to talk to anyone at any time.... but<br>for now I'm gonna jump in the pool!!!!<br><br>Happy 4th everyone...<br><br>best j<br>---------------------<br>Jason McCabe Calacanis<br>
CEO, <a href="http://www.Mahalo.com">http://www.Mahalo.com</a><br>Mobile: 310-456-4900<br>My blog: <a href="http://www.calacanis.com">http://www.calacanis.com</a><br>AOL IM/Skype: jasoncalacanis<br>_______________________________________________
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