Chapter 7
It had been awfully bad luck to come back from a honeymoon to be told he was out of work, he thought. Tim Shell had broken the news when he had arrived back from his honeymoon at Pismo Beach.
The collapse of the dotcom bubble blitzes technology jobs as advertising revenues dry up. By the beginning of 2002, Bomis is forced to lay off most of its staff. To keep Larry, they make plans for introducing a limited amount of advertising. The cost of running Wikipedia is significantly lower than for Nupedia, which had required extensive developer support. Wikipedia is far cheaper. The wiki software is relatively simple, and volunteers are on hand to maintain and upgrade it. The main expense is Larry, who Jimbo plans to keep on, supported by the advertising.
But the anti-corporate elements of the community resist the plan. "Nobody is going to make even a simple buck placing ads on my work … Nobody is going to use my efforts to pay wages or maintain servers. And I´m not the only one who feels this way. I´ve left the project", complains Edgar Enyedy of the Spanish Wikipedia.
On 27th February 2002, the ‘Spanish fork’ is announced. The entire Spanish Wikipedia community copies Wikipedia to form its own collaborative encyclopaedia, Enciclopedia Libre Universal.
And then Jimbo changes his mind. There will be no advertising, and Larry must leave. It is a turning point in the history of Wikipedia. Jimbo accepts that the community is in control, and that he can never monetise Wikipedia directly.
