MANY mocked, but the money rolled in. For the last few weeks of
2010 Jimmy Wales fixed his piercing gaze on Wikipedia users,
imploring them from banner ads to help “the free encyclopedia
that anyone can edit” pay its bills for this year. The founder's
plea worked. Wikipedia reached its target of $16m in just 50
days (compared with $8.7m in 67 days at the end of 2009).  This
month those pleading banners will return—but with many sets of
eyes. Backing up the earnest Mr Wales in the attempt to raise
$25m by the year-end will be Brandon Harris, a long-haired
programmer wearing a full-sleeved T-shirt and a surly
expression, who says he quit his job building “some crappy thing
that's designed to steal money from some kid who doesn't know
it” to work with Wikipedia. 400m unique users every month make
it the world's fifth-biggest website, according to Alexa, an
internet research company. It also has a good claim to be the
world's most important provider of non-entertainment content.
Wikimedia Foundation, the non-pro