Wikipedia Annual Donation Campaign

By the end of the year, Wikipedia will kick-off its fundrasing campaign though banner notice on each page to encourage users' donation (you can always choose to hide the notice) . As someone who always plans to edit more entries but fails to do so, writing a check is the best way to technically accomplish the plan (though a very small amount). Later one day, I read a tweet saying why Wikipedia does not keep advertising on each page. In that way, users can choose to view the ad or not, and Wiki dont need to do this donation campaign again and again every time.

It sounds O.K. at first glance because we've already get used to advertising-supported free content, and this turn on/off ad option keeps some voluntary meaning. However, in my mind, I just automatically rejected this idea and did not know why. This week, as I finished the book Predictable Irrational (Dan Ariely, 2008, HaperCollins), I found the answer to my spontaneous reaction.

In this enlightening book, the author conducts all kinds of focus group experiments to study behavioral economics. One chapter is about the cost of social norms and market norms. Sometimes, we put a lot efforts to do something but dont expect the cash pay back, for instance, cooking Thanks Giving dish for the family, the example in the book. This is the social norm. On the other hand, we expect that when we sit in the office for 8 hours (even just browsing Facebook page), we are adding money to our account. This is the market norm.

Researchers did an experiment in a day care center: initially, there was no fine for being late to pick up the children. The parents and the teachers understand the situation based on social norms that people do get late occasionally and they should not do that again to bother teachers. Then, the day care center imposed a fine of being late. Since a pay relationship is involved, the social encounter is being replaced by market norms that parents can choose to be late or not. And the late cases did not decrease as expected. Then, when the center dropped the fine , getting back to the social contract, parents still pick their kids late, even slightly more often. The author concludes from this experiment that social relationship will not be reestablished easily once it is trumped by the market norm.

And, this explains why Wikipedia cant not use advertising, even voluntarily, for funding. Advertising is totally a commercial concept following the market rule; let alone it will break Wikipedia’s neutral point of view, it will also ruin the collective efforts of Wikipedia as a social media foundation. Adding advertising essentially leads to market-value norms, even not for profits; once this market norm being introduced, the social norm, the volunteer spirit of Wikipeida will hardly be impaired.

As I finally figure out this puzzle, another question came to my mind. As social media becomes so overwhelming, how do we justify the “social meaning” when it is advertising supported? Is it another situation where social norms collide with market norm?