I wonder about how the proceeds from this auction will be used. Jimmy Wales posted the following rather non-committal statement on his English Wikipedia talk page:

"I'm planning to donate a significant portion and use a significant portion for wt.social. I haven't made any final decisions."

Source link: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3AJimbo... – see also statement on proceeds at https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/birth-wikipedia/jimmy-wal... )

This is phrased so cleverly that anything is possible: even, say, 95% to him and his WT.Social company and 5% to charity. (WT.Social, current Alexa rank around 120,000, is the successor to his failed Wikitribune for-profit site established in April 2017.)

And this pledge also reminded me of a previous pledge by Jimmy Wales.

In 2014, Wales and Tim Berners-Lee (who also auctioned an NFT recently) shared a controversial $1M award from the United Arab Emirates (each receiving $500K).

Source link: https://web.archive.org/web/20191107063546/https://www.middl...

Following a row on his talk page, where editors accused Wales of legitimising an oppressive regime, Wales told the Daily Dot that he "never planned to keep the money and will use the funds to start his own foundation dedicated to furthering human rights."

Source link: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/jimmy-wales-uae-prize-money/

So: did he do so? A Twitter account for the Jimmy Wales Foundation (@JWalesF) was set up in January 2015, soon after the Daily Dot report. Another two-and-a-half years later, in September 2017, Jimmy Wales incorporated a "Jimmy Wales Foundation". Its filing history is here:

Source link: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...

According to its certificate of incorporation, it's a "private company limited by guarantee", but not a registered charity. A search of the UK Register of Charities draws a blank:

Source link: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/chari...

Section 24 of the certificate of incorporation states that the Jimmy Wales Foundation's "directors are entitled to such remuneration as the directors determine". This remuneration may "take any form." Jimmy Wales is the only director listed in the document.

The foundation's first financial statement after incorporation lists assets of £25,319 (around $30,000). More recent statements show a negative balance.

So where did the other $470,000 go?

And what has the Jimmy Wales Foundation achieved since its inception? It's made 1,267 tweets, the last one of these in February 2019. Google News finds all of 9 articles mentioning the Jimmy Wales Foundation.

A number of these are mentions of Orit Kopel, the co-founder of WT.Social, who's also the Ex-CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation.

Given that we are talking half a million dollars, this seems on the face of it remarkably modest value for money in terms of the fight for human rights.

As the Daily Dot said, Wales promised that "every penny of the money will be used to combat human rights abuses worldwide with a specific focus on the Middle East and with a specific focus of freedom of speech/access to knowledge issues."

I asked on the Wikimedia mailing list whether Jimmy Wales or one of the other board members could provide more information on what was done with the rest of the money. No reply.

Source link: https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@list...