Friday, 30 November 2012

Wikipedia Calls for Cash

From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney Australia.

When we want to check out a story, a reference. a phrase, or anything else, it’s guineas to gooseberries that we’ll consult Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia that seems to know everything.

“Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web, and serves 450 million people every month – with billions of page views,” says its co-founder, Jimmy Wales.

“Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But doesn’t belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

“Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind.

“It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.....

“If everyone reading this donated $5, our fundraiser would be done within an hour. But not everyone can or will donate. And that’s fine.

“Each year just enough people decide to give.

“This year, please consider making a donation of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.”

Wikipedia has been described as ”a free, collaboratively edited and multilingual internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.”

Its 23 million articles have been written or edited by about 100,000 contributor around the world. In 2011 Wikipedia received an estimated 2.7 billion page views just from the US.

You can read more about Wikipdia by visiting co-founder Jimmy Wales's website: www.jimmywales.com

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