Support for Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation

If you have been to Wikipedia lately you will notice a personal appeal for support from its founder Jimmy wales. I must admit that that my first reaction on seeing that banner was a sinking feeling that this is the beginning of the end of something good. It was those cynical neurons in my brain sending the signal - that of course this is one of those things that has always been too good to last, what did you expect ?. And that the powers to be out there will scheme to kill it sooner or later and say even if it was not so conspiratorial, the natural forces of capitalism will takeover and render Wikipedia unsustainable for the digital have nots and future generation. I sincerely hope that for the sake of humanity that that does not happen, that digital altruism prevails and guarantees wikipedia for eternity and all generations to come. 


This past year at least I must have used Wiki just as much as Google for all my informational needs both personal and professional.  I just took at a peek at my browser history and here is what I learnt in just last month alone......


.. that Ibn Batutta is the greatest traveller of all time and not Marco Polo as I had presumed both in terms of distance and scale.  I would consider Ibn Batutta as the the first truly global citizen who spent 30 years of his life travelling and exploring the world to gain knowledge and wisdom but those kind of similar experiences and knowledge can be tapped into by anybody today by just a few clicks on Wikipedia. 


.. that Giordano Bruno the 16th century  Italian mathematician , philosopher and astronomer who was burned at the stakes during roman inquisition and was a proponent of the concept of infinity and the heliocentric planetary model. He is said to have been inspired by arab astronomy which made its way into Europe via the silk route.


.. that naked cowboy's real name is Robert John Burck. 


... that MasterChef is originally a BBC cookery game show format that has been adapted in 10 other countries besides UK - Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, India, Peru and Belgium.


... that Zynga the social gaming company founded by Mark Pincus in 2007 is valued at 5 billion dollars more than Electronic Arts (insane!)


...and much much more...


This type of knowledge sharing and abundance is unprecedented in human history and it would be a great tragedy if Wikipedia were to shutdown or move into private domain.


Wikipedia is at the center of  democratization of knowledge and its contribution is  much bigger than what Gutenberg's printing press did to usher in reformation, renaissance and eventually industrial revolution to Europe and rest of the world.

 I encourage you to contribute if you can afford it.