What might your reasons be for donating to the world’s largest open compendium of knowledge? I saw the banner at the top of wikipedia.org today, donated and provided three:
- Though many college instructors do not recognize it as a valid source for papers, information from Wikipedia can be a good starting point for what kind of information to think about or look for. Wikipedia has made my college experience much more pleasant by helping me with my papers.
- Wikipedia has helped me improve my happiness and overall quality of life simply by informing me of things I didn’t even know exist.
- Wikipedia has been key in proving to the world: crowdsourcing/collaborative media works!
I do not want to see wikipedia become subject to the will of a small handful of donors or even have to become ad-supported.
Check out the letter from the programmer, which they were using to raise funds. I find this very important, so I will quote it here:
When we have access to free knowledge, we are better people. We understand the world is bigger than us, and we become infected with tolerance and understanding.