Not To Be Trusted With Knives

It’s Wikipedia Donation Time!

November 21, 2011 by Beth

And while we are talking about donating to charities, have you considered donating to Wikipedia? If you’ve used Wikipedia recently ((and seriously, who hasn’t?)), you have probably noticed the call for donations with the big picture of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’ face at the top of the screen… I would totally take a screenshot, but even though it was up this morning, it seems to be gone now! Because I am always the last person to blog about anything ever ((For a hilarious take on pointing out the unfortunate placement of Jimmy Wales’ face, see this post by The Oatmeal)). But I digress.

Wikipedia. I’m sure you use it all the time. It’s most people’s first place to go when they want to know something quickly. In the past weekend alone, I have used it to look up such varied things as information on candidates in this past weekend’s municipal elections, how many episodes of The Walking Dead have aired this season, and what the origin of the term “French kissing” is. I’ve given assignments to my students where they contribute to a page on Wikipedia, through which they learn a whole host of things, including the necessity of citing their work properly and how to work constructively with feedback from others.

According to Wikipedia’s “hey, you should donate to us” page, Wikipedia is the #5 site on the entire Internets and they do it with a pretty minimal staff and no advertising, because advertising really has no place in a site that’s trying to be a complete and unbiased source of information. So why not throw them a few bucks, eh?

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