Informationen rund um den Fundraiser
In the course of the fundraising campaign 2012, we presented a number of personal appeals from Wikipedia authors, donors and Wikimedia employees. In this way we were able to introduce to the readers of Wikipedia a range of different perspectives on the online encyclopedia and make clear the variety of reasons that exist for its support. At the same time, the fundraiser also was a great educational opportunity about the nature and philosophy of the project. With all these efforts, we hope to have given the reader a glimpse behind the scenes of the Encyclopedia project.
We want to thank all participating authors, donors and staff for their great support!
Wikipedia author Dr. Peter Cueppers
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I’m 86 years old and have written, corrected or added to over 19,000 Wikipedia articles so far. I came across the project in 2006 because I was too lazy to get out of my chair and pick up an encyclopedia. I thought I should be able to find that on the Internet. The second bit of information I chanced upon happened to be from Wikipedia. To make sure the information provided by Wikipedia was reliable, I called up some specialized terms I was familiar with. What I found was all satisfactory, but I noticed a punctuation mistake. When I found out how it could be eliminated, I was hooked – from the very first day. I started systematically looking through contributions for mistakes and poor wording, and I’ve kept that up ever since. Many people turn to Wikipedia when they need to look up information quickly, but few people realize that anyone can contribute and add to it. I find it extremely rewarding, especially at my age. It’s nice to feel useful, and when my contributions stand up to scrutiny and receive praise from other authors, that’s something I take pride in. I even encouraged my ten-year-old grandson to write a contribution for Wikipedia with a little help from me. Wikipedia is unlike the majority of other websites, most of which are all about advertising or commercial interests. Wikipedia is non-profit and its sole aim is to make information freely accessible to everyone. Wikipedia isn’t trying to sell a product; it’s trying to help make the world a little bit better. Wikipedia can only preserve its independence if it remains free of advertising. Everyone who works for Wikipedia does so on a voluntary basis, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any costs. There are expenses for technical equipment, infrastructure, software and staff that need to be covered each year – and that’s why Wikipedia depends on the support of its users.
Please make a donation so Wikipedia can remain independent and ad-free and continue to make information available free of charge.
Wikipedia user Cornelia Dietz
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I think it’s amazing that Wikipedia even exists, and that it works. What’s even more amazing is that there are so many contributors writing in their spare time, with outstanding, high-quality results. Even though I’m a frequent Wikipedia user, I still don’t understand how they do it.
As a healthcare editor, I write and edit texts directed at patients, and they describe a variety of illnesses – predominantly cancer. Our articles need to be informative and help people understand. Obviously, I need to do a lot of research in order to get my facts right. In the past, Wikipedia was a definite no-go zone as far as research sources were concerned. In medicine in particular, sources need to be utterly trustworthy and reliable. My clients simply wouldn’t accept anything outside of scientific publications and medical guidelines.
But Wikipedia has come a long way. Many articles are structured in a way that lets me get a quick overview of all the central facts and key terms. That helps me familiarize myself with a new topic more easily. More often than not, the Wikipedia entry also contains references to the kinds of sources that I need for my in-depth research. Using Wikipedia these days, I keep noticing how professional and reliable the articles have become. I trust Wikipedia information a lot more now than I used to.
Of course, I still need to double-check everything that I’ve read on Wikipedia – that goes without saying in the field I work in. Any knowledge that is presented by a single source has its own focus, and in many ways it can be hard to draw the line between knowledge and opinion – this certainly is true for Wikipedia. Nevertheless, Wikipedia is a huge hub of knowledge that provides a great starting point for anyone who has an interest. And no matter how big Wikipedia might get, there are no ads or affiliations, and everything is financed through donations.
If you think Wikipedia is just as amazing as I do, please help out with a donation! It doesn’t matter if it is €5, €50, or €500 – whatever you can afford. Any amount you donate helps ensure that Wikipedia will remain an excellent starting point for researchers and other interested people like you and me. Thank you.
Wikipedia author Dirk Franke
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I was one of the first authors who contributed to Wikipedia. When I first happened across Wikipedia at Christmas in 2003, I was skeptical. There weren’t very many articles back then, and many of those were on peculiar topics. I remember thinking at the time that maybe the world just wasn’t ready for this yet, but I thought the idea of creating a freely accessible encyclopedia was very exciting. So I just started writing articles about political theory and I soon found that it was a lot of fun. Today there are around 8,000 or so contributing authors, but back then there were only about 30 or 40. When big media discovered Wikipedia and started featuring cover stories about it, the number of authors exploded.
Suddenly there were a thousand or so new authors who all needed to be introduced to Wikipedia’s guidelines and policies, and I felt it was my responsibility to initiate them. Looking back, it was a pretty intense time, but in a good way, even if it was a lot of hard work. Today I write or edit articles when I can find the time, usually about three or four times a week. I don’t even know how many contributions I’ve made to Wikipedia all in all – I stopped counting after 30,000. When I first started, I could never have imagined how it would develop. I’m proud to have been part of the exciting early years and one of the pioneers who helped pave the way. I guess my old fear was wrong: the world was ready for this, after all. Wikipedia is enormously important for our society. Nowhere else can people access information so easily, quickly, and at absolutely no cost – there has never been anything like this before. There are no ads and no commercial agenda on Wikipedia. Ads would not only deter many authors from contributing because they are against our principles. It would also cost Wikipedia its credibility and independence. That’s why Wikipedia depends solely on donations for funding. Wikipedia is a collaborative project. Its contributing authors volunteer their time to share their knowledge with the whole world. But it’s just as important that our users support the project with their donations. Each year there are costs for technical equipment, infrastructure and various projects that help the authors do their work – and that’s why we appeal to you, Wikipedia’s users, once a year to ask you for your support.
Please donate any amount you can afford, be it €5, €50, €500 or more. Your contribution will help keep Wikipedia ad-free, independent, and free of charge for another year.
Wikipedia author Gereon Kalkuhl
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“While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” (M. Duchamp)
I’m fascinated by chess players. As a volunteer author for the online encyclopedia, I’ve written over 400 biographies of chess players from Grandmasters to other titleholders. Each Wikipedia article I write involves hours of research. It’s all detective work, and that’s not always easy to fit in with a wife, children, and a 40-hour working week. Perhaps a lot of readers don’t realize that we authors invest a lot of time in Wikipedia. But there are often notes of thanks, which I always really appreciate.
Sharing knowledge is the basic principle behind Wikipedia. Our vision is that every person should have free access to information and education, regardless of their social class. It shouldn’t be the case that knowledge can only be acquired at great cost. Knowledge shouldn’t be an exclusive commodity. Wikipedia is a tool made by people for people to ensure that it isn’t. Anyone can do their bit either by contributing knowledge or by donating financially.
Wikipedia may be free of charge for all users, but it cannot operate on nothing. Keeping Wikipedia running costs money. Alone the billions of visits to the website each month place enormous strain on the servers. After all, Wikipedia is the fifth-most-visited site on the Internet. Infrastructure and ongoing development costs need to be covered every single year.
All this is financed through donations, not advertising. With ads, there is the danger that advertisers’ interests might be favored and critical information withheld. The only way to remain neutral is to keep Wikipedia free from advertising. Wikipedia needs donations so it can remain available to all.
Please make a donation so Wikipedia can remain free of charge, independent and ad-free. Thank you.
Wikipedia donor Gunther Tutein
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If I’m ever asked if Wikipedia is worth €10 to me, I always answer: of course!
Wikipedia is often my first port of call. The articles are balanced and often much better than the information on other websites. When I’m looking for information on a certain subject and find myself on a site I’m not familiar with, I’m not sure what I should think of it. Is the website reliable? Can I trust it? I don’t have any of these reservations with Wikipedia. I know by now that I can rely on it.
Of course, I couldn’t help seeing the appeal by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales a few times during the last campaign for donors. At first I didn’t react. The second time, I thought donating would be the right thing to do. And by the third or fourth time, I thought “Okay, now I’ll actually finally donate!”.
I wanted to do something because Wikipedia is so valuable to me – and it doesn’t hurt me to donate such a small sum. Donating is an easy way to promote free knowledge.
Wikipedia has thousands of volunteers who put a lot of effort into writing and editing the articles, without any financial gain. There are also people who work on the organizational side of things to keep the project running and, finally, there are a lot of people who use Wikipedia. Compared with Facebook, Google, etc., which earn money via their websites, the site has a relatively small number of helpers. Wikipedia is seen as a public service, like the roads I drive on – I take it for granted that they’re there for me to use. But, of course, the tax I pay goes toward funding public services.
Donate €10, €25, €100 or whatever you can afford to support Wikipedia. I want to give something back to the people that do so much for me. For me, donating is a way of saying thanks.
Wikipedia author Christoph Meineke, Mayor of Wennigsen
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I became mayor to get involved, to roll up my sleeves and to bring about change. And that’s what I do as a Wikipedia author, too. At some point I realized how important it is to gain a foothold in the digital world. I’m interested in innovative civic participation projects, and Wikipedia can be seen as a modern way of volunteering. This encyclopedia is written by volunteers who work together and invest a lot of time and effort into compiling the world’s largest compendium of knowledge.
I wanted to be part of that. Sometimes, when I come home from a town council meeting, I go through our local history books to see if there’s anything I can add to a Wikipedia article.
Lots of people in our community contribute to Wikipedia. For example, dozens of photographers contributed to a big competition to add images to Wikipedia articles on memorials and historical sites. Many people have also written a variety of articles on our local history. Our town has really got the Wikipedia bug!
Wikipedia is at home where people are at home - in villages, towns and cities. There is such a wealth of knowledge there, just waiting to be tapped. Thanks to Wikipedia and its volunteers, everyone can enjoy free access to comprehensive and up-to-date information. This free access isn’t something we should take for granted. The technology, infrastructure and projects to support the authors all have to be paid for. Wikipedia is a non-profit organization funded by donations. Without the support of its users, Wikipedia would not be the largest freely available compendium of knowledge worldwide. It also wouldn’t be able to remain independent and ad-free, the very things that guarantee its credibility.
Lots of people are prepared to pay for a regular newspaper subscription. Wikimedia only asks for your help once a year. It’s that time again: please make a donation – Wikipedia depends on your support.
Whether you give €5, €50 or €500, your contribution will ensure that Wikipedia remains ad-free, independent, and free of charge in 2013. Thank you.
Wikimedia staff member Elly Köpf
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Be bold. Place a comma and change the world.
When I was a girl, I sang in a choir and dreamed of being a backing singer when I grew up. Supporting the soloists as part of a greater whole makes me happy. And while I didn’t end up having a career on stage, today I’m part of the community behind the biggest encyclopedia in the world. At Wikimedia Germany I support the schools project Wikipedia macht Schule.
Surveys show that there is hardly a student in German schools who doesn’t use Wikipedia, and at least 50 percent of all teachers draw on it when preparing classes. But very few really understand how the free encyclopedia works. Many teachers take a skeptical view of Wikipedia because, after all, anyone can write in it. And that’s where we come in.
Our workshops aim to educate users to critically assess the information provided on Wikipedia. Nothing presented to us as fact or knowledge – whether on Wikipedia or elsewhere – should ever simply be accepted unquestioningly. Our workshops focus on imparting the skills needed for true digital literacy and on driving home the central aspect of what Wikipedia is all about: Anyone can be a part of it! Many students do not dare to write or edit articles in the free encyclopedia. I think it’s a shame when people don’t do things because they lack the confidence. Wikipedia is special. Wikipedia is non-profit and is funded through donations rather than ads.
Be part of the community that makes Wikipedia possible. Help us continue projects like Wikipedia macht Schule to educate teachers and students on how to critically evaluate the information provided on Wikipedia and how to best harness its potential as an information resource in schools. Please make a donation – whether you’re able to give €15, €25, €100 or some other amount – to help support Wikipedia this year.
I’m grateful that I can contribute to something as wonderful as Wikipedia. The way I see it, with its thousands of unsung volunteers, it’s the biggest, most glorious choir in the world.
Wikipedia author Tobias Klenze
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Nowhere else can I help people as easily as I can with Wikipedia.
All I need is a computer and a little time. I started writing for Wikipedia when I was 16. Over the past six years, my articles have been called up more than 100,000 times. That’s amazing! Even if only one in a hundred of those readers found something useful, then I managed to help a lot of people. That’s what Wikipedia is all about: people helping other people without personal gain and sharing their knowledge. The commitment and dedication of these volunteers is incredible. Even our support team is made up of volunteers. They are the ones who respond to our users’ questions, not some call center in India. That isn’t true of any other top website.
Society would benefit if we had more projects like Wikipedia. Wikipedia is proof that by working together we can create something greater than any single individual ever could – and all that with no ads, without any commercial agenda and at no cost whatsoever. Our community isn’t just made up of authors; it’s made up of donors, too. Even though the articles in Wikipedia are contributed by volunteers, providing technical equipment, infrastructure and support for those volunteers costs money. Since Wikipedia is not funded through ads or fees, it depends on the financial support of its users. That’s why we make an annual appeal to the people who visit our site and ask them to make a contribution.
Please donate €5, €50 or €100 to enable Wikipedia to remain ad-free, independent and free of charge in the coming year.
Wikipedia programmer Jens Ohlig
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Even way back in kindergarten, I would confidently answer “programmer” when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote my first software – a database for my mom’s recipes and a program to help memorize vocabulary – when I was twelve. I find it fascinating that I can create things that do what you tell them to.
Now I’m 39 and am employed with Wikimedia Germany as a software developer. I’m part of a small team of people who are working together on building Wikipedia’s future. We’re developing a database that will improve Wikipedia in many ways. Let me give you just one example. If the population figure for Berlin increases, for instance, that figure has to be painstakingly changed by hand in every single one of Wikipedia’s 280 different language versions about Berlin. In the future, it will only be necessary to change the figure in the central database. Every day, I could practically burst with pride to be part of this team. It’s by far the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on.
I strongly believe that knowledge should be freely available. When I write software for my personal use, it goes without saying that I will make it available on the Internet to anyone who wants to use it. Some people may be shocked that I don’t charge for it. I think it’s fantastic that I can really make a difference in people’s lives with the work I do as a programmer. It’s a great feeling to know that I can actually make the world a little better, clacking away on my keyboard. To my mind, that’s what the Internet is all about: sharing whatever knowledge or skills you have so others can benefit from them. And that’s exactly how Wikipedia works.
Wikipedia is the only website of its size that is not out to make a profit. It doesn’t charge its users any fees and it doesn’t allow ads. Wikipedia doesn’t seek commercial gain – on the contrary, it’s a non-profit project that is funded solely through the donations of its users. That’s why we appeal to our users for donations once a year.
Wikipedia makes knowledge freely accessible at no cost, but it has to cover the costs for equipment, infrastructure and various projects related to its work each year – and it can only do that with the support of users like you.
You can help keep Wikipedia independent and ad-free for another year by donating €5, €50 or €500!
Wikimedia staff member Till Mletzko
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Imagine there were a library anyone could go to, whenever they wanted and no matter where they were.
That library would never close. Whether you wanted to go at lunchtime or in the middle of the night, its doors would always be open. There would never be any queues, or books that weren’t available. And all that in a library used by millions of people every day.
The library would be free of charge for everyone and it would allow its users to take out as many books as they liked no annual membership fees, no lending fees and no fines for returning books late. Everyone would be allowed to stay in the library for as long as they liked. And finding a seat would be no problem either - everyone would always be able to sit in their favorite chair.
All the information in the library would be comprehensive and kept constantly up-to-date thanks to the hard-working team of volunteers. And perhaps the best thing: there wouldn’t be any annoying ads!
But if there were no fees and no ads, how would the library cover its costs? There wouldn’t be any investors with commercial interests, and there wouldn’t be any government funding either. The library would be financed by donations from visitors who wanted to give something back. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to make a contribution.
It would come as no surprise to me if you couldn’t imagine a library like that. But it does exist - it’s called Wikipedia, and it is the largest compendium of knowledge ever collated by the human race.
Wikipedia needs your help today. Every year there are running costs for technology and infrastructure and personnel costs to pay. Please contribute €10, €25 or €100 to keep Wikipedia going and help it remain ad-free, independent, and free of charge.
This vision has already become reality. Become a part of it! Thank you.
Wikipedia photographer Gerd Seidel
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What would Wikipedia be without the images that accompany it?
Whenever I see an article without any visual material and realize there is a suitable subject in my neighborhood, I go out there, take a photo, and upload it to the article in question. It’s that easy to make Wikipedia more interesting – and that’s my way of contributing. One time, several other Wikipedians and I went to the Thuringian State Parliament to take pictures of the representatives. When they saw all our equipment, of which we have amassed quite a respectable collection, they assumed that Wikipedia has started hiring professional photographers.
That isn’t so; my contributions are entirely voluntary. For the politicians’ portraits, I simply took a day off work. I have nothing to gain from this – at least not financially. Doing what I do sometimes costs me a lot of time and effort, but every photo I upload helps to advance the Wikipedia project. This is what motivates me.
Wikipedia is created by volunteers. The way I see it, it’s basically the same as being a volunteer for the Red Cross, or doing some other type of charity work. Personally, my passion lies in being part of a community that is creating the biggest encyclopedia the world has ever seen. I still think it’s incredible that anyone can access Wikipedia’s collected knowledge from anywhere in the world and at any time.
But although Wikipedia’s contents are put together at no cost by volunteers, some things do cost money. Wikipedia is one of the world’s five most popular websites, with millions of people visiting it every month. However, unlike the world’s other biggest websites, Wikipedia does not rely on advertising for its income – it relies on user donations. Every donated euro helps to make Wikipedia better, just like every one of my photos does.
Can you spare €15, €25 or €100 for the world’s largest-ever knowledge base? Thank you. Gerd Seidel
Wikipedia author Harald Krichel
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Imagine that in order to view Wikipedia articles, you had to purchase them first.
Wikipedia wasn’t the first attempt to create an online encyclopedia. There were others, and selling individual articles was regarded as a feasible financing model. I loved the idea of online encyclopedias straight away because my reference works from the 1980s were quickly going out of date. But I wasn’t so sure about the payment concept – would I actually be willing to spend money on each individual encyclopedia entry?
Then came Wikipedia and I could access all the information I wanted free of charge. What’s more, I didn’t have to put up with any on-screen ads. I think that’s great, because ads and encyclopedias are fundamentally incompatible with each other. Anyone who accepts ads on their website becomes dependent, and a website like Wikipedia has to remain completely neutral and objective. It’s not like we’d want to see ads in our schoolbooks!
The idea of Wikipedia captured my imagination right from the outset. One person creates an article, and others expand, update, and revise it. I created my first article in 2003. It started out as an incomplete sentence and eventually came to span several pages. Today, my main goal is to protect Wikipedia’s authors and their contributions. Everyone and anyone can participate in Wikipedia. That means it’s important that there is someone to delete contributions that are just plain silly, that constitute blatant advertising, or that disseminate extremist views. By doing this, I help to maintain the quality of Wikipedia, which has come to play such an important part in our daily lives.
One of the really great things about Wikipedia is that there are so many different ways to contribute. Financial donations are almost as important as contributors’ donations of time. A project of this magnitude simply wouldn’t be possible without a well-oiled organizational framework. Costs for technology, infrastructure and administrative staff need to be covered afresh every year. Without the generous support of our users, we wouldn’t be what we are today: the biggest freely-accessible collection of knowledge ever.
For a few weeks every year, we stage an appeal for donations. It’s that time again; Wikipedia needs your help. By making a donation, you can demonstrate your appreciation for the world’s greatest knowledge base.
No matter if it’s €15, €25, or €100, your contribution will ensure that Wikipedia remains independent, free of ads, and free of charge. Thank you.
Wikipedia programmer Denny Vrandečić
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My goal as a software developer is not to make money but to make the world a better place.
I launched my first website in the early Internet days of 1994. Even back then, I was convinced that the Internet would change the world. After I finished my studies, I started working as a commercial programmer. I found that line of work quite unfulfilling; there didn’t seem to be any substance to it – I wanted my work to make a difference.
I embraced Wikipedia fairly early on, and by 2003 I had started writing my own articles. These were for the Croatian version of Wikipedia, which at that time had hardly any articles and still needed a lot of groundwork. For weeks on end, I wrote huge numbers of small articles, hoping to encourage other Croatian contributors to add to them. That’s because it’s much easier to expand an existing article than to start a new one. Today, the Croatian version of Wikipedia has more than 100,000 articles, a fact that fills me with pride.
I came to realize that Wikipedia represents an opportunity to create something lasting, to make a real difference. What Wikipedia offers us is groundbreaking: universal, open access to the sum of human knowledge, whenever and wherever we want it. I’m now working as a programmer for Wikimedia, making my contribution to meeting the ongoing software requirements of the world’s biggest free encyclopedia.
Wikipedia’s great strength lies in its freedom from commercial interests. That’s the only way to ensure that the information provided remains neutral and independent. Just imagine you’re reading a Wikipedia article about a pharmaceutical product, and to the right, there is an ad from a major drug company. That kind of thing would rob Wikipedia of its credibility as an objective encyclopedia. That’s why we choose to finance Wikipedia not through advertising, but through user donations.
Although Wikipedia is free to use, costs arise every year and we have to cover them entirely through donations. The money we get from donations goes towards technology and infrastructure, software development and projects that support volunteer authors.
Each year, we appeal to Wikipedia users to make a donation. Please help us out with your contribution, whether it’s €5, €50, or €500. With your support we can ensure that Wikipedia remains independent, free of charge, and free of advertising. Thank you.
Wikipedia donor Solveig Wehking
BearbeitenKnowledge is the only natural resource that increases with use.
I’ve always wanted my actions to have some social significance, to change something. No matter where I’ve worked or what I’ve been involved with, my aim was to make a difference. Knowledge provides the foundation for progress. Wikipedia is a project that makes this vital resource available to everyone, free of charge. Wikipedia is more than an encyclopedia – it is a driver of change.
Knowledge relies on diversity, and its quality improves directly in relation to the number of people contributing to it. That is something I am deeply convinced of. Because of this underlying principle, Wikipedia has become one of the world’s most popular and most valuable websites. It’s fantastic how Wikipedia manages to deliver such high quality without charging any money and by using volunteers. There is nothing trivial about this – it’s deeply impressive.
Occasionally, I edit Wikipedia articles, but more than that, I contribute in another fashion: I donate money. I use Wikipedia frequently, and I am fully aware that although I use it free of charge, the website needs to be financed in some way. Unlike all the other big websites, Wikipedia does not run ads but is financed entirely through donations.
Internet advertising really bugs me when I’m focusing on my work and then get distracted by something completely irrelevant. That is why I value Wikipedia – it’s an ad-free space. The only thing that counts here is knowledge.
Because using Wikipedia has become second nature to me, it has also become second nature to give something back in return.
Wikipedia relies on our support. Please make a donation and give something back to the project. It doesn’t matter if it’s €10, €25, or €100. The most important thing is that we, the users of Wikipedia, make sure that this great hub of knowledge lives on.
Thank you.
Wikipedia author Robin Müller
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I started writing for Wikipedia because I put a lot of effort into my homework and thought it was a shame not to share the results with others. On Wikipedia I go by the username Brackenheim, but my real name is Robin Müller. I’m 20 years old, study pharmaceutical science, and have been a volunteer with Wikipedia since 2008, mostly writing articles on scientific topics. Back when I was still in school, I noticed quite a few gaps in Wikipedia when I was doing research for projects. I decided to fill them myself – and started work on the first of my articles on microscopes.
Some of my teachers were really enthusiastic when they found out I wrote for Wikipedia. They thought it was great that I was doing something productive in my free time rather than just playing computer games. Gathering knowledge and making it available to everyone is just something I really enjoy – and that’s what Wikipedia is all about, after all. Anyone can go on Wikipedia to find information, and they can use that information as they choose. That’s a huge advantage and it can be a big help, especially for kids who need to prepare a presentation for school and usually don’t have access to specialist literature.
We Wikipedia authors put a lot of time and effort into realizing our goal of creating the biggest compendium of knowledge in the world. I think it’s fascinating how everyone at Wikipedia works together toward a common goal, and I love the fact that anyone can contribute and share their knowledge with others.
I contribute my knowledge to Wikipedia, but Wikipedia also depends on the financial contributions of users like you. Wikipedia has to cover the costs of equipment, infrastructure and the ongoing development of its software each year. Plus there are expenses for training events and workshops for Wikipedia authors, which are also crucial to ensuring the quality of the articles on Wikipedia.
None of these things would be possible without your donations. Wikipedia made a conscious decision not to charge any fees and to keep the site free of ads so as not to compromise its independence. Wikipedia is a non-profit project without any commercial agenda. Please make a donation this year – €5, €50 or €500, or any amount you wish. Help keep Wikipedia ad-free, independent, and free of charge for another year.
Thank you from Pavel Richter, Chairman of Wikimedia Germany
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Thanks a 233,813!
I am overwhelmed by all the support we have received. Over the past seven weeks, €5.2 million were donated to Wikipedia and to free knowledge in Germany. I am particularly fascinated by the fact that this figure wasn’t reached thanks to a few large sponsors; instead, hundreds of thousands of users each donated a small amount to help ensure that Wikipedia can continue to grow and thrive. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, members and staff of Wikimedia Germany, and on behalf of our thousands of volunteers, I would like to say: thanks a 233,818!
I see donors and authors as a large community working together to create the largest compendium of knowledge the world has ever seen. We at Wikimedia Germany – the German chapter of Wikipedia and supporter of free knowledge – regard the trust placed in us by so many supporters as our mission for the coming year. And there is certainly plenty to do.
Wikipedia relies on voluntary support from people like you and me – people who write articles and monitor and improve them every day; people who take photos and make them available for us to use; and people who use their free time to make sure that Wikipedia continues to get a little bit better every day. But, unfortunately, we have realized that fewer and fewer volunteers are helping Wikipedia. Just think what this could mean in the long term! The decreasing number of authors is one of the greatest threats facing Wikipedia, so during the coming year we will concentrate on attracting new authors. We are planning a wide range of projects on this topic, such as events to train and help our new authors.
However, this is just one topic among many. In the next twelve months, we are planning important programs to improve the quality of the content and to create widespread awareness of the principle of free knowledge in Germany. Not all of the donations we received will be used in Germany – we will use some of the money to support the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, in order to safeguard technology and infrastructure in 2013. Wikipedia is there for everyone. Our aim is to make the sum of humankind’s knowledge freely available to every person in the world. For millions of people, Wikipedia is not merely a useful tool in their everyday lives; it is their most important source of information. Can you honestly imagine life without Wikipedia? I certainly can’t!
Did you know that you can also support Wikipedia and free knowledge by becoming a member of Wikimedia Germany, a non-profit association? As a member, you will not only support Wikipedia on a regular basis, you can also actively promote free knowledge in Germany. I therefore appeal to you to continue supporting Wikipedia in the future. Please join Wikimedia Germany and support our common mission to make the sum of humankind’s knowledge freely available!
I wish you health and success in 2013.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
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I'm a volunteer.
I don't get paid a cent for my work at Wikipedia, and neither do our thousands of other volunteer authors and editors. When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different.
Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it 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. It is a unique human project, the first of its kind in history. It is a humanitarian project to bring a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet.
Every single person.
If all of Wikipedia's 400 million users would donate 1 Euro each, we would have 20 times the amount of money we need. We're a small organization, and I've worked hard over the years to keep us lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.
To do this without resorting to advertising, we need you.
It is you who keep this dream alive. It is you who have created Wikipedia. It is you who believe that a place of calm reflection and learning is worth having.
This year, please consider making a donation of 5, 20, 100 Euro or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.
Thanks