NAVIGATION

NAVIGATION

WIKI | REPORT | Online Cost of Growing Knowledge | December 2016

[Edited extract from public address]

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge.

Help Wikipedia continue its task in its annual end of year appeal.

Today, thanks to the support of millions of volunteer contributors and supporters, users can wander Wikipedia for hours. With more than 40 million Wikipedia articles and 35 million freely licensed images, Wikipedia can answer almost any question, and take inquirers places never been.

Donations support the creation and sharing of free knowledge in real, practical ways. It helps Wikipedia be fast, secure, and accessible to everyone in the world. It helps Wikipedia bring free access to knowledge in places where high mobile data costs prevent people from going online. It helps Wikipedia support people who are digitizing knowledge currently locked away in analog archives. It protects Wikipedia from threats to free knowledge and the open internet.

"When I made Wikipedia a non-profit, people warned me I’d regret it. Over a decade later, it’s the only top ten site run by a non-profit and community of volunteers.

Has it crossed my mind how much we could have made if it had ads? Sure. But it wouldn’t be right. We wouldn't be able to trust it.

To protect our independence, we'll never run ads. We're sustained by donations averaging about $15. If everyone reading this gave $3, our fundraiser would be done in an hour. It’s easy to ignore this message; most people do.

But I hope you’ll think about how useful Wikipedia is in your life. It’s there when you tell yourself, 'Okay, I actually need to learn about this.' With articles and data sources researched by thousands of people, you can verify the facts.

Please help us keep Wikipedia online and growing.

Thank you."
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder

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