Serendipity35

 

Tomorrow, January 15, 2011, the online open source encyclopedia Wikipedia will celebrate its tenth anniversary. To mark Wikipedia Day, supporters, volunteers and donors on six continents will host events.

During their recent fundraising campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation, parent of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, got 500,000+ donations from 140 countries and were able to raise $16 million to keep Wikipedia running. It costs about $20 million a year to operate - which is amazingly lean for such a site. It works because it relies on an amazing community of volunteers.

The average donation was #22. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, said the fundraiser was the 'shortest' in the online encyclopedia's history, lasting just 50 days. Out of the $16 million donations, $13.7 million came via the Internet,while the rest came from direct checks.

Wikipedia 10 celebrators around the world are documenting the coverage on ten.wikipedia.org, a wiki specially created for the occasion. Some of the highlights for today:

The Times of India out of Bangalore discusses Wikipedia’s push for more local language content.

The Atlantic from New York prepared a wide-ranging package of content about the anniversary, including insights from Wikimedia advisory board members Craig Newmark, Jay Rosen, Clay Shirky, and Ethan Zuckerman.

Read Write Web asks readers what Wikipedia will look like in ten years.

The Washington Post featured a lengthy piece on the history and future of Wikipedia, including an interview with Jimmy Wales.

Italy’s La Repubblica covered the occasion, and made a visit to the Foundation’s San Francisco offices earlier this week.

Wired UK and the US Wired are in the midst of ‘Wikipedia week‘ and have included some great Wikipedia lists.

The Guardian‘s feature op-ed by Wikimedia ED Sue Gardner ran earlier today.