02 - Wikimedia Foundation

2013-01-09T20:07:19Z

Crowd-sourcing knowledge worldwide.

HQ Location: United States.

In 11 short years, Wikimedia Foundation’s flagship initiative – ubiquitous online encyclopaedia Wikipedia – has revolutionized the way knowledge is collected and shared. By now, most are familiar with the Wikipedia model, which is based around open access for all Internet users, a commitment to multilingualism and constant edits and updates carried out by an army of approximately 100,000 eager volunteers. Most striking, however, in an age of multi-billion dollar Facebook IPOs, is the organization’s bedrock belief in the notion that information should never represent a profit-driven commodity.

In practical terms, Wikimedia Foundation – which topped our inaugural ranking – exists as perhaps the most influential non-government actor in the field of education today. Operating with a shoestring staff of 142, the organization is responsible for managing the platform facilitating the largest collection of shared knowledge in human history – currently 23 million articles and counting. To date, Wikipedia is available in 285 languages and is visited by more than 470 million people per month. Central to Wikimedia Foundation’s future strategy is the continued expansion of Wikipedia in the languages of the developing world, where access to information is seen to represent not only a personal asset, but also an essential dimension in building an engaged citizenry at the societal level.

Ultimately, the Wikimedia Foundation represents a path-breaking example of what an NGO can achieve in the Internet era. Working with relatively meagre resources and committed to a funding model based on mass private donations as opposed to large institutional grants, the organization continues, through an innovative application of new technologies, to have a deep and abiding impact on the lives of millions around the world.

To read more about the Top NGOs rankings click here.

Photo © Lane Hartwell

#01 - The Wikimedia Foundation

2012-01-23T10:56:32Z

Check out if Wikimedia Foundation is in the Top 100 NGOs 2013 Edition!

Revolutionizing the way knowledge is shared.

20 million articles written in 282 languages.

“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” That is the humble goal of Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Since its inception in 2001, Wikimedia’s most famous initiative – Wikipedia – has transformed the way the world obtains information. Free, multilingual, and edited by thousands of volunteers, it offers anyone with an Internet connection access to the largest and most up-to-date encyclopedia available today.

Wikipedia is built on the belief that information is not a for-profit commodity. It has created an open platform where people around the world can collectively share their knowledge: whereas the encyclopedias of the past were written by a minority of professionals, Wikipedia is available to be edited and reviewed by volunteers ranging in expertise and spanning geographical regions. The result is a database of peer-reviewed and accurate entries – some updated thousands of times.

" Wikimedia Foundation is a small non-profit that supports hundreds of thousands of volunteers – the people from all over the world who make our project, and give away their efforts for free so they can be enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people every day. You’re recognizing that community of volunteers by recognizing us.“

Rekindling the world’s insatiable appetite for knowledge, Wikipedia is visited by 477 million visitors per month, making the Wikimedia web property the fifth most visited in the world. It contains over 20 million articles in 282 languages and it is run by a meager staff of 97. In 5 years, Wikimedia plans to increase its global reach to 1 billion people and increase the number of articles in Wikipedia to 50 million – all while diversifying participation and improving the quality of its content. As part of this goal, Wikimedia hopes to increase participation from contributors in India, Brazil, and the Middle East and North Africa regions – where there are already buds of rich online engagement.

Wikipedia is not innovating a new technology nor is it staffing a mass of researchers to extract data from all corners of the earth. It is rather changing the world with an idea: to create a public space where all people can freely join to collaborate, share and communicate all of our collective knowledge. In its 12 years of existence, Wikipedia has become the largest collection of shared knowledge in human history. The brainchild of one man, it would never be possible without the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who offer their time and expertise to create its content.

Read also our interview of Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales.

(Photo CC-BY-SA 3.0 Victor Grigas)

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02 - Wikimedia Foundation

#01 - The Wikimedia Foundation