The symbiotic relationship between HubPages and Wikipedia
Referencing Wikipedia
“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”
Jimmy Wales
Founder, Wikipedia
Admit it. We , HubPage writers, cannot finish one hub without browsing at and referencing from Wikipedia, the largest online encyclopedia. It’s not only our personal experiences that count in writing our hubs, but also the basic facts about our selected topics. Therefore, a hub page writer, like me is becoming symbiotic with the site.
Founding Wikipedia way back 2001 brought a relief to all researchers from around the world. You will not tire yourself going to public library just to do researching from books and heavy sets of encyclopedia. Instead, you tend to do research online for interesting topics that just comes to mind. And the place you usually frequent to open is Wikipedia.
People behind Wikipedia
Who will not be addicted, enlighten me, if you didn’t open the site just once? With the vast of information with just a click of your browser, writers cannot ignore the vast of information that Wikipedia provides.
As the Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, stresses: “Wikipedia isn’t a commercial website. It’s a community creation, entirely written and funded by people like you (me). More than 340 million people use Wikipedia every month - almost a third of the internet-connected world. You are part of our community.”
It’s not only the array of information that counts. Wikipedia is composed of people who are working, benefiting and donating to the site to make it commercial-free. In 2003, Mr. Wales created the non-profit organization, Wikimedia Foundation, that is continue operating, growing, nurturing and protecting Wikipedia.
Can you imagine that only 35 people who are regularly employed maintain the existence of the fifth most-read website in the entire world? It cannot operate without the annual revenue amounting to at least ten million US dollars which is still not enough to maintain it as commercial-free site.
An Appeal to the Public
By donating some of our earnings, we can participate to keep it growing-spreading knowledge to everyone free of charge.
Once you open the Wikipedia these days, there’s a big banner made by the founder, Jimmy Wales dedicated to the users. It is urging us to make some donations, whether big or small amount of money that can maintain the operation of the site, protected by us and free from advertising.
It’s not too late to make some pledges. Open our eyes to the reality that participating to this kind of plea will maintain the goal of Wikipedia: free information to all people around the world.
Let’s start it here in HubPages. It’s not too late to do an act of charity, right?