Wikipedia is an extraordinarily useful resource.
Sure, it suffers from occasional errors. And its articles about living persons need to be treated with caution. But in the fields of science and general knowledge it is an unparalleled source of information.
Founder Jimmy Wales had the vision to progress the Wikimedia project through the early years, in spite of its detractors, a remarkable achievement. While Google, Facebook etc. honchos garnered zillions, Wales’s involvement has not made him a rich man.
Mr Wales is asking users to make a donation to Wikimedia. He says that if everyone currently visiting Wikipedia gave 2 pounds, they could keep it “thriving for years to come”.
Please make a small donation now, e.g. GBP5 / EUR10 / USD10. If you have Paypal it only takes a minute.
To paraphrase Sir Geldof, jolly well go and do it now.
Update
Gregory Kohs has sent me a link to an interesting article highlighting some of the weaknesses of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia cannot be treated as an authoritative source. Despite that it is tremendously useful, in my opinion.
One has to maintain a critical attitude to what one is reading and remember it might be wrong.
This is true of anything published on the web and, indeed, anything published by a university.
