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January 2, 2009 11:12 AM PST

Wikimedia Foundation raises $6.2 million for Wikipedia

by Don Reisinger

The Wikimedia Foundation announced Friday that it has reached its goal of raising over $6 million to sustain Wikipedia.

With the help of over 125,000 donors from around the world, the Wikimedia Foundation raised a total of $6.2 million, sustaining Wikipedia for the foreseeable future. The money will be used to maintain and grow the foundation's technical infrastructure.

"This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising," Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote in a thank you letter posted on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation's Web site. "We deeply appreciate the generosity of our supporters."

The Wikimedia Foundation was behind in its total contributions in late December, but Wales published a personal appeal on the foundation's site to increase funding. In the eight days trailing that message, more than 50,000 contributions flooded in, totaling $2 million and closing the gap toward the goal.

The Wikimedia Foundation is still accepting funding on its donations page.

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) (17 Comments)
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by someguy999 January 2, 2009 12:03 PM PST
good things happening to a good site!
Reply to this comment
by Mr. Dee January 2, 2009 12:11 PM PST
I love Wikipedia, I think its one of the best websites in the whole wide world. :)
Reply to this comment
by jaxstephens January 2, 2009 12:46 PM PST
I absolutely love Wikipedia, and I was one of the people who donated with their recent push. I use the sucker so much that I figured I owed them something after all these years. Heck, today alone I've consulted Wikipedia probably a dozen items.
Reply to this comment
by thekohser January 2, 2009 7:02 PM PST
Interesting that you'd use the word "sucker" in your joyous response.
by nicmart January 2, 2009 1:56 PM PST
Misinformation wants to be free!
Reply to this comment
by YankeePoodle January 2, 2009 2:05 PM PST
Wales did a good job justifying the 6 million campaign by dissecting some details of the how it will be used in his appeal for donations and is the reason why Wikipedia was able to reach its goals.
Reply to this comment
by mattflaschen January 2, 2009 6:05 PM PST
This is a significant accomplishment, but note that not all of this money is for Wikipedia. There are other projects, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikibooks.
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by thekohser January 2, 2009 7:01 PM PST
Interesting use of the fictional appellation "founder" for Jimbo. I guess Dr. Larry Sanger was just a figment of all of our imaginations. I'll pipe down and get back to chewing on this blue pill. CNET: once again the center of hard-hitting journalism. Just like this laugher: http://news.cnet.com/1606-2-6233396.html
Reply to this comment
by jaxstephens January 2, 2009 7:53 PM PST
Interesting that you even spend your valuable time reading CNET articles and posting comments to articles if you dog on it so much.
by myles taylor January 2, 2009 8:27 PM PST
I didn't think they were going to be able to do it. I hope they use some of that money to hire new people and expand.
Reply to this comment
by MAL313 January 3, 2009 9:06 AM PST
I wouldn't call Wikipedia misinformation; the site itself does a pretty good job of explaining what it is, and is not. Wikipedia is dangerous only to the lazy users who see it for more than it is. I refer friends often to this pretty good explanation of it:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides.topic__ss_categories_ss_technology_ss_Wikipedia.xa_1.html
Reply to this comment
by January 3, 2009 10:20 AM PST
I absolutely love Wikipedia. It is one of the best things the internet has brought us. So many times, professionally and leisurely I found Wikipedia the best starting point on a topic. The guys who started this should win a Nobel Prize. Just the best site in the internet that benefits people around the world, and it is a non-profit!
Reply to this comment
by Enginez January 3, 2009 12:34 PM PST
A huge banner asking for money, at the top of every page... Why not have ads instead? I figure it wouldn't be so bad if registered users could opt-in to having Google ads on the site. Google ads could actually increase the usefulness of the site, but I guess that would provide the Foundation with too much surplus cash...
Reply to this comment
by Siebrut January 4, 2009 3:26 AM PST
I think if the people can opt-in the ads to donate the Wikimedia Foundation, they will click the ads a lot...
Because they were thinking it can help Foundation.... But this is actually not allowed by Google's Adsense.
by loose_screw January 3, 2009 1:09 PM PST
I just checked power.com, and facebook has been removed as a login option.... Looks like the lawsuit threat worked after all?
Reply to this comment
by loose_screw January 3, 2009 1:10 PM PST
Oops, wrong article. Meant to respond to this article:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10130543-2.html
by Jyakotu January 5, 2009 6:13 AM PST
Wikipedia is the best site EVAR!!!
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