Who is Asking You to Donate to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation?

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You might be asking yourself, “Who are those people in the banners on Wikipedia?  Why are they asking me to ‘please read an appeal?'”  They are members of the Wikipedia community and they believe strongly in the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation.  Some are employees of the Wikimedia Foundation and some are volunteers; editors, contributors, and users of Wikipedia without whom Wikipedia would not be what it is today.  The people in the banners asking you for money to support Wikipedia are real people who believe in spreading free knowledge throughout the world.
 
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Brandon Harris is a Senior Designer at the Wikimedia Foundation and he has worked at Wikimedia since the Spring of 2010. He was raised in Huntington, West Virginia, and he has spent most of his adult life in San Francisco, CA. He is aggressively passionate about his work and loves feeling like he is making the world a better place. He listens to heavy metal, plays guitar, and hosts an ongoing RPG night.
 
 
 
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Susan Hewitt is originally from England and has lived in the US for more than half of her life.  She does volunteer work of different kinds, she loves to write (including Wikipedia articles, of course!) and she loves to teach. She also enjoys doing field research and writing papers on mollusks. She is fond of swimming and being in the ocean. At home you might find her reading a stack of science magazines or studying Buddhism. She thinks the most important thing any of us can do is try to make the world a better place for everyone else.
 
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Karthik Nadar is from Mumbai, India.  He is a student and he works part-time.  His favorite part of his job is he has enough time to contribute to Wikipedia.  He contributed a lot to the 2011 Mumbai bombings article, including adding a picture he took after a bomb blast. In his free time, other than editing Wikipedia, he enjoys playing the drums and playing cricket.  He also enjoys photography.
 
 
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User GorillaWarfare is a student at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.  She began editing Wikipedia when she was in high school and currently she mostly focusses on anti-vandalism editing on Wikipedia.  Her main interest is Wikipedia and she considers it to be more of a hobby than volunteer work.  She remarked that some people think it’s a “weird way to spend her time,” but when they see what she is actually doing, especially with anti-vandalism, “they almost see it as kind of a game where I’m reverting the bad guys.”
 
 
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Bruno Linhares is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Ph.D. in Practical Theology.  In all of his many activities, he finds research to be the most enjoyable part for him.  He enjoys reading about aviation and 20th Centrury world literature and journey accounts.  He enjoys film and he goes to the movies every week.  He also enjoys walking, hiking, and photography.
 
 
 
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Dr. Sengai Podhuvanar is fom Chennai, India.  He is currently retired after having many jobs:  he worked on a rural farm, as a school teacher, as a state-appointed journal editor, and as a PhD expert on indigenous Indian games.  He “was born a poor farmer, and still considers [himself] a farmer with a single plow.”  Currently he enjoys his retirement by  reading, writing, taking walks and adding lots of his knowledge to Wikipedia.
 
 
 
Image (7) Screen-Shot-2011-12-13-at-11.00.49-AM-300x276.png for post 8197Maryana Pinchuk is a Community Organizer at the Wikimedia Foundation. She works with editors to support the growth of all the Wikimedia projects. Her favorite thing about her job is getting to work with an international team of “brilliant, crazy, fearless people who are completely rabid about the goal of sharing knowledge with everyone in the world for free.” She is originally from the Ukraine and has spent time living in many places in the US including Seattle, New Orleans, Boston, and Mississippi. She is a fan of going to bookstores and picking up classics and science fiction, and she likes motorcycle riding.
 
 

Basil Soufi was born in Washington State, spent the first few years of his life in Saudi Arabia, then moved to Canada, and later moved to California.  Basil realized the power of Wikipedia when, in 2004, a high school assignment led him to Google “John Kerry.”  The encyclopedia in his home library was printed in 1993 and did not have much information on John Kerry who was not as notable at the time.  He needed current information that can be found on the Internet but he also needed an encyclopedia, so Wikipedia fit the bill.  Basil speaks several languages including Arabic, French, and English and he owns and operates a diversified media company.
 
 
Image (9) Screen-Shot-2011-12-19-at-12.20.02-PM.png for post 8197Alan Sohn grew up in Lawrence, NY, lived for a decade in Manhattan, and then moved with his wife and children to Teaneck, New Jersey. It was the article for Teaneck that was Alan’s first experience with Wikipedia, launching thousands of new articles and over 300,000 Wikipedia edits.  Aside from his passion of editing Wikipedia articles, Alan has a penchant for puzzles, both in his work as a financial systems analyst, and crossword puzzles, namely the famous NYT crossword puzzle.  Alan plays in a softball league with one of his sons, has coached his kids in various sports, and spent 3 years as a bicycle commuter riding 16 miles daily from NJ to NYC.
 
 
 
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Akshaya Iyengar is from India.  She grew up in Solapur, a city in Maharashtra state.  She moved to the US for graduate school and now lives and works in Seattle, WA.  Akshaya is a Software Developer for a technology company.  She likes the fact that the software she writes is directly used by many, many people.  In her free time she enjoys ballroom/latin dancing, playing the guitar, and solving jigsaw puzzles.
 
 
 
Image (11) Screen-Shot-2011-12-21-at-1.09.48-PM.png for post 8197Aniruddha Kumar is from New Delhi, India.  He is is a blind Wikipedia editor who finds it important that Wikipedia remain ad-free because he does not have to waste time listening to advertising text on the site.  He also likes that there is no barrier of nationality, ethnicity, religion, caste, or gender for editors or readers of Wikipedia; it is information for all written by all.  He is a research scholar in Jawaharial University, New Delhi.  He enjoys the art of winning a debate and convincing others to see his point on topics, spreading information, and eating tasty food.
 
 
 
Image (12) Screen-Shot-2011-12-22-at-12.29.00-PM.png for post 8197Ward Cunningham is computer programmer and the inventor of the wiki. He is a founder of Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. (c2.com) and currently resides in Oregon, USA.  Read more about him on Wikipedia.
 
 
 
 
 
Image (13) Screen-Shot-2011-12-22-at-10.39.49-AM.png for post 8197Isaac Kosegi Kips is from Kenya and he’s a recent graduate from Egerton University in Nakura, Kenya.  Isaac is a Wikimedia volunteer and his major project is distributing offline versions of Wikipedia to several schools in Kenya that do not have Internet access.  He is also working on improving Wikipedia in Africa’s native languages.  When he is not editing Wikipedia he loves to read, and he loves soccer.
 
 
 
 
 
Stacey Merrick
Social Media Coordinator

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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Great to see such a diversity of people contributing to Wikipedia!

You forgot this bearded fellow. Him with the eyes. Jimbo was his name I guess…

Wikipedia, Is one of the most online projects I have ever worked on
I did make a donate 3 times before and I am willing to do more if I have more
Wikipedia make noticeable effect on human life

προσωπικά πρότεινα την παντελή δωρεάν προσφορά απ’ όλους μας, το διαδίκτυο είναι ένα χόμπι δεν ζητάμε λεφτά για το χόμπι δηλαδή. αν ήταν έτσι, ο καθένας μας θα μπορούσε να ζητάει αμοιβή. Τελικά λέω. ο έρανος, είναι παλιό έθιμο ωστόσο είναι κακό ως προς τη νέα σκέψη. Δεν είναι το πρόβλημα το ένα ή τα χίλια ευρώ που θα δίναμε αλλά αυτή καθεαυτή η νοοτροπία να κάνουμε ένα χόμπι και να θέλουμε τελικά και λεφτά… νομίζω, δεν κοστίζει να αναρτούμε στην ιστοσελίδα ότι γνωρίζουμε, είναι χαρά. Μη χαλάμε αυτή τη χαρά –με τη γλοιώδη χαρά από χρήματα, τότε χαλάμε την… Read more »

To the website designers of WikiMedia / Wikipedia: Please seriously consider showing the photo of an employee / a volunteer etc in the request for donations banner, towards the right end of the banners and not at the left end. Because at left end the photo gets placed above the title of the article and when the article is about a person it can be wrongly thought of as the photo of the person of the topic of the article by an unsuspecting reader. As an example, look at this sample: http://i44.tinypic.com/20jw38.png – the article is about an Indian actress… Read more »

Oops, to drive home my point, I had used a wrong page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simran
I should have used this instead : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simran_(actress) .
Anyway if you look at this latter page you would agree with me that there is the issue (of appearance of photo of another person above a subject title)

I’d love to write about my adventures, about a small town kid of Merrimack, NH… Growing up in the 90’s with a Military officer as a father, mathematical sister, a rock n’ rollin brother and a video gaming, pizza making Superhero type of Mother changed the way people saw the free world, the Chairforce (aka US Air Force) and the red and black flannel wearing NH kids. This I know is true… I am an ambassador no matter where I am and true Integrity is earned by those who earn it and pay their due’s! Happy Holidays and have a… Read more »

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Hats off to all the people at wikipedia. After reading the fundraiser pages of all the people above, I feel like Wikipedia is touching lives invariably. Myself and many of my friends collect informations and facts from Wikipedia for our college projects. Without Wikipedia, I doubt a source more reliable.

Enough with the begging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today i really feel that even i can do something for this earth and people on it.
Hats off to those people those who supporting Wikipedia directly or indirectly.
yes,the most important thing any of us can do is try to make the world a better place for everyone else.i’m om it from now onwards
upendra

I was happy to make a donation since I’ve been getting so much good information off here for a long time! Thanks! And I’m curious. What exactly is the difference between wikipedia vs wikimedia? Guess it’s the same site just wondering.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects. You can find more information about it on Wikimedia’s FAQ page.

Dear Madam/Sir,
I would like to donate by check but cannot find a mailing address. Please help.
Regards
Leon

hi, just made donation for all our causes to see the future with all you still intact for our benefit…freedom should always reign. Also big Q for you why no AUSTRALIANS on your team,my daughter is a fully quilified edit,and can not find work? ARE YOU IN NEED OF EDITOR.. You might as well give her a go,shes on her computer religiously daily,shes been a assistant administrator to site of forums,and loves rpg games,makes her own,she loves to write also,computer skilled,professional writing studies for 4 years,let me know,maybe your first aussie..If your interested in my daughter for any involvement with… Read more »

[…] Who is Asking You to Donate to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation? (wikimedia.org) […]

Un placer conocerlos. Gracias por brindarnos acceso libre y gratuito al conocimiento. Sepan que hacen un excelente trabajo y siempre les estaré agradecido.
Saludos!
Raúl.

Es ist erstaunlich, welches geografische Weltbild diese Liste der Personen darstellt. Es mutet sehr eigenartig an. Denn es spiegelt nicht die Realität wider, welche Wikipedia tatsächlich darstellt.
Ich dachte immer, Werbund hat etwas mit Identifikation zu tun. Zumindest habe ich das so gelernt und später auch beruflich angewendet.
PS: It is my intention, to write this in german.

[…] year’s campaign highlighted the volunteers who help to create Wikipedia. It featured testimonials from volunteer editors in countries such as […]

[…] Who is Asking You to Donate to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation? (wikimedia.org) […]

thank youuuuu

Thank you for all….

Nice to be visiting your blog again, it has been months for me, always good writings here.

Wikipedia give so much to us so there should be no problem giving back.

[…] stories for the 2011 Wikimedia fundraiser (out of the dozens and dozens of interviews we conducted, Ward’s would be one of the thirteen stories that made it into the fundraising campaign). Given a chance to capture a first-hand account of the very early history of wikis, we had decided […]