Imagine the world without anger, without greed. We have the power, the tools, the skills and the resources right now to build a peaceful world, where people live in harmony with the Earth and each other. This blog explores ways we are doing just that, one post, one change, one day at a time. Join me. Tell your stories. Ask for help. Spread your ideas for making the vision real and, well, ordinary.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Information is power--Support Wikipedia

Free information, available worldwide to anyone with a modem or an Ethernet cable and computer, is almost unimaginable to those of us who began our writing careers hunting and pecking on an old Underwood manual typewriter. Yet twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, you and I can look up anything from isotopes to spider worts quicker than we can say "periodical index" and "card catalog" (old library terms for those of you weaned on electrons and discarded computer cables). So it's a no-brainer that the fine people and work of Wikimedia and Wikipedia are precious and worthy of our gratitude and support.

This year, for the first time, the Wikimedia Foundation will also offer the opportunity to give by mobile phone. Anyone with a U.S.-based cellphone can make a donation by texting "WIKI" to 25383. The $10 donation is charged to their phone bill.

Wikipedia 2009 Fundraising Campaign news release


From now (the campaign actually started November 10) until January 10, Wikipedia is asking us, through their annual fund raising campaign, to donate a few dollars to help keep their servers up and running smoothly and to provide a living to the thirty some people they employ. That's a small but worthy investment to assure that our vast storehouse of collective knowledge is recorded, updated and always available to you and me, whatever and whenever the fancy strikes us.

They've made it easy to contribute. You can donate online or simply text "WIKI" to 25383 from your cell phone, and your $10 donation will show up on your next phone bill. Can it get any simpler?

In case you're wondering how this fits with the mission of the Village of Ordinary and this blog, it's a perfect fit. In Sup, we meet Noah, the village librarian who has enlisted Rose in their oral history project. Later, we see Rose working with her friend and sister gardener Sena on the oral history catalog. In Ordinary, information, like everything else, is carefully tended and absolutely free to all who seek it. So you can see that the work of Wikipedia is very much a part of the vision of Ordinary.

I give gratitude for the people of Wikimedia and their mission. May their fundraising campaign provide everything they need to continue their work.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.
All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

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