Information is power--Support Wikipedia

©Wikipedia/Creative Commons CC-BY-SA

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.

Gratitudes

None of us do anything by ourselves and without help, no matter how isolated we may feel at times. Here is where I acknowledge the people and organizations who help to make this blog possible. This doesn't mean, of course, that I won't miss someone, but I hope to catch you all here. Supporting one another is the most basic of Ordinary principles. Here we go.

• Firstly, of course, are the readers who support the vision of Ordinary by returning to both blogs again and again and who encourage continued research and writing through their comments and, delightfully, through occasional offers of help.
  
• Secondly, were it not for the kind folks at Blogger, this blog would not be possible. They provide the software and the servers absolutely free to most of us. I give gratitude for their service and commitment to keeping the Internet free and available to absolutely everyone.
  
• Jim at Tips for New Bloggers and Greenlava of Blogger Central, both give generously of their precious time to write hundreds of instructional articles to help the web-challenged among us. Through them I learned how to build a three-column blog (TfNB) and how to make the menu that points to this page (BC), and to the "About," "Ordinary Heroes," and "Copyright" pages. Don't be surprised if you see more acknowledgements of their guidance as time goes by. Update 12/28/10: So many people were adding their own tabs to their blogs, that Blogger finally gave us "Pages" and tabs to link to them. Sometime this last year, Blogger also gave us the ability to design our blog layout, including the use of three columns. I suspect the assistance so many of us received from Jim and Greenlava had something to do with that.
• Webweaver provided a dandy little code generator with easy-to-follow instructions for making a copyright notice that automatically updates every year--an invaluable time saver come New Year's Day.
• Wanda of What Would Wanda Do?, whose blog informs and nourishes me in so many ways, posted a quote from the Dalai Lama On December 26, 2010, in I learn a lot from my cats. Deeply moved and inspired, I changed my blog description to  "Imagine the world without anger, without greed." Nothing so exemplifies the world of Ordinary as that clear vision. To emphasize the importance of the vision, I added those words, in bold font, to my blog synopsis as well.
  

  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.

This post is updated periodically, and not nearly often enough, to acknowledge the kindness and support of others whose moral, spiritual, emotional and technical support make the blog possible.

Last updated: 12/28/10.

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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.