I Love Wikipedia

Can I take just a minute to talk about how much I love Wikipedia? I use it all the time for my advertising job and writing and life. Need to know about C-reactive proteins? Wikipedia. Hemophilia? Wikipedia. Novartis? Wikipedia. (I do a lot of medically related stuff). The lightening field art installation in New Mexico? Wikipedia. Blogging? Wikipedia.

I know it’s not always accurate/written at the most academic level, but it works great for what I need, which is usually general background information. If I need hard facts, I verify them elsewhere. And actually, the roughness of it can be kind of charming. Recently, I went looking for information on sea turtles, and found the entries to be written by children. It made my day to picture some fifth-grade class, beachside elementary in Florida putting together Wikipedia posts under their teacher’s direction. How psyched are those kids to have their writing published on the Web? (Note much of the content has since been re-written.)

I love how Wikipedia’s made--by people doing it for their own gratification, not monetary gain. A lot’s been written about this (Wikipedia specifically and people donating their time and effort and creativity in general), but one of the most interesting in my opinion is a short video by RSA Animate called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Wikipedia needs donations. Keep meaning to. Finally did it today.