PRESS RELEASE
Berlin, 26 May 2011
Wikipedia for
World Heritage!
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales calls for signatures to be collected and presented to the UNESCO.
On Monday, 23 May 2011, Wikimedia Deutschland started a worldwide collection of signatures for the Wikipedia for World Heritage! initiative. People are invited to join the list now by signing an online form. The list will ultimately be presented to the World Heritage Committee at the beginning of 2012. To date more than 7000 people from over 100 countries have already signed the petition. Each signature supports the initiative’s claim that Wikipedia as the largest collection of human knowledge should be recognized as the first ever global and digital World Heritage site. Altogether there are ten UNESCO criteria for recognition as a World Heritage site. The first of those criteria demands that World Heritage sites “represent a masterpiece of human creative genius”. The online petition is quoting these exact words. By signing it participants confirm that Wikipedia has universal value and that the claim is true in its case. This petition is the starting point for a global discussion of Wikipedia’s cultural meaning. Currently the free encyclopedia provides free access to more than 18 million articles in over 280 languages. Since the beginning of the new millennium Wikipedia has evolved into the collective memory of the world. Having Wikipedia recognized as a Unesco World Heritage site is a huge step towards preserving its cumulative knowledge for future generations.
“Millions of people take Wikipedia for granted. They use it each and every day. Still, free access to the sum of human knowledge is not a matter of course in many places. It is a global challenge to recognize, support and preserve the work that hundreds of thousands of volunteers invest in this community project. The key to free exchange of knowledge is public recognition”, says Pavel Richter, CEO of Wikimedia Deutschland.
The initiative was introduced in March 2011 at the international Wikimedia Chapters Conference in Berlin. Chapters from all over the world will accompany the initiative's activities regarding Wikipedia’s recognition as a World Heritage site. Wikimedia Deutschland will entertain an expert round on the subject on 31 May 2011 at the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin. The event will be a public kick-off. Further activities with the international community will follow. Additionally, public discussion provides a chance to explain how to deal with free knowledge and to stress its meaning for society. The advertising agency Leo Burnett supports Wikimedia Deutschland in the initiative’s realization.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was the first to sign the petition. In a video statement he calls for support of the initiative. In his appeal Jimmy Wales puts emphasis on how important international awareness is to the free encyclopedia: “A lot of people think of Wikipedia as a technical phenomenon, a technical achievement. But in fact it isn't. What Wikipedia is, is a cultural change, a cultural achievement. We are going to try to get as many people as possible to sign the petition. Just like Wikipedia itself, the more people we get involved, the greater the chance that we'll achieve our goal. Please sign the petition!”
Wikipedia for World Heritage- A reporter is asking me when did the campaign idea came out and when it was officially started?_______________________________________________-Tinu Cherian
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