[Foundation-l] 10 Years of Wikipedia: What's That Mean to You?

[Moka Pantages]

Hi, everyone.

I'm working with Steven Walling and the WikiX team to help get ready
for the coming celebrations. As you know, Wikipedia’s 10-year birthday
is coming up really soon! We’ve got scores of events planned—at least
two on every continent so far[1]—and we’re hoping for more. Now, we
just need to make sure the rest of the world knows about this amazing
milestone, too.

Most people outside of the community don’t fully realize we’re a
mission-driven, non-profit movement run by real, everyday people.
Often, Wikipedia is thought to be a static product or service, not a
living, breathing community of people, from all walks of life, who
care about providing a free public service to the world.  We want the
rest of the world to know and understand us as a people-driven
movement, appreciate what we’re doing and --most importantly-- join
us.  To help, we're asking volunteers [2]  passionate about Wikipedia
to take a few minutes to write a bit about what it means to be a
Wikipedian.  Telling your own story about your personal connection to
Wikipedia is about being proud of the time you’ve spent working on an
international pubic resource and vital necessity to over 400 million
people all over the world. It’s about thanking the thousands of people
who work alongside you to keep this amazing project going.

In addition, we're compiling information about Wikipedia in the form
of a historical timeline [3] , curating interesting data in the form
of top 10 lists [4][5] and searching for long-time Wikipedians who
might also be celebrating their 10th birthday as editors [6].  If you
have anything to add [7], please share!

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, let us know.

Cheers,

Moka Pantages
Wikimedia Foundation
Communications


[1] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Communications_Kit
[2] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Stories
[3] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_timeline
[4] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_by_the_numbers
[5] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia's_Top_Ten
[6] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedians_celebrating_their_tenth_WikiBirthday
[7] http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share#Wikipedians_celebrating_their_tenth_WikiBirthday