Jason Krüger for Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., Wikimedia Conference 2017 – 136, CC BY-SA 4.0. Some rights reserved.It all started with Wikipedia in 2001, and now, as they say, it's complicated. 16 years down the line, what started as an online wiki-encyclopaedia in the US has evolved into a global network of communities and organisations, small and big, all of them inspired by the thought, “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge."
Wikipedia or Wikimedia?
A short introduction might be necessary, as the difference between Wikipedia and Wikimedia remains obscure to most people. Wikimedia includes 11 projects (the most prominent of which is Wikipedia, followed by Wikimedia Commons and the relatively new project Wikidata) and there are recognised user groups and chapters worldwide. The newest user groups are Open Foundation West Africa and Malaysia, the oldest chapters include Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikimedia France. The Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco is the largest of the Wikimedia organisations, the one that recognises new organisations in the network, and the primary fundraiser.
One of the things that make Wikimedia special is that it is largely run by volunteers. There are around 500 paid Wikimedia staff members worldwide, out of these 300 in the US and 100 in Germany. However, the heart of Wikimedia is the community of the thousands of volunteers who are engaged globally. It’s organic, non-hierarchical...collaborative while prone to discussion and conflict, and diverse.
