Wikimedia gets $500000 from Hewlett Foundation

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates the online encyclopedia Wikipedia said on Thursday that it received a $500,000 grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to expand its work bringing free educational content to everyone on the planet.

The San Francisco-based Wikimedia said it was planning to use the grant to improve the user-friendliness of Wikimedia's software, develop training materials to engage new potential volunteer editors, and establish metrics to track the foundation's impact.

Wikipedia has been going through a tough period for some time now. A recent study had found that the encyclopedia's growth had immensely slowed down due to the website being 'unwelcoming' to new users. Though the English version Wikipedia hit 3 million articles mark recently, the time period for completion of the third million was much longer than that of the first and second millions.

“The enormous popularity of Wikipedia and its collaborative premise make the Wikimedia Foundation an ideal vehicle for spreading the Open Educational Resources movement,” said Barbara Chow, director of the education program at Hewlett.

The grant to the Wikimedia Foundation is part of more than $100 million in grants since 2001 that the Hewlett Foundation has made to promote Open Educational Resources around the world. The movement promotes the availability of high quality educational materials that anyone can use and edit for free.

Sue Gardner, the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said her organization is committed to being an integral part of the Open Educational Resources community. "The Hewlett Foundation's support comes at a critical time. We’ve just begun the planning that will help us identify how to maximize our impact around the world. This support will help us to execute our priorities for the current year, and enable us to plan for the future," Gardner said.

The planning process will bring together volunteers and stakeholders to examine strategies to improve the reach, participation, and quality of Wikimedia's projects.

In addition to its strategic planning process, Wikimedia's priorities for the current fiscal year include two major initiatives to improve the user-friendliness of Wikimedia's software, the development of a set of training materials to engage new potential volunteer editors, the establishment of key metrics tracking Wikimedia's impact, and improved access to Wikimedia project data for researchers.

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