Latest / Kidcast Daily / Ep167: Wikimedia Foundation

Transcript

Ep167: Wikimedia Foundation · Kidcast Daily

• 0:08
  Spin the wheel, let's take a ride.
• 0:11
  Sports and science bursting from inside a world of wonder.
• 0:17
  Open wide Come on kids, let's amplify kid cats.
• 0:23
  Daily starts your. Day Fun Welcome to Kick Ass
• 0:27
  Daily, where we bring news, trivia, fun facts, and more just
• 0:32
  for curious kids like you. Today we're about to go on an
• 0:35
  adventure into the world of knowledge, discovery, and
• 0:39
  teamwork. Have you ever looked up
• 0:40
  something online like why the sky is blue or how dinosaurs
• 0:44
  lived and found a website called Wikipedia?
• 0:48
  Well, Wikipedia is just one part of something much bigger called
• 0:52
  the Wikimedia Foundation. Let's find out what that is, why
• 0:55
  it's so special, and how it helps people all over the world
• 0:59
  learn new things every single day.
• 1:01
  Imagine you and your friends decide to build the coolest
• 1:04
  library ever, but instead of just books, you want to fill it
• 1:07
  with all sorts of things. Stories, pictures, facts, maps,
• 1:11
  and even videos. And here's the twist.
• 1:15
  Anyone can help add to this library, and anyone can use it,
• 1:18
  no matter where they live or what language they speak.
• 1:22
  Sounds awesome, right? Well, that's sort of what the
• 1:25
  Wikimedia Foundation does. But instead of a brick and
• 1:28
  mortar building, their library lives on the Internet.
• 1:31
  Let's start with the basics. The Wikimedia Foundation is a
• 1:34
  nonprofit organization. That means it's not a company
• 1:37
  trying to make money, but a group that works to help people
• 1:40
  learn and share knowledge for free.
• 1:42
  The foundation started in 2003 and its home base is in San
• 1:46
  Francisco, CA, but it's work stretches all around the globe.
• 1:51
  So what exactly does the Wikimedia Foundation do?
• 1:55
  Its main job is to support free knowledge projects.
• 1:58
  The most famous one is Wikipedia, the giant online
• 2:01
  encyclopedia that people everywhere used to learn about
• 2:04
  almost anything you can imagine. Like how volcanoes erupt, who
• 2:08
  invented the light bulb, or what makes Kangaroos jump so high.
• 2:12
  But wait, there's more. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't
• 2:15
  just run Wikipedia, it also supports a family of other cool
• 2:19
  projects. For example, there's Wikimedia
• 2:22
  Commons, which is like a huge treasure chest of pictures,
• 2:25
  sounds, and videos that anyone can use.
• 2:29
  There's Wikionary, which is like a dictionary and thesaurus
• 2:32
  rolled into one with words and meanings from many languages.
• 2:36
  There's Wiki Books, which has free textbooks and learning
• 2:39
  guides, and Wicca Voyage, which helps you learn about new places
• 2:42
  to visit. All these projects are free and
• 2:45
  open for everyone. Now you might be wondering, how
• 2:48
  does all this information get on to Wikipedia and the other
• 2:51
  Wikimedia projects? Is there a team of super smart
• 2:55
  robots typing away all day? Not quite.
• 2:58
  Here's the amazing part. Most of the information is added
• 3:01
  by regular people just like you, your parents, your teachers, or
• 3:04
  your neighbors. These people are called editors
• 3:07
  or contributors. They volunteer their time to
• 3:10
  write articles, fix mistakes, add pictures, and make sure the
• 3:14
  information is correct. It's kind of like a giant
• 3:17
  lemonade stand where everyone brings their own lemons and
• 3:20
  sugar, and together you make the tastiest, biggest batch of
• 3:24
  lemonade ever. Each person shares what they
• 3:26
  know, and together you create something much better than what
• 3:31
  one person could do alone. That's the magic of Wikimedia's
• 3:34
  projects. They're built by people working
• 3:37
  together from all over the world.
• 3:39
  Did you know that Wikipedia is available in more than 300
• 3:42
  languages? That means kids in Brazil,
• 3:44
  India, France, Egypt, almost anywhere can use Wikipedia to
• 3:48
  learn in their own language. Some of the biggest Wikipedias
• 3:51
  are in English, German, Spanish, French and Russian, but there
• 3:55
  are also Wikipedias in small languages too, like Quechua,
• 3:58
  which is spoken in parts of South America, and Welsh spoken
• 4:02
  in Wales. Another cool fact, Wikipedia has
• 4:05
  over 6,000,000 articles in English alone.
• 4:08
  If you try to read one article every day, it would take you
• 4:12
  more than 16,000 years to read them all.
• 4:15
  And people are adding new articles and updating old ones
• 4:18
  every single day. So how does Wikimedia Foundation
• 4:22
  make sure all this information is safe, helpful and
• 4:26
  trustworthy? Well, there are some special
• 4:28
  rules and tools. First, there are guidelines
• 4:31
  about what can be added. Information should be true, not
• 4:35
  made-up, and it should come from reliable sources like books,
• 4:38
  newspapers, or scientists. If someone tries to add
• 4:42
  something silly or mean, other editors can quickly fix it or
• 4:46
  remove it. There are also friendly
• 4:48
  volunteers called admins, who help keep things running
• 4:50
  smoothly and solve problems when they pop up.
• 4:53
  The foundation also works hard to make sure Wikipedia and its
• 4:56
  sister projects are safe spaces for everyone.
• 4:59
  They want people to be respectful and kind, and there
• 5:02
  are rules about not bullying or being mean to others.
• 5:06
  If someone breaks the rules, there are ways to report it and
• 5:09
  get help. Let's take a closer look at some
• 5:11
  of the other projects the Wikimedia Foundation supports.
• 5:14
  Remember Wikimedia Commons? The giant media library?
• 5:18
  If you're doing a school project and need a picture of a blue
• 5:20
  whale or the Eiffel Tower or a map of the solar system, you can
• 5:25
  find it on Wikimedia Commons and use it for free.
• 5:28
  That's because people from all over the world upload their
• 5:30
  photos, drawings, and sounds for others to share.
• 5:34
  It's like a big swap meet, but for cool images and sounds
• 5:37
  instead of toys or games. And what about Wikionary?
• 5:41
  Imagine you hear a funny word on TV like Onomatopoeia, and you
• 5:46
  want to know what it means. Wikionary can tell you the
• 5:49
  meaning, how to say it, and even give examples of how to use it
• 5:53
  in a sentence. It's a great place to explore
• 5:55
  words from all sorts of languages, so you can even learn
• 5:58
  how to say hello or thank you in dozens of different ways.
• 6:02
  Wikibooks is another neat project.
• 6:05
  It's packed with free books on all sorts of topics Science,
• 6:08
  history, math, even cooking. Some people use wiki books to
• 6:12
  write textbooks for schools, so students everywhere can learn
• 6:16
  without having to buy expensive books.
• 6:18
  And if you're planning an adventure, Wicca Voyage can help
• 6:21
  you learn about exciting destinations, from the pyramids
• 6:24
  of Egypt to the rainforests of Brazil.
• 6:27
  Now you might be thinking, how does the Wikimedia Foundation
• 6:30
  pay for all of this? Servers, computers and websites
• 6:34
  aren't free. That's a smart question.
• 6:37
  Since the foundation is a nonprofit, it doesn't show ads
• 6:41
  or sell your information. Instead, it gets money from
• 6:44
  donations. People from all over the world
• 6:47
  chip in, sometimes just a few dollars, to help keep the
• 6:50
  websites running and free for everyone.
• 6:53
  Every year, Wikipedia puts up a banner asking for donations, and
• 6:57
  millions of people answer the call.
• 6:59
  It's kind of like a big community bake sale where
• 7:01
  everyone gives a little so that everyone can share the treats.
• 7:05
  Here's another Did you know moment?
• 7:07
  Wikimedia Foundation has a mission to make knowledge
• 7:10
  available to everyone, no matter where they live or how much
• 7:13
  money they have. That's why their projects don't
• 7:16
  cost anything to use, and why they work hard to make sure even
• 7:19
  people with slow Internet connections or older computers
• 7:22
  can still access information. They even have special projects
• 7:26
  to help people in places without easy Internet access, like
• 7:29
  sending Wikipedia to schools on USB drives or DVD.
• 7:33
  The Wikimedia Foundation is also serious about privacy.
• 7:37
  They don't ask you to sign up or give your name, just to read or
• 7:41
  learn. You can use Wikipedia and its
• 7:43
  sister projects without telling them anything about you.
• 7:46
  They want to keep your information safe and respect
• 7:48
  your privacy. Let's talk about teamwork for a
• 7:51
  minute. Imagine you're doing a big group
• 7:53
  puzzle. Each person puts in a piece, and
• 7:56
  slowly the picture comes together.
• 7:58
  That's how Wikimedia projects grow.
• 8:01
  Each editor adds a piece of knowledge and together they
• 8:04
  build a huge, colorful picture of our world.
• 8:08
  Sometimes people disagree about where a piece should go, but
• 8:11
  they talk it out and work together to find the best spot.
• 8:14
  Kids and grown-ups both help out.
• 8:17
  Some people write articles, others fix spelling mistakes,
• 8:20
  and some upload awesome photos. There are even special events
• 8:24
  called editathons, where people gather, sometimes in person,
• 8:27
  sometimes online, to add lots of new information in a short time.
• 8:32
  It's like a big knowledge party. And because the projects are
• 8:36
  open to everyone, you don't have to be a scientist or a historian
• 8:39
  to help out. If you learn something new at
• 8:41
  school or from a book, you can share it with the world.
• 8:45
  Some kids have even helped write or fix articles about their
• 8:48
  favorite animals, sports, or places.
• 8:51
  Here's one last fun fact. Wikipedia is one of the most
• 8:54
  visited websites in the world. More people visit Wikipedia
• 8:58
  every month and live in the entire United States.
• 9:01
  That's a lot of curious minds searching for answers.
• 9:04
  All right, let's do a quick recap of what we learned today.
• 9:07
  The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit group that helps
• 9:10
  people share and find knowledge for free.
• 9:13
  It supports Wikipedia and other cool projects like Wikimedia
• 9:16
  Commons, Wikionary, Wikibooks, and Wiki Voyage.
• 9:20
  Anyone can help add and improve information, and people from all
• 9:24
  over the world work together to make these projects better every
• 9:28
  day. The Foundation is paid for by
• 9:30
  donations, not ads, and they're committed to keeping your
• 9:33
  information safe and your experience fun and respectful.
• 9:37
  So next time you look something up on Wikipedia or find a cool
• 9:40
  picture for your school project, remember there's a whole
• 9:43
  community of people working together to build a giant
• 9:46
  library for everyone, everywhere.
• 9:48
  Maybe one day you'll add your own piece to the puzzle.
• 9:52
  Thanks for joining us on Kick Cast Daily.
• 9:54
  Keep asking questions, keep exploring, and remember the
• 9:58
  world is full of amazing things to learn.
• 10:01
  See you next time. Grab your breakfast.
• 10:05
  Feeling fine? Adventures waiting?
• 10:08
  Don't be late. Today's the day we.
• 10:10
  Celebrate Kick Cast Daily starts your day.