Template:2011FR/appeal-roger-1108/en/GB

When I was a child I read a book about a detective, it may have been Sherlock Holmes, who'd find answers to his problems in his "Index", a card index where he collected all the information he'd ever need.

The idea inspired me. I spent many hours cutting up old books and my sister's "look and learn" comics to create my own version of “The Index”. I must have made thousands of cards, and arranged them all alphabetically so that I could know everything. But the problem was cross-referencing all the articles. So I gave up. I threw the last six or seven feet of it away a few years ago. To me, Wikipedia is making that childhood dream a reality. It is bringing knowledge to everyone, for free, every day. My children and the students I teach can't think of a world without it. To them it’s water, it’s air, it's just brilliant. The tens of thousands of people who help write Wikipedia, and those who generously donate to support it, are making my dream come true. Please be one of them. Please make sure this amazing encyclopedia can keep going, free to use and free of advertising. The infrastructure that supports our work is about as barebones as it gets. Wikipedia, the #5 site on the web, serves 411 million people per month -- with 370 servers and less than a hundred staff worldwide. Compare that to Google who have close to a million servers, and Yahoo with around 13,000 staff. At Wikipedia a donation of a £3 a month from you will go a long, long way. Please donate now.

Yours sincerely,

Roger Bamkin

Chair of Wikimedia UK