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I wrote it and, within hours, thousands of people all around the world had read it. Back in July, a series of bombings hit here in Mumbai where I live. At the moment the crisis struck, straightforward information was hard to come by.

So I went out to take photos and uploaded a map I pasted together, adding them to the Wikipedia article on the incident to help people make sense of the chaos.

In a world without Wikipedia, the opportunity to quickly – and freely -- share such critical information just wouldn’t be there. With 470 million different visitors every month, Wikipedia has revolutionized the way we consume and spread information. And it does it all for free -- with zero ads, under 1,000 servers and fewer than 100 staff.

That’s amazing. Just look at Google or Facebook. They have hundreds of thousands of servers and tens of thousands of staff.

It’s no wonder Wikipedia is the 5th most popular and most visited site online. And it’s also no wonder why they need support every year from people like me and you.

Will you pitch in $5, $20, $50 or whatever you think Wikipedia is worth to you?

Thanks,

Karthik Nadar

Wikipedia Author