Nancy Scola ponders Wikipedia's annual fundraising drive:
Wikipedia's expansion most likely will not have a big impact for people in the U.S., where the encyclopedia is widely used. Its expansion plans focus on developing countries like Brazil and India—and if all goes well, in the Middle East. One recent "personal appeal" banner featured Dr. Sengai Podhuvan, a Wikipedia editor in India. "I wrote my PhD on the topic of indigenous games in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu," writes Podhuvan. "Maybe you will never look up one of my articles. But it pleases me that thousands do." There's a good chance that you won't: Most of Podhuvan's edits are in Tamil. But that language is spoken by 75 million people (a fact gleaned from Wikipedia, which directed me through a footnote to an edited linguistics reference book, a transaction that took all of about five seconds).
The Dish 