Wikipedia and its social conscience

Wikipedia is the knowledge haven of the 21st century. In modern days like these, people tend to check out sources on the Internet and leave those chunky encyclopedias out when looking for information.

In previous years, encyclopedias seemed to be the only reference, but unfortunately they have some limitations. However, with the advancement of technology, now Wikipedia has fulfilled that need. It is described as a web-based, free, collaborative, and multilingual encyclopedia. From that, we can clearly see why Wikipedia is dubbed the new breed of encyclopedia.

This is 2011, the era where digital is a religion with Internet the Bible and people have gone paperless — sort of. They now rely more on the Internet rather than books.

Wikipedia comes in a perfect format; a web-based encyclopedia, which can be accessed from the net wherever we are.

Moreover, Wikipedia is also free of charge. Remember when we used to invest a lot to buy an encyclopedia set?

Back then, knowledge and information seemed to be so expensive. But Wikipedia broke the paradigm by sharing its entries for free.

This is what makes me choose Wikipedia over conventional media is because of its ever-growing content. From the beginning of its establishment, Wikipedia is set to be a collaborative platform for sharing knowledge and information.

Therefore, everyone can participate in enriching the content of this “Encyclopedia 2.0”.

It is amazing to see the growth of Wikipedia. As an online encyclopedia, Wiki — that is what people called the site informally — now contains more than 10 million entries in multiple languages ranging from basic information on countries or cities up to a more academic kind of information such as entries on bio-molecular science or monetary policies.

Experts have even forecast that Wikipedia will have 20 million articles in the very near future.

With those elements, Wikipedia has become a very powerful platform equivalent to a knowledge center. Due to its popularity, some people have even started to use the word “Wikipedia” or “Wiki” to label someone who knows almost everything about a subject.

This is like what happened to Google previously. This obviously shows that Wikipedia has transformed from just another website into a distinct personality. It is not a service provider anymore. Wikipedia is a brand.

The history of Wikipedia started in 2001 when Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched the website as an open-source online encyclopedia. As opposed to the common approach of a business entity for a startup business, Wikipedia is backed by Wikimedia Foundation; a non-profit charitable organization. I notice that there is something “special” about the brand Wikipedia.

From its positioning as a free, web-based, collaborative encyclopedia, and as a non-profit charitable organization, we understand that it is a social brand.

What is a social brand actually? A social brand is a brand which not only sends messages to the consumers, but creates value for people and communities.

A brand that exists for a cause. In this case, Wikipedia exists to share knowledge and information to all peoples of the world.

This reflected in its brand values which states that Wikipedia believes in educating and is here to help each other to learn.

However, social brands usually face difficulties in maintaining the balance between idealism and business aspects. Within this situation, some brands may violate its nature as a social organization by stepping into a more commercial side of the business.

Lately, if we open Wikipedia website we can see a digital banner on top of every page. It leads to a series of open letters from some of the great minds behind Wikipedia, including Indonesian Wikipedia contributors and, of course, the founding father himself, Jimmy Wales. It is interesting to know that those letters are actually a plea for donations.

Yes, this is how it makes money to keep running the website; Wikipedia asks for donations from readers and the public who cares for it.

Wales stated on his open letter, “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.

That’s our commitment.” This shows that Wales as the brand owner knows what Wikipedia stands
for and how it should be regarding the positioning, including the business process.

In reality, many social brands do not understand how to monetize a social cause. It happens a lot. I remember a case where a school puts an advertisement on the school buses and buildings. This is nothing but commercialism.

Both advertisements and donations are technically the same. They provide funds as a shot of ‘fresh blood’. However, what makes them different is the objective behind it and the alignment with core values.

Donation is a philanthropic act, while an advertisement is not, it is marketing. In many cases, advertisers are interested in nothing but the opportunity to market a product to consumers in a new setting. Profit is their first priority, not education.

Wikipedia feels that advertising is not aligned with its values to keep the brand as the learning platform which should be free from commercialism. Therefore, it decided to use donations as the funding scheme for its business.

A brand can be great if it can maintain consistency in the brand values and apply it to every aspect of its business activities and Wikipedia has proven this by keeping it as social as it can be.

Primo Rizky is a consultant  at DM IDHOLLAND and Daniel Surya is Chairman for Southeast Asia.