Wikipedia - UNESCO World Heritage List

Over the 10 years of Wikipedia’s existence, its members have written over 18 million articles in 279 languages. Wikipedia is among the ten most popular sites and has become the largest ever collection of human knowledge.

And to mark the contribution of all participants, the German regional branch of the Wikimedia Foundation - “Wikimedia Deutschland” - in March this year voiced the idea to invite UNESCO to include Wikipedia on the World Heritage List .
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Yesterday, a petition appeared on the Wikimedia Deutschland website, which can be signed by anyone who wishes to support the proposal.

Jimmy Wales said in an interview with the New York Times that the main idea is to recognize that Wikipedia is such an amazing world cultural phenomenon that has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Wales acknowledged that this is part of PR: “We are trying to promote the idea of ​​Wikipedia as a cultural phenomenon. Too often, people think of us purely from the point of view of technology, while we are talking about culture, high technology and education. ”

So far, the UNESCO World Heritage List includes only historical monuments and natural sites. UNESCO Representative Susan Williams said that the application from the digital object, which is Wikipedia, will be unprecedented.

But even if Wikipedia is not included in this list, it can expect to be included in the intangible cultural heritage - a lesser-known list of UNESCO. Adding Wikipedia to any of the UNESCO lists will be a difficult process. The project will need to go through a complex approval process and overcome UNESCO’s skepticism. According to Susan Williams, everyone can submit an application, but it can be quite difficult to meet the criteria.

The authors of the petition claim that Wikipedia meets the first and most important criterion of UNESCO: "The object is a masterpiece of human creative genius."

At the practical level, Wikipedia will have to do more than just collect signatures on a petition. In accordance with the rules of UNESCO, Wikipedia should find a country that will support its candidacy. In an interview, Wales expressed the hope that the Wikipedia application would be supported by Germany.

As written on the petition page:

It all started with a simple idea: “What if everyone had free access to a collection of all human knowledge?” Over the past 10 years, this seemingly utopian idea has resulted in nothing less than the largest collection of human knowledge ever created. Independent, unlimited and non-profit.

This achievement made Wikipedia a pioneer of cultural change, as Wikipedia transferred the knowledge-sharing tradition to a new, digital age. Thus, creating a place of knowledge exchange, unique in the history of civilization.

That is why, as a cultural achievement without borders, Wikipedia deserves recognition and protection, as the first digital world cultural heritage of UNESCO. If you share this opinion, we encourage you to sign the petition.

At the time of publication of the topic, the petition was signed by 2321 people. If you support the inclusion of Wikipedia in the World Heritage List, then join them.