Erasmus Prize recognizes the global Wikipedia community

Max Sparreboom of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation and Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, shake hands after the official announcement.

On the fourteenth anniversary of the founding of the English Wikipedia, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has announced that its prestigious annual Erasmus Prize will be awarded to the worldwide community that has built Wikipedia.

Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch Catholic theologian who lived during the Reformation. While critical of the Catholic Church, he did not join the nascent Lutheran movement, instead committing himself to reforming it from within. He is remembered today as a preeminent humanist and scholar, author of many works including The Praise of Folly.

According to the foundation:

“

Wikipedia receives the prize because it has promoted the dissemination of knowledge through a comprehensive and universally accessible encyclopaedia. To achieve that, the initiators of Wikipedia have designed a new and effective democratic platform. The prize specifically recognises Wikipedia as a community — a shared project that involves tens of thousands of volunteers around the world who help shape this initiative. ...

By distributing knowledge to places where it was previously unavailable, Wikipedia also plays an important role in countries where neutrality and open information are not taken for granted. With its worldwide reach and social impact, Wikipedia does justice to the idea of a single yet diverse world. It is a digital reference work available in various languages, undergoing permanent development. Through its open character, Wikipedia highlights how sources of knowledge are not neutral and must always be weighed. With its critical attention to text, sources and the expansion of knowledge, Wikipedia reflects the ideas of Erasmus, the world citizen after whom the prize is named.

”

Lila Tretikov, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), stated that "I am proud that Wikipedia is being recognized for the incredible collective impact it has had to date. As we look to the future of free knowledge, we will continue to be guided by the principles the Erasmus Prize today honors." An official ceremony will occur in autumn 2015.

Of note is the seeming purposeful singling out of the Wikipedia, rather than Wikimedia, community. This distinction appears to have been noted by the WMF, which presciently attempted to expand the scope of the award in the opening lines of its press release. The organization called attention to this being a first time a "collaborative community" has won the award—the qualifier needed to distinguish it from the 1958 prize, which was given to the Austrian people for having "become the shining example of a positive mentality, of courage, energy and confidence in the future of Europe, by the way in which as a minorité créatrice it opened paths for the free nations of Europe to follow."

The €150,000 in prize funds for the 2015 award will be given to the Wikimedia Foundation, which has already declared that it will be given back to the community in the form of individual grants or similar support. Given the short amount of time between the announcement and our date of publication, the WMF was unable to provide further specificity at this time.

Further coverage is available in this week's "In the media" section.

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14 January 2015 (all comments)

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"The head of our working mothers' support group is Erasmus B. Dragon." Wrong site, I know.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:31, 16 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Is there a trophy? Do we each get to take turns with it, like the Stanley Cup? - Dravecky (talk) 21:28, 16 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Like Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 22:38, 16 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  - The prize will be handed out in the Royal Palace of Amsterdam later this year. Romaine (talk) 01:37, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    - I'll be there with bells on; I hope there's not a queue! But all joking aside, what warm fuzzies I'm feeling, particularly from the wording of the foundation's statement; they really seem to appreciate the principles and aims we're striving towards. :) Snow talk 04:59, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- They should make tiny reproductions of it and give them away as incentives when you donate to the Foundation, like the swag you get during a PBS pledge drive. "Show your friends that you are an Erasmus Prize winner with this lovely 1:25 die cast reproduction of the Prize. Yours for a $75 donation today." Gamaliel (talk) 15:50, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Can someone make an Erasmus barnstar? -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:02, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I, for one, am pleased to accept this honor, whatever I may think of some of those with whom I must share it. :) EllenCT (talk) 04:06, 19 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
As much of the wiki-work involves making and checking references it is natural that our project has attracted the favor of Erasmus. As Ernest Barker wrote, "Erasmus knew that a return to the teachings of the early Fathers meant the editing and printing of good texts of their works. He knew that the recovery of an authentically interpreted Bible necessarily meant, for a start, the editing and printing of as good a text as possible of the original Greek New Testament."(page 91, "Connection of Renaissance and Reformation" in Traditions of Civility (1948, Cambridge U.P.))Rgdboer (talk) 01:00, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]