Wikimedia Canada is an independent nonprofit organization committed to the growth, development and distribution of free knowledge in Canada.
The association was founded in November 2010 and became an official local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in May 2011. The Wikimedia Foundation is an American registered charity that runs a number of online projects with the the goal of freely distributing human knowledge in more than 300 languages. The best known of these projects is the online free encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is one of the ten most-visited websites in the world.
Wikimedia Canada is a member-based organization managed by a board of directors elected by the members and entirely run by volunteers. Memberships is open to everybody.
The mission of Wikimedia Canada is to support and promote Canadians to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in all languages of Canada, including Aboriginal languages, under a free licence or in the public domain.
To do so, Wikimedia Canada will:
Aid and encourage people to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or under a licence that allows everyone to freely use, distribute and modify said content without the payment of royalties
Collaborate with public and private Galleries, Librairies, Archives, Museums and Universities (GLAMUs) in making their holdings more broadly and freely available to those interested in an effort to preserve the heritage of Canada.
Make use of, encourage the use of, and instruct people in the use of free and open source information resources; either electronic or printed for the advancement of education.
Encourage the development and release of these materials in the languages of Canada including but not limited to English, French, and the Canadian Aboriginal languages.
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property. It is based at San Fancisco in the United States.
Wikimedia Canada and the Wikimedia Foundation are two independent organizations. The Wikimedia Foundation officially recognized Wikimedia Canada as the local chapter of the Wikimedia movement for Canada.
