JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

The other day Abigail asked me, “What is a volunteer?” She was reading a newspaper article on the aquarium and wanted to know what it was that she had to wait until sixteen to do. Since we’re an open source family of sorts, I knew I needed to explain not only the word but the motivation behind it.

Jon Udell’s screencast of the Wikipedia entry Heavy Metal Umlaut (via Scott Rosenberg) is a fun eight minute exploration of the way free encyclopedia Wikipedia works and what a small army can do given passion and time (also what Jon Udell can do with screencasting – cool!)

Here’s an approximate quote I noted from the last minute of the screencast: …it’s amazing to see how a worldwide federation of volunteers can get from here to here in a couple of years…

Joi Ito made some wikipedia music too.

Now I can play these pieces for my daughter and say this is what volunteers do…among other examples, of course.