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What is wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a free-content, collaboratively edited online encyclopedia created and maintained by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians. It is the largest and most-read reference work in history.

• Wikipedia operates under an open collaboration model using the wiki software MediaWiki.
• Wikipedia is consistently ranked among the ten most visited websites globally.
• Wikipedia is available in over 300 languages.

Wikipedia History

Wikipedia originated as a complementary project for Nupedia, another free online encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed under a formal process.

• Nupedia was founded on March 9, 2000, by Bomis, a web portal company.
• Jimmy Wales, Bomis' CEO, and Larry Sanger, the editor-in-chief for Nupedia, are credited as the wikipedia founders.

Wikipedia Launch and Growth

Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, as a single English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com. The name was derived from a blend of the words "wiki" and "encyclopedia".

• Bomis originally intended for Wikipedia to be a for-profit business.
• Wikipedia quickly gained contributors from Nupedia, Slashdot postings, and web search engines.
• Language editions were created starting in March 2001, reaching a total of 161 by the end of 2004.
• The English Wikipedia surpassed the mark of 2 million articles on September 9, 2007, making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled.

Wikipedia Openness

Wikipedia content is not systematically reviewed; however, anyone can review changes made by others and undo revisions by clicking a link on the article's History page. Registered users can maintain a "watchlist" of articles that interest them to be notified of changes.

• Wikipedia has introduced editing restrictions for certain cases, such as only allowing registered users to create new articles.
• Controversial, sensitive, or vandalism-prone pages are often protected to varying degrees, with only "autoconfirmed" or "extended confirmed" editors allowed to modify them.
• A particularly contentious article may be locked so that only administrators can make changes.

Wikipedia Policies and Content

The fundamental principles of the wikipedia community are outlined in the "Five Pillars", while detailed editorial principles are expressed in numerous policies and guidelines.

• The Five Pillars are:
  • Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
  • Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.
  • Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute.
  • Wikipedia editors should treat each other with respect and civility.
  • Wikipedia has no firm rules.
• Content on Wikipedia must be about a topic that is encyclopedic, meets notability standards, and is not original research.
• All challenged or likely to be challenged claims require a reference to a reliable source.
• Wikipedia editors write and revise policies and guidelines based on community consensus.
• Editors can enforce rules by deleting or modifying non-compliant material.

Wikipedia Governance

Wikipedia governance combines democratic and hierarchical elements. Articles are not owned by their creators, other editors, or the subject of the article.

• Editors can request extra user rights, including "adminship", which grants them the ability to delete pages or prevent them from being changed.
• Administrators are not supposed to enjoy special privileges in decision-making but rather implement restrictions to prevent disruptive edits.
• Wikipedia has a semiformal dispute resolution process involving community forums, third opinion requests, and requests for comment.
• The Arbitration Committee presides over the ultimate dispute resolution process, focusing on how disputes are conducted and weeding out problematic editors.

Wikipedia Community

The wikipedia community has been described as cultlike, although not always negatively. It values cohesiveness and has an "anti-elitism" approach, meaning that expertise is not given special deference.

• Each article and user has a dedicated "talk" page for communication, coordination, and debate.
• Wikipedia does not require editors and contributors to provide identification, leading to questions about "who writes Wikipedia?".
• Studies have shown that a small percentage of users are responsible for a large portion of edits.
• Wikipedia has a gender gap, with most contributors being male. Universities have been trying to encourage more female participation.
• Editors who fail to comply with Wikipedia cultural rituals may be seen as outsiders and their contributions discounted.

Wikipedia Language Editions

There are currently 332 language editions of Wikipedia. The six largest, in order of article count, are the English, Cebuano, German, French, Swedish, and Dutch Wikipedias.

• The second and fifth-largest Wikipedias owe their position to the article-creating bot Lsjbot.
• Twelve other Wikipedias have more than a million articles each.
• Each language edition functions more or less independently, but they are coordinated in part by Meta-Wiki.
• While all editions adhere to global policies like "neutral point of view," they diverge on some points of policy and practice, such as the use of non-free images.

Wikipedia Reception

Wikipedia has been praised for its democratization of knowledge, extent of coverage, unique structure, and culture. However, it has also been criticized for exhibiting systemic bias, particularly gender bias and geographical bias, as well as for the accuracy of its wikipedia content.

• Wikipedians have criticized the increasing regulation of Wikipedia, which includes over fifty policies and nearly 150,000 words.
• Concerns have been raised about the lack of accountability due to users' anonymity, the insertion of false information, and vandalism.
• Some commentators argue that Wikipedia's open nature and lack of proper sources make it unreliable.
• Despite these concerns, Wikipedia is often used as a trusted source to combat fake news.

Wikipedia Operation

Wikipedia is hosted and funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also operates other Wikipedia-related projects.

• The Wikimedia Foundation relies on public contributions and grants to fund its operations.
• The foundation has appointed several executive directors, including Sue Gardner, Lila Tretikov, and Katherine Maher.
• The current executive director is Maryana Iskander, who has stated that one of her focuses will be increasing diversity in the Wikimedia community.
• Wikipedia is also supported by Wikimedia movement affiliates, including Wikimedia chapters and user groups.
• Wikipedia runs on MediaWiki, a custom-made, free, and open-source wiki software platform.
• Several MediaWiki extensions are installed to extend the functionality of the MediaWiki software.
• Wikipedia uses a cluster of Linux servers running the Debian operating system.
• Wikipedia's primary data center is located in Ashburn, Virginia, with additional caching clusters in Singapore, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Marseille.
• The Wikimedia Foundation has been investing donations into internal research and development, such as the creation of a Visual Editor and the "Thank" tab in the edit history.

Wikipedia Access

Wikipedia content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike 4.0 license, permitting the redistribution, creation of derivative works, and commercial use of content.

• Thousands of "mirror sites" republish Wikipedia content, including Reference.com and Answers.com.
• Some search engines, like Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo, make special use of Wikipedia content in search results.
• Collections of Wikipedia articles have been published on optical discs.
• Efforts have been made to print select Wikipedia articles in book form.
• Wikipedia publishes "dumps" of its contents, but these are text-only and do not include images.
• Wikipedia maintains a reference desk where volunteers answer questions from the public.

Wikipedia Cultural Influence

Wikipedia's influence extends beyond its role as a reference tool. It has become a trusted source to combat fake news, and its content is used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases.

• Facebook and YouTube have announced that they will use Wikipedia to help their users evaluate reports and reject false news.
• Wikipedia is one of the ten most visited websites globally.
• Wikipedia has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Erasmus Prize and the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.
• Wikipedia has been the subject of satire and parody, often highlighting its openness and susceptibility to inaccuracies.
• Wikipedia is used by organizations, including US courts and intelligence agencies, as a source of information.
• A 2017 MIT study suggests that words used on Wikipedia articles end up in scientific publications.
• Wikipedia is a popular corpus for research in computational linguistics, information retrieval, and natural language processing.

Wikipedia Sister Projects

The Wikimedia Foundation operates several other wiki projects in addition to Wikipedia, such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikimedia Commons, Wikinews, and Wikiversity.

• These sister projects provide free-content resources for various types of information, including dictionaries, quotations, textbooks, multimedia, news, and learning materials.
• Wikispecies, a catalog of all species, is not open for public editing.

Wikipedia Future

The future of Wikipedia is a topic of ongoing debate and discussion. While the encyclopedia remains a valuable resource, it faces challenges related to editor attrition, systemic bias, and the increasing dominance of social media and other online platforms.

• Efforts are underway to address these challenges, such as promoting diversity in the Wikimedia community, improving mobile access, and investing in internal research and development.
• The future of Wikipedia will depend on the continued engagement of its community of volunteers and its ability to adapt to the evolving digital landscape.