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Wikipedia
Last update: Monday 06th of September 2010
 Screenshot of Wikipedia's multilingual portal | |
| URL | http://www.wikipedia.org/ |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Internet encyclopedia project |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available language(s): | 182 active editions (250 in total) |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| Created by | Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger |
WikipediaWikipedia (IPA: /ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/ or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ (Audio (U.S.) )) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers; its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the web site. The name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Its primary servers are in Tampa, Florida, with additional servers in Amsterdam and Seoul.
Wikipedia was launched as the English Wikipedia on January 15, 2001, as a complement to Nupedia, an expert-written and now defunct encyclopedia. The project is now operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization created by Jimmy Wales who is the co-founder of Wikipedia and has over six million articles in 250 languages, including more than 1.6 million in the English edition. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception and currently ranks among the eleven most-visited websites worldwide.
Critics have questioned Wikipedia's reliability and accuracy. The site has also been criticized for its susceptibility to vandalism, uneven quality, systemic bias and inconsistencies, and for favoring consensus over credentials in its editorial process. Wikipedia's content policies and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns. Two scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived and that Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as other encyclopedias.
Be careful when exploring the world of the free Internet encyclopedia!
From now, I plan to write a report every week about the news, announcements, important essays and interesting stories of the project. I would like to give you a clear overview of Wikipedia. I hope you’re going to enjoy the first edition.
Now featuring incorrect definitions! Ok, wikipedia is a decent source for finding out basic information about a subject you know nothing about, but honestly this is too far. Who in their right mind would choose Wiktionary over a REAL dictionary?
You will get a kick out of some of the side-by-side article comparisons
Wanna get pumped for humanity? Read this blog about how sites like Wikipedia and Digg are going to give birth to AI indirectly and you will TOTALLY want to hug everyone you see. Here are all the facts delivered directly to you by someone who had a great idea and then got way too excited about it before writing the blog.