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[[Image:Wikipedia-logo.png|150px|right|thumb|The ''Wikipedia'' logo.]]
'''Wikipedia''' is a multilingual, [[World Wide Web|Web]]-based, [[Free content|free-content]] [[encyclopedia]] written collaboratively by [[volunteer]]s and operated by the [[Non-profit organization|non-profit]] [[Wikimedia|Wikimedia Foundation]] based in [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]], [[Florida]]. It has editions in about 180 [[language]]s (about 100 of which are active). Ten editions have more than 50,000 articles: [[English Wikipedia|English]], [[German Wikipedia|German]], [[French Wikipedia|French]], [[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]], [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]], [[Polish Wikipedia|Polish]], [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]], [[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]], [[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]] and [[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish]]. According to Hitwise, an online measurement company, Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the [[Internet]].

Wikipedia began as a complement to the expert-written [[Nupedia]] on [[January 15]], [[2001]]. It has steadily risen in popularity,{{ref|Popularity}} and has since spawned several sister projects, such as [[Wiktionary]], [[Wikibooks]], and [[Wikinews]]. It is edited by volunteers with [[wiki]] [[software]], meaning articles are subject to change by nearly anyone. Wikipedia's volunteers' attempt to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view" under which views presented by notable persons or literature are summarized without an attempt to determine an [[objectivity (journalism)|objective]] truth. Due to its open nature, [[vandalism]] and inaccuracy are constant problems in Wikipedia.

The status of Wikipedia as [[reference]] work has been controversial. It has been praised for its free distribution, editing, and diverse range of coverage; it has been criticized for [[systemic bias]], preference of consensus to credentials, and a perceived lack of accountability and authority when compared with traditional encyclopedias. Wikipedia articles have been regularly cited by the [[mass media]] and [[academia]] and are available under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]. Its German-language edition has been distributed on [[compact disc]]s, and many of its other editions are [[Mirror (computing)|mirrored]] or have been [[Fork (software)|forked]] by [[website]]s.

==Characteristics==
[[Image:Www.wikipedia.org screenshot.png|250px|thumb|right|Detail of Wikipedia's multilingual portal at http://wikipedia.org. Here, the project's largest language editions are shown.]]

Wikipedia is described by its founder [[Jimmy Wales]] as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."{{ref|WalesGoal}} It is created on the wikipedia.org website using a type of [[computer software|software]] called a "[[wiki]]," from the [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] ''wiki wiki'' ("quick"). Wales intends that Wikipedia should achieve a "''[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Britannica]]'' or better" quality and be published in print.

Several other [[Internet encyclopedia project|encyclopedia projects]] exist or have existed on the [[Internet]]. Traditional editorial policies and article ownership are used in some, such as the expert-written ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' and the now-defunct ''[[Nupedia]]''. More casual websites such as [[H2G2|h2g2]] or [[Everything2]] serve as general guides whose articles are written and controlled by individuals. Projects such as Wikipedia, [[Susning.nu]], and the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]'', are wikis in which articles are developed by numerous authors, and there is no formal process of review. Wikipedia has become the largest such encyclopedic wiki by article and word-count. Unlike many encyclopedias, it has licensed its content under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]].

Wikipedia has a set of policies identifying types of information appropriate for inclusion. These policies are often cited in disputes over whether particular content should be added, revised, transferred to a sister project, or removed.

===Free-content===
The GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), the license under which Wikipedia's articles are made available, is one of many "[[copyleft]]" [[copyright]] licenses that permit the redistribution, creation of [[derivative work]]s, and commercial use of content provided its authors are attributed and this content remains available under the GFDL. When an author contributes original material to the project, the [[copyright]] over it is retained with them, but they agree to make the work available under the GFDL. Material on Wikipedia may thus be distributed to, or incorporated from, resources which also use this license. Wikipedia's content has been mirrored or forked by hundreds of resources from database dumps. Although all text is available under the GFDL, a significant percentage of Wikipedia's images and sounds are non-free. Items such as [[corporate logo]]s, song samples, or copyrighted news photos are used with a claim of [[fair use]]. Material has also been given to Wikipedia under no-[[Derivative work|derivative]] or for-Wikipedia-only conditions.{{ref|NonFreeImg}} However, some editions only accept free media.

Wikipedia has been used by the media, academics, and others as a reference or supplement. News organizations have referred to Wikipedia articles as sources or in sidebars containing related information on the Web, some regularly.{{ref|Lih}} According to lists maintained by Wikipedia's editors, its articles have been cited most frequently in the [[news media]].{{ref|UsePress}} Less frequently, it has been used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases. For instance, the [[Parliament of Canada]] website refers to Wikipedia's article on [[same-sex marriage]] in the "further reading" list of [[Bill C-38]].{{ref|C38}} Noncomprehensive lists are maintained by Wikipedians of Wikipedia as a source.{{ref|Wikipedia_as_a_source}}

===Language editions===
[[Image:Wikipedia growth.png|thumb|250px|Wikipedia's growth has been approximately [[Exponential_growth|exponential]] in several of the major language editions.]]
Wikipedia encompasses 110 "active" language editions as of [[March 2005]].{{ref|LangCount}} Its five largest editions are, in descending order, [[English Wikipedia|English]], [[German Wikipedia|German]], [[French Wikipedia|French]], [[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]], and [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]]. In total, Wikipedia contains 205 language editions of varying states with a combined 1.9 million articles.{{ref|AllLangArticles}}

Language editions operate independently of one another. Editions are not bound to the content of other language editions, and are only held to global policies such as "neutral point of view". Articles and images are nonetheless shared between Wikipedia editions, the former through pages to request translations organized on many of the larger language editions, and the latter through the [[Wikimedia Commons]] repository. Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in any edition.{{ref|LangTrans}}

[[Image:He-Wikipedia.png|right|thumb|An example of Wikipedia's range in language translations; Wikipedia in Hebrew.]]

The following is a list of the largest editions, sorted by number of articles as of [[18 September]] [[2005]]. (The article count, however, is a very limited metric for comparing the editions. For instance, in some Wikipedia versions nearly half of the articles are "stubs" which were created automatically by bots.) {{ref|ListOfLangEditions}}
#[[English Wikipedia|English]] (733,798)
#[[German Wikipedia|German]] (290,430)
#[[French Wikipedia|French]] (163,680)
#[[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]] (141,615)
#[[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]] (109,282)
#[[Polish Wikipedia|Polish]] (105,412)
#[[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]] (105,022)
#[[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]] (94,205)
#[[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]] (76,201)
#[[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish]] (66,080)
#[[Chinese Wikipedia|Chinese]] (40,686)
#[[Norwegian Wikipedia|Norwegian Bokmål]] (36,168)
#[[Russian Wikipedia|Russian]] (32,487)
#[[Finnish Wikipedia|Finnish]] (32,431)
#[[Danish Wikipedia|Danish]] (32,817)

==Editing==
[[Image:History comparison example.png|thumb|Editors keep track of changes to articles by checking the difference between two revisions of a page, displayed here in red.]]
Almost all visitors may edit Wikipedia's articles and have their changes instantly displayed. Wikipedia is built on the belief that collaboration among users will improve articles over time, in much the same way that [[Open source|open-source software]] develops. Its authors need not have any expertise or formal qualifications in the subjects which they edit, and users are warned that their contributions may be "edited mercilessly and redistributed at will" by anyone who so wishes. Its articles are not controlled by any particular user or editorial group, and decision-making on the content and editorial policies of Wikipedia is instead done by [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]] and occasionally vote, though [[Jimmy Wales]] retains final judgment.{{ref|Structure}}

By the nature of its [[openness]], "edit wars" and prolonged disputes often occur when editors do not agree.{{ref|EditWar}} A few members of its community have explained its editing process as a collaborative work, a "[[Social Darwinism|socially Darwinian]] [[Evolution|evolutionary]] process"{{ref|WikiExp}}, but this is not generally considered by the community to be an accurate self-description. Articles are always subject to editing, such that Wikipedia does not declare any article finished.

===Policies===
Wikipedia requires that contributors observe a "neutral point of view" when writing, and not include original research. Neutral point of view, itself a "non-negotiable" policy,{{ref|NPOVnegot}} articulates the encyclopedia's goal as "representing" disputes, "characterizing" them, rather than engaging in them."{{ref|NPOVwp}} If achieved, Wikipedia would not be written from a single "objective" point-of-view, but would fairly present all views on an issue, attributed to their adherents in a neutral way. The policy states that views should be given weight equal to their popularity. This policy has been criticized as having an unattainable goal, being unnecessary with widely discredited material, and allowing the representation of "morally offensive" views.{{ref|NPOVwp2}} Opinions or theories that have not been previously published are considered "original research", which is not allowed. The "no original research" policy states that such material cannot be properly attributed under neutral point of view, and that editors' own novel ideas or perspectives are not to be introduced.{{ref|OriginalResearch}}

Wikipedia's contributors additionally maintain a variety of lesser policies and guidelines. In contrast to other wikis of its time, such as [[Ward Cunningham]]'s [[Portland Pattern Repository]], Wikipedians use "talk" pages to discuss changes to articles, rather than discussing changes within the article itself. Wikipedia contributors often modify, move, or delete articles that are felt to be inappropriate to an encyclopedia, such as [[dictionary]] definitions ("dicdefs") or original source texts.{{ref|Unsuitable}} Often, Wikipedia editions establish style conventions.

===Authors===
There are no formal distinctions between different editors on Wikipedia, and decisions are ideally made by reaching consensus among those involved. During [[January 2005]], Wikipedia had about 13,000 users who made at least five edits that month; 9,000 of these active users worked on its three largest language editions.{{ref|AuthorsCount}} A more active group of about 3,000 users made more than 100 edits per month, over half of these users having worked in the three largest editions. According to Wikimedia, one-quarter of Wikipedia's traffic comes from users without accounts, who are less likely to be editors.{{ref|WikiMediaPedia}}

Maintenance tasks are performed by a group of volunteer developers, stewards, bureaucrats, and administrators, which number in the hundreds. Administrators are the largest such group, privileged with the ability to prevent articles from being edited, delete articles, or block users from editing in accordance with community policy. Many users have been temporarily or permanently blocked from editing Wikipedia. Vandalism or the minor infraction of policies may result in a warning or temporary block, while long-term or permanent blocks for prolonged and serious infractions are given by [[Jimmy Wales]] or, on its English edition, an elected Arbitration Committee.

Former Wikipedia editor-in-chief [[Larry Sanger]] has said that having the [[GFDL]] license as a "guarantee of freedom is a strong motivation to work on a free encyclopedia."{{ref|Britannica}} In a study of Wikipedia as a community, Economics professor Andrea Ciffolilli argued that the low [[transaction cost]]s of participating in [[wiki]] software create a catalyst for collaborative development, and that a "creative construction" approach encourages participation.{{ref|Ciffolilli2003}} Wikipedia has been viewed as a social experiment in [[anarchy]] or [[democracy]]. Its founder has replied that it is not intended as one, though that is a consequence.{{ref|Social}} In a page on researching with Wikipedia, its authors argue that Wikipedia is valuable for being a social community. That is, authors can be asked to defend or clarify their work, and disputes are readily seen.{{ref|Researching}} Wikipedia editions also often contain [[reference desk]]s in which the community answers questions.

==Evaluations==
Wikipedia's claim to be or status as an encyclopedia has been controversial, more so as it has gained prominence. Wikipedia has been criticized for a perceived lack of reliability, comprehensiveness, and authority. It is considered to have no or limited utility as a [[reference work]] among many [[librarian]]s, [[Academia|academic]]s, and the [[editor]]s of more formally written encyclopedias. Wikipedia is considered to be of sufficient quality in at least some areas by others, notably winning a comparative test by ''[[c't]]''. Much of its praise is for being both free-content and open to editing by anyone. Wikipedia editors themselves have been quite active in evaluating, both positively and negatively, the encyclopedia.

===Quality===
Critics argue that allowing anyone to edit makes Wikipedia an unreliable work. Wikipedia contains no formal peer review process for fact-checking, and the editors themselves may not be well-versed in the topics they write about. In a 2004 interview with ''[[The Guardian]]'', librarian Philip Bradley said that he would not use Wikipedia and is "not aware of a single librarian who would. The main problem is the lack of authority. With printed publications, the publishers have to ensure that their data is reliable, as their livelihood depends on it. But with something like this, all that goes out the window."(Waldman, 2004) Similarly, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'''s executive editor, Ted Pappas, was quoted in ''[[The Guardian]]'' as saying: "The premise of Wikipedia is that continuous improvement will lead to perfection. That premise is completely unproven."{{ref|Who}} Discussing Wikipedia as an academic source, Danah Boyd said in 2005 that "[i]t will never be an encyclopedia, but it will contain extensive knowledge that is quite valuable for different purposes."{{ref|Boyd}} Wikipedia articles have been referenced by academics in peer-reviewed articles, including those appearing in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]''.{{ref|Science}}
[[Image:Be bold.png|thumb|'''Be Bold''' has become the unofficial slogan of Wikipedia.]]
Academic circles have not been exclusively dismissive of Wikipedia as a reference. Wikipedia articles have been referenced in "enhanced perspectives" provided on-line in the journal Science. The first of these perspectives to provide a hyperlink to Wikipedia was "A White Collar Protein Senses Blue Light" (Linden, 2002), and dozens of enhanced perspectives have provided such links since then. However, these links are offered as background sources for the reader, not as sources used by the writer, and the "enhanced perspectives" are not intended to serve as reference material themselves.

In a 2004 piece called "The Faith-Based Encyclopedia," former ''Britannica'' editor [[Robert McHenry]] criticized the wiki approach, writing,
:"[h]owever closely a Wikipedia article may at some point in its life attain to reliability, it is forever open to the uninformed or semiliterate meddler... The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him."{{ref|McHenryFBE}}

In response to this criticism, proposals have been made to provide various forms of provenance for material in Wikipedia articles, ''e.g.'', see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Provenance Wikipedia:Provenance]. The idea is to provide ''source provenance'' on each interval of text in an article and ''temporal provenance'' as to its vintage. In this way a reader can know "who has used the facilities before him" and how long the community has had to process the information in an article to provide calibration on the "sense of security." However, these proposals for provenance are quite controversial (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Provenance Wikipedia talk:Provenance]). Aaron Krowne wrote a rebuttal article in which he criticized McHenry's methods, and labeled them "[[FUD]]," the marketing technique of "fear, uncertainty, and doubt."{{ref|Krowne}}

Former editor-in-chief Larry Sanger criticized Wikipedia in late 2004 for having, according to Sanger, an "anti-elitist" philosophy of active contempt for expertise.{{ref|SangerElitism}}

Wikipedia's editing process assumes that exposing an article to many users will result in accuracy. Referencing [[Linus's law]] of open-source development, Sanger stated earlier: "Given enough eyeballs, all errors are shallow."{{ref|LinusSanger}} Technology figure [[Joi Ito]] wrote on Wikipedia's authority, "[a]lthough it depends a bit on the field, the question is whether something is more likely to be true coming from a source whose resume sounds authoritative or a source that has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people (with the ability to comment) and has survived."{{ref|Ito}} Conversely, in an informal test of Wikipedia's ability to detect misinformation, its author remarked that its process "isn't really a fact-checking mechanism so much as a voting mechanism", and that material which did not appear "blatantly false" may be accepted as true.{{ref|HowAuth}}

Wikipedia has been accused of deficiencies in comprehensiveness because of its voluntary nature, and of reflecting the systemic biases of its contributors. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' editor-in-chief Dale Hoiberg has argued that "people write of things they're interested in, and so many subjects don't get covered; and news events get covered in great detail. The entry on [[Hurricane Frances]] is five times the length of that on [[Chinese art]], and the entry on ''[[Coronation Street]]'' is twice as long as the article on [[Tony Blair]]."{{ref|Who2}} Former Nupedia editor-in-chief Larry Sanger stated in 2004, "when it comes to relatively specialized topics (outside of the interests of most of the contributors), the project's credibility is very uneven."{{ref|SangerAntiElitism}}

It has been praised for, as a wiki, allowing articles to be updated or created in response to current events. For example, the then-new article on the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]] on its English edition was cited often by the press shortly after the incident. Its editors have also argued as a website, Wikipedia is able to include articles on a greater number of subjects than print encyclopedias may.{{ref|TopicCount}}

The German computing magazine ''c't'' performed a comparison of ''[[Brockhaus|Brockhaus Premium]]'', ''[[Encarta|Microsoft Encarta]]'', and Wikipedia in [[October 2004]]: Experts evaluated 66 articles in various fields. In overall score, Wikipedia was rated 3.6 out of 5 points ("B-"), ''Brockhaus Premium'' 3.3, and ''Microsoft Encarta'' 3.1.{{ref|Kurzidim}} In an analysis of online encyclopedias, [[Indiana University]] professors Emigh and Herring wrote that "Wikipedia improves on traditional information sources, especially for the content areas in which it is strong, such as technology and current events."{{ref|EmighHerring|Kishore}}

===Community===
Wikipedia has a community of users who are proportionally few, but highly active. Emigh and Herring argue that "a few active users, when acting in concert with established norms within an open editing system, can achieve ultimate control over the content produced within the system, literally erasing diversity, controversy, and inconsistency, and homogenizing contributors' voices." Editors on [[Wikinfo]], a fork of Wikipedia, similarly argue that new or controversial editors to Wikipedia are often unjustly labeled "[[Internet troll|troll]]s" or "problem users" and blocked from editing.{{ref|WikiInfoCritical}} Its community has also been criticized for responding to complaints regarding an article's quality by advising the complainer to fix the article.{{ref|SoFixItComplaint}}

In a page on researching with Wikipedia, its authors argue that Wikipedia is valuable for being a social community. That is, authors can be asked to defend or clarify their work, and disputes are readily seen.{{ref|Researching2}} Wikipedia editions also often contain [[reference desk]]s in which the community answers questions.

===Awards===
Wikipedia won two major awards in [[May 2004]]{{ref|MayAwards}}: The first was a Golden Nica for Digital Communities, awarded by [[Prix Ars Electronica]]; this came with a 10,000 [[Euro]] grant and an invitation to present at the PAE Cyberarts Festival in [[Austria]] later that year. The second was a Judges' [[Webby Awards|Webby award]] for the "community" category. Wikipedia was also nominated for a "Best Practices" Webby. In [[September 2004]], the [[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese Wikipedia]] was awarded a Web Creation Award from the Japan Advertisers Association. This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Web in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.

Wikipedia has received [[wiktionary:plaudit|plaudits]] from sources including [[BBC News]], ''[[USA Today]]'', ''[[The Economist]]'', ''[[Newsweek]]'', ''[[BusinessWeek]]'', the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', ''[[Time Magazine]]'', ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' and ''[[Wired Magazine]]''. Awards to the Wikipedia project and press clippings are listed by Wikimedia contributors on [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trophy_box its website].

== Distribution ==
Wikipedia content is being distributed in several ways. Additional to ''wikipedia.org'' its content is mirrored on many other web servers.

Aside from distribution in online form, printed and print-ready versions of Wikipedia gain popularity. So called [[WikiReader]]s have been started by German Wikipedia in late February 2004 with Thomas Karcher's WikiReader about [[Sweden]] being the first. German WikiReaders about Sweden, [[Nauru]], and [[Internet]] are available in print form from http://www.wikireader.de and several others as print-ready [[PDF]] files with printed versions in preparation for sale. Following this example, WikiReader projects have been initiated from Chinese, English, French, and Polish Wikipedians.

Also in preparation is a collection of paperback books by [http://wikipress.wikidev.net/ WikiPress] with November 1, 2005 as planned release date.

CD and DVD versions of Wikipedia are also available. The German Wikipedia project was the first with a shipped release in 2004, being currently in its second edition (ISBN 3-89853-020-5). The English Wikipedia is expected to follow at the end of 2005. [http://www.smh.com.au/news/next/world-of-knowledge-in-your-hands/2005/09/19/1126981972296.html]

== History ==
{{main|History of Wikipedia}}
[[Image:NupediaLogo.jpg|thumb||250px|Wikipedia "[[originated]]" from ''[[Nupedia]]''.]]
Wikipedia began as a complementary project of ''[[Nupedia]]'', a free online encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts through a formal process. Nupedia was founded on [[9 March]] [[2000]] under the ownership of [[Bomis|Bomis, Inc]], a Web portal company. Its principal figures were [[Jimmy Wales]], Bomis [[CEO]], and [[Larry Sanger]], [[editor-in-chief]] for Nupedia and later Wikipedia. Nupedia was described by Sanger as differing from existing encyclopedias in being [[open content]]; not having size limitations, as it was on the [[Internet]]; and being free of bias, due to its public nature and potentially broad base of contributors.{{ref|SangerNupediaPurpose}} Nupedia had a seven-step review process by appointed subject-area experts, but was later widely viewed as too slow for producing a limited number of articles. Funded by Bomis, there were initial plans to recoup its investment by the use of advertisements.{{ref|NupediaAds}} It was licensed under its own Nupedia Open Content License initially, switching to the GNU Free Documentation License prior to Wikipedia's founding at the urging of [[Richard Stallman]].
[[Image:WikipediaHomePage30March200.png|thumb|250px|Wikipedia's English edition on [[March 20]], [[2001]], two and one-half months after its founding.]]

Wikipedia was formally launched on [[15 January]] [[2001]], as a single English-language edition at wikipedia.com. It had been, from [[10 January]], a feature of Nupedia.com in which the public could write articles that could be incorporated into Nupedia after review. It was relaunched off-site after Nupedia's Advisory Board of subject experts disapproved of its production model.{{ref|SangerAB}} Wikipedia thereafter operated as a standalone project without control from Nupedia. Its policy of "neutral point-of-view" was codified in its initial months, though it is similar to Nupedia's earlier "nonbias" policy. There were otherwise few rules initially. Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, [[Slashdot]] postings, and [[search engine]] indexing. It grew to approximately 20,000 articles among 18 language editions by the end of its first year. It had 26 language editions by the end of 2002, 46 by the end of 2003, and 161 by the end of 2004.{{ref|HistLangCount}} Nupedia and Wikipedia coexisted until the former's servers went down, permanently, in [[2003]], and its text was incorporated into Wikipedia.

Wales and Sanger attribute the concept of using a wiki to [[Ward Cunningham]]'s WikiWikiWeb or [[Portland Pattern Repository]]. Wales mentioned that he heard the concept first from Jeremy Rosenfeld, an employee of Bomis who showed him the same wiki, in [[December 2000]],{{ref|WalesRosenfeld}} but it was after Sanger heard of its existence from Ben Kovitz, a regular at this wiki, in [[January 2001]],{{ref|SangerKovitz}} and proposed a creation of a wiki for Nupedia to Wales that Wikipedia's history started. Under a similar concept of free content, though not wiki production, the [[GNUPedia]] project existed alongside Nupedia early in its history. It subsequently became inactive and its creator, [[free software|free-software]] figure [[Richard Stallman]], lent his support to Wikipedia.{{ref|Stallman}}

Citing fear of commercial advertising and lack of control in a perceived English-centric Wikipedia, users of the [[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish Wikipedia]] forked from Wikipedia to create the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]'' in [[February 2002]]. Later that year, Wales announced that Wikipedia would not display [[Advertising|advertisements]], and moved its website to wikipedia.org. Projects have since forked from Wikipedia's content for editorial reasons, such as [[Wikinfo]], which abandoned "neutral point-of-view" in favor of multiple complementary articles written from a "sympathetic point-of-view."

From Wikipedia and Nupedia, the Wikimedia Foundation was created on [[June 20]], [[2003]].{{ref|Wikimedia}} Wikipedia and its sister projects thereafter operated under this [[non-profit organization]]. Wikipedia's first sister project, "In Memoriam: September 11<!--DO NOT REFORMAT THIS DATE, IT IS IN QUOTATIONS--> Wiki" had been created in [[October 2002]] to detail the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]]; [[Wiktionary]], a dictionary project, was launched in [[December 2002]]; [[Wikiquotes]], a collection of quotes, a week after Wikimedia launched; and [[Wikibooks]], a collection of collaboratively-written free books, the next month. Wikimedia has since started a number of other projects, detailed below.
Wikipedia has traditionally measured its status by article count. In its first two years it grew at a few hundred or less new articles per day. The English Wikipedia reached a 100,000 article milestone on [[January 22]], [[2003]]. In 2004, its article growth rate was approximately 1,000 to 3,000 per day. In all editions, it reached 500,000 articles on [[February 25]], [[2004]].{{ref|HalfMillion}} Wikipedia reached its one millionth article among 105 language editions on [[September 20]], [[2004]].{{ref|WikimediaMillion}}

===Software and hardware===
[[Image:MediaWiki logo.png|right]]
Wikipedia is run by [[MediaWiki]] [[free software]] on a cluster of dedicated servers located in [[Florida]]. MediaWiki is Phase III of the program's software. Originally, Wikipedia ran on [[UseModWiki]] by [[Clifford Adams]] (Phase I). At first it required [[CamelCase]] for links; later it was also possible to use double brackets. Wikipedia began running on a [[PHP]] [[wiki software|wiki engine]] with a [[MySQL]] [[database]] in [[January 2002]]. This software, Phase II, was written specifically for the Wikipedia project by Magnus Manske. Several rounds of modifications were made to improve performance in response to increased demand. Ultimately, the software was rewritten again, this time by Lee Daniel Crocker. Instituted in [[July 2002]], this Phase III software was called MediaWiki. It was licensed under the [[GNU General Public License]] and used by all Wikimedia projects.

Wikipedia was served from a single server until [[2003]], when the server setup was expanded into an [[n-tier]] distributed architecture. In [[January 2005]], the project ran on 39 dedicated servers located in [[Florida]]. This configuration included a single master database server running [[MySQL]], multiple slave database servers, 21 web servers running the [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]] software, and seven [[Squid cache]] servers. By [[July 2005]], its server cluster had grown to more than 80 servers.

Page requests are processed by first passing to a front-end layer of [[Squid cache|Squid caching]] servers. Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to two load-balancing servers running the [[Perlbal]] software, which then pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page-rendering from the database. The web servers serve pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the Wikipedias. To increase speed further, rendered pages for anonymous users are cached in a filesystem until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. Wikimedia has begun building a global network of [[Squid cache|caching servers]] with the addition of three such servers in [[France]]. A new Dutch cluster is also online now. In spite of all this, Wikipedia page load times remain quite variable. The OpenFacts wiki has been set up to largely to keep track of Wikipedia read and write speeds, which at various times are Fast; Reasonable; Slow; Very Slow; Really Slow; Appallingly Slow; Unbearingly Slow; or Not Responding.

The ongoing status of Wikipedia's website is posted by users at a [http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Wikipedia_Status status page] on [[OpenFacts]].

==Trivia==
*Wikipedia was documented in an episode of ''[[Attack of the Show]]'' on American television channel [[G4]].

==Sister projects==
[[Image:Wikimedia.png|right|143px]]
Wikipedia has [[free content]] sister projects which fulfill non-encyclopedic roles. These include: [[Wiktionary]], a free [[dictionary]] project; [[Wikibooks]], a free [[textbook]] project; [[Wikisource]], a free [[library]]; [[Wikiquote]], a free compendium of [[quotation]]s; and [[Wikinews]], a free [[news]] source. The [[Wikimedia Commons]] is a shared media repository that serves all the sister projects (including Wikipedia). Wikipedia and its sister projects are administered by the [[Wikimedia|Wikimedia Foundation]].

==See also==
*[[Criticism of Wikipedia]]
*[[Internet encyclopedia project]]
*[[Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia|Who writes Wikipedia]]
*[[:Category:Wikipedia in the media]] (coverage, press releases, citations, etc.)

==References==
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#{{note|PopularityRef}}According to [[Alexa Internet]], "[http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=10 Browse:Reference]" (28 March 2005).
#{{note|Popularity}}See plots at "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/PlotsPngUsageVisits.htm Visits per day]", Wikipedia Statistics, 1 January 2005.
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#{{note|WalesGoal}}[[Jimmy Wales]], "[http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-March/038102.html Wikipedia is an encyclopedia]", 8 March 2005, <wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org>.
<!-- FREE CONTENT -->
#{{note|NonFreeImg}}For example, see statistics and licenses on the English edition at "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_copyright_tags Wikipedia:Image copyright tags]", Wikipedia (9 March 2005).
#{{note|Lih}}Andrew Lih, "[http://jmsc.hku.hk/faculty/alih/publications/utaustin-2004-wikipedia-rc2.pdf Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism: Reliable Sources? Metrics for evaluating collaborative media as a news resource]" ([[Portable Document Format|PDF]]), ''5th International Symposium on Online Journalism'', April 2004.
#{{note|UsePress}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_as_a_press_source_2005 Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a press source 2005]", Wikipedia (28 March 2005).
#{{note|C38}}"[http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Lang=E&Chamber=C&StartList=2&EndList=200&Session=13&Type=0&Scope=I&query=4381&List=toc C-38]", LEGISINFO (28 March 2005).
#{{note|Wikipedia_as_a_source}} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_as_a_source Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a source]
<!-- LANGUAGE EDITIONS -->
#{{note|LangCount}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_language_Wikipedias_available Complete list of language Wikipedias available]", Meta-Wiki (22 May 2005).
#{{note|AllLangArticles}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm All languages]", Wikipedia statistics, 21 March 2005.
#{{note|LangTrans}}For example, "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Translation_into_English Wikipedia: Translation into English]," Wikipedia. (9 March 2005).
#{{note|ListOfLangEditions}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Complete_list_of_language_Wikipedias_available Complete list of language Wikipedias available]", Meta Wikimedia (28 March 2005).
<!-- EDITING -->
#{{note|Structure}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Power_structure Power structure]", Meta-Wiki, 10:55 4 Apr 2005.
#{{note|EditWar}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_war Wikipedia:Edit war]", Wikipedia (26 March 2005).
#{{note|WikiExp}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_sociology Wikipedia sociology]", Meta-Wiki, 23:30 24 Mar 2005.
#{{note|VWD2004}}Fernanda B. Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, and Kushal Dave, "[http://web.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with ''history flow'' Visualizations]", CHI 2004 April 24-29 2004. Preliminary report "[http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/history/ History Flow]" available on IBM website.
<!-- POLICIES -->
#{{note|NPOVnegot}}Jimmy Wales, "[http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-November/008096.html Articles about ourselves]", 5 November 2003, <wikien-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|NPOVwp}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]", Wikipedia, accessed 4 March 2005. Italics original.
#{{note|NPOVwp2}}"Wikipedia:Neutral point of view".
#{{note|OriginalResearch}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research Wikipedia:No original research]", Wikipedia, (4 March 2005).
#{{note|Unsuitable}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not]", Wikipedia (4 March 2005).
<!-- AUTHORS -->
#{{note|AuthorsCount}}Paragraph's statistics taken from "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediansEditsGt5.htm Active wikipedians]" (Wikipedia Statistics, 21 March 2005).
#{{note|WikiMediaPedia}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia Wikipedia]", Meta-Wiki, 08:02 30 Mar 2005.
#{{note|Britannica}}[[Larry Sanger]], "[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 Britannica or Nupedia? The Future of Free Encyclopedias]", [[Kuro5hin]], 25 July 2001.
#{{note|Ciffolilli2003}}Andrea Ciffolilli, "[http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/ciffolilli/index.html Phantom authority, self-selective recruitment and retention of members in virtual communities: The case of Wikipedia]", [[First Monday]] December 2003.
#{{note|Social}}Jimmy Wales, "[http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-January/018735.html Re: Illegitimate block]", 26 January 2005, <wikien-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|Researching}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia]", Wikipedia (28 March 2005).
<!-- EVALUATIONS -->
<!-- QUALITY -->
#{{note|Who}}Simon Waldman, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1335892,00.html Who knows?]", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 26 October 2004.
#{{note|Boyd}}Danah Boyd, "[http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/01/04/academia_and_wikipedia.php Academia and Wikipedia]", [[Many-to-Many]], 4 January 2005.
#{{note|Science}}Hartmut Linden, "[http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/297/5582/777 A White Collar Protein Senses Blue Light]", ''Science Magazine'', '''297''' (5582). (Subscription access only).
#{{note|McHenryFBE}}[[Robert McHenry]], "[http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html The Faith-Based Encyclopedia]", [[Tech Central Station]], 15 November 2004.
#{{note|Krowne}}Aaron Krowne, "[http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_02/fud_based_encyclopedia/ The FUD-based Encyclopedia]", [[Free Software Magazine]], 1 March 2005.
#{{note|SangerElitism}}Larry Sanger, "[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25 Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism]", [[Kuro5hin]], 31 December 2004.
#{{note|LinusSanger}}Larry Sanger, "[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/9/24/43858/2479 Wikipedia is wide open. Why is it growing so fast? Why isn't it full of nonsense?]", Kuro5hin, 24 September 2001.
#{{note|Ito}}[[Joi Ito]], "[http://joi.ito.com/archives/2004/08/29/wikipedia_attacked_by_ignorant_reporter.html#c014592 Wikipedia attacked by ignorant reporter]", Joi Ito's Web, 29 August 2004.
#{{note|HowAuth}}Anonymous [[blog]]ger, "[http://www.frozennorth.org/C2011481421/E652809545/ How Authoritative is Wikipedia]", Dispatches from the Frozen North, 4 September 2004.
#{{note|Who2}}"Who knows?"
#{{note|TopicCount}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Replies_to_common_objections Wikipedia:Replies to common objections]", Wikipedia, 22:53 13 Apr 2005.
#{{note|Kurzidim}}Michael Kurzidim: Wissenswettstreit. Die kostenlose Wikipedia tritt gegen die Marktführer Encarta und Brockhaus an, in: [[c't]] 21/2004, 4 October 2004, S. 132-139.
#{{note|EmighHerring}}William Emigh and Susan C. Herring, "[http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/wiki.pdf Collaborative Authoring on the Web: A Genre Analysis of Online Encyclopedias]", paper presented at the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004.
<!-- COMMUNITY -->
#{{note|WikiInfoCritical}}"[http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Critical_views_of_Wikipedia Critical views of Wikipedia]", [[Wikinfo]], 07:28 30 Mar 2005.
#{{note|SoFixItComplaint}}Andrew Orlowski, "[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/23/wiki_fiddlers_big_book/ Wiki-fiddlers defend Clever Big Book]", [[The Register]], 23 July 2004.
# {{note|Researching2}} "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia]", Wikipedia (28 March 2005).
<!-- AWARDS -->
#{{note|MayAwards}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trophy_box Trophy Box]", Meta-Wiki (28 March 2005).
<!-- HISTORY -->
#{{note|SangerNupediaPurpose}}Larry Sanger, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20000510132952/www.nupedia.com/interview.html Q & A about Nupedia]", Nupedia, March 2000.
#{{note|NupediaAds}}Larry Sanger, "Q & A about Nupedia", Nupedia, March 2000.
#{{note|SangerAB}}Larry Sanger, "[http://features.slashdot.org/features/05/04/18/164213.shtml?tid=95 The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir]", Slashdot, 18 April 2005.
#{{note|HistLangCount}}"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_statistics Wikipedia:Multilingual statistics]", Wikipedia, 30 March 2005.
#{{note|WalesRosenfeld}}Jimmy Wales, "[http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-April/039093.html Re: Sanger's memoirs]", 20 April 2005,<wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org>.
#{{note|SangerKovitz}}Larry Sanger, "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir", Slashdot, 18 April 2005.
#{{note|Stallman}}[[Richard Stallman]], "[http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html The Free Encyclopedia Project]", [[Free Software Foundation]], 1999.
#{{note|Wikimedia}}Jimmy Wales, "[http://sciarc.blogspot.com/ Announcing Wikimedia Foundation]", 20 June 2003, <wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org>.
#{{note|HalfMillion}}"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_releases/500%2C000_Wikipedia_articles 500,000 Wikipedia articles]", Wikimedia Foundation, 25 February 2004.
#{{note|WikimediaMillion}}See "[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_releases/One_million_Wikipedia_articles_(US) Wikipedia Reaches One Million Articles]", Wikimedia Foundation, 20 September 2004.

==Further reading==
{{sisterlinks|Wikipedia}}
*Fernanda B. Viegas, Martin Wattenberg, and Kushal Dave, "[http://web.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with ''history flow'' Visualizations]", CHI 2004 April 24-29 2004. Preliminary report "[http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/history/ History Flow]" available on IBM website.
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction Introduction]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ Frequently Asked Questions]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_releases Press releases]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_coverage Press coverage]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/Sitemap.htm Statistics]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great Why Wikipedia is not so great]
*Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Replies_to_common_objections Replies to common objections]
*[[Open Directory Project]]: [http://dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Open_Content/Encyclopedias/Wikipedia/ Wikipedia]
*[[OpenFacts]]: [http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Copies_of_Wikipedia_content Copies of Wikipedia content]
*[[SourceWatch]]: [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wikipedia Wikipedia]

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Wikipedia.ogg|2005-06-25}}
*[http://www.wikipedia.org wikipedia.org], multi-lingual portal
*[http://en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org], [[English language]] edition
*[http://meta.wikipedia.org/ Meta-Wiki], policy-related and technical discussions regarding [[Wikimedia]]
*[http://www.wikimediafoundation.org Wikimedia Foundation], parent organization of Wikipedia
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1546162,00.html Guardian UK article]
*[http://www.uncyclopedia.org Uncyclopedia] a [[parody]] of Wikipedia

[[Category:Online encyclopedias]]
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[[Category:Wikimedia projects|Wikipedia]]

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Revision as of 09:48, 26 September 2005

Wikipedia smells and it is rubbish

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia&oldid=24066205"