Wikipedia

Wikipedia
Type of site	Online encyclopedia
Available in	339 languages
Owner	Wikimedia Foundation
Created by	Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger
Launched	January 15, 2001; 23 years ago
Content license	CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
Website	wikipedia.org

Wikipedia is a free, multilingual online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through a model of open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. It is the largest and most-read reference work in history. It consistently ranks as one of the 10 most popular websites in the world and, as of 2024, is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization funded primarily through donations.

Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Sanger coined its name as a portmanteau of the word wiki (the Hawaiian word for "quick") and encyclopedia. Initially intended to complement Nupedia, an online encyclopedia edited solely by experts, Wikipedia quickly surpassed it and became a global project. As of May 2024, the English Wikipedia contains over 6.8 million articles, while the total across all 339 language editions exceeds 62 million articles.

History [edit]

Wikipedia originated as an offshoot of Nupedia, a free online English-language encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed under a formal process. Nupedia was founded by Jimmy Wales and managed by Larry Sanger. However, the progress of Nupedia was extremely slow, with only 12 articles completed during its first year.

In early 2001, Sanger proposed the use of a wiki to allow the public to contribute to the encyclopedia's development. On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched on a single English-language edition. By the end of its first year, it had expanded to 18 language editions and contained 20,000 articles. The project grew exponentially, reaching its one-millionth article in 2006 across all languages.

In 2003, Wales established the Wikimedia Foundation to manage Wikipedia and its sister projects (such as Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons) as a non-profit entity. This transition ensured that the site would remain free of advertisements and be sustained by public contributions.

How it works [edit]

Wikipedia's functionality is powered by MediaWiki, an open-source wiki software package written in PHP. The platform allows for "collaborative editing," meaning that almost any page can be edited by any visitor, with or without a registered account.

Editing model [edit]

Unlike traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia is continually updated. Changes are visible immediately. Every article has an associated "History" page that records every previous version of the text, allowing users to track changes and "revert" vandalism or errors with a single click. Every article also has a "Talk" page where editors discuss content disputes and improvements.

Policies and guidelines [edit]

The Wikipedia community operates according to several core principles, often referred to as the "Five Pillars":

• Wikipedia is an encyclopedia: It combines elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers.
• Neutral point of view (NPOV): Articles must represent all significant views fairly, proportionately, and without bias.
• Free content: Anyone may use, edit, and distribute the content.
• Civil behavior: Editors should respect their fellow Wikipedians.
• No firm rules: Rules are not carved in stone; the spirit of the project is more important than the letter of the law.

Furthermore, Wikipedia requires that all information be verifiable through reliable, published sources and prohibits "original research" (the publication of new, previously unpublished theories or data).

Governance and management [edit]

While the Wikimedia Foundation owns the servers and provides the legal and financial framework, it does not exert editorial control over the content. Editorial decisions are made through consensus among the volunteer community. Within this community, there are several roles:

Editors (Wikipedians)

Anyone who contributes to the site.

Administrators

Editors with additional technical tools, such as the ability to delete pages or block users, granted through community election.

Bots

Automated scripts that perform repetitive tasks like fixing broken links or removing simple vandalism.

Arbitration Committee

A "supreme court" of editors that resolves high-level disputes when community consensus cannot be reached.

Impact on knowledge [edit]

Wikipedia has fundamentally altered how humanity accesses and shares information. It has become the primary reference source for students, journalists, and the general public.

Democratization of information [edit]

Before Wikipedia, comprehensive encyclopedias like the Encyclopædia Britannica were expensive and often inaccessible to people in developing nations. Wikipedia made this knowledge free and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Furthermore, its multilingual nature has helped preserve and promote knowledge in languages that were previously underserved by traditional media.

Reliability and accuracy [edit]

The reliability of Wikipedia has been a subject of intense debate. In 2005, the journal Nature conducted a peer-review study comparing 42 science articles from Wikipedia and Britannica. The study found that Wikipedia's accuracy was surprisingly close to Britannica's, though Wikipedia articles were often less well-structured.

"Wikipedia is the first place I go when I'm looking for information, and the last place I'd ever use as a source in a paper." — Common academic adage regarding Wikipedia's utility versus its authority.

Criticism and challenges [edit]

Despite its success, Wikipedia faces significant challenges:

• Systemic Bias: Because the majority of contributors are male, white, and from Western nations, the encyclopedia often reflects a bias toward those perspectives. This is most evident in the "gender gap," where only about 19% of biographies on English Wikipedia are about women.
• Vandalism: The open-editing model makes the site vulnerable to malicious edits, though most are caught within minutes by bots or "recent changes" patrollers.
• Bureaucracy: Some critics argue that the community has become overly bureaucratic, with complex rules that discourage new editors from participating.
• Political Manipulation: State actors and corporate entities have occasionally been caught attempting to "scrub" or spin articles to favor their interests.

Today, Wikipedia remains a cornerstone of the modern internet. It serves not only as a repository of facts but as a massive experiment in human cooperation and the collective pursuit of truth in the digital age.

Generation[edit]