16/07/2017 Wikipedia - Wikipedia

Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia (/wkpidi/ or /wkipidi/ WIK-i-

Wikipedia
PEE-dee-) is a free online encyclopedia with the
aim to allow anyone to edit articles.[3] Wikipedia
is the largest and most popular general reference
work on the Internet[4][5][6] and is ranked among
the ten most popular websites.[7] Wikipedia is
owned by the nonprofit Wikimedia
Foundation.[8][9][10]
The logo of Wikipedia, a globe featuring glyphs
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by
from several writing systems[notes 1]
Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.[11] Sanger
Screenshot
coined its name,[12][13] a portmanteau of
wiki[notes 4] and encyclopedia. There was only
the English-language version initially, but it
quickly developed similar versions in other
languages, which differ in content and in editing
practices. With 5,442,151 articles,[notes 5] the
English Wikipedia is the largest of the more than
290 Wikipedia encyclopedias. Overall,
Wikipedia consists of more than 40 million
articles in more than 250 different languages[15]
and, as of February 2014, it had 18 billion page
views and nearly 500 million unique visitors
each month.[16]

As of March 2017, Wikipedia has about forty

thousand high-quality articles known as Featured
Articles and Good Articles that cover vital
topics.[17][18] In 2005, Nature published a peer
review comparing 42 science articles from
Encyclopdia Britannica and Wikipedia, and
found that Wikipedia's level of accuracy
approached that of Encyclopdia Britannica.[19]

Wikipedia has been criticized for allegedly

exhibiting systemic bias, presenting a mixture of Main Page of the English Wikipedia on April 6, 2017

"truths, half truths, and some falsehoods",[20] Type of site Online encyclopedia
and, in controversial topics, being subject to Available in 295 languages
manipulation and spin.[21] Owner Wikimedia Foundation
Created by Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia 1/58
16/07/2017 Wikipedia - Wikipedia

Contents Slogan(s) The free encyclopedia that anyone

can edit
1 History Website wikipedia.org (https://www.wikipe
1.1 Nupedia dia.org)
1.2 Launch and early growth
Alexa rank 5 (http://www.alexa.com/siteinf
1.3 Milestones
2 Openness o/wikipedia.org) (Global, July 2017)
2.1 Restrictions Commercial No
2.2 Review of changes Registration
2.3 Vandalism Optional[notes 2]
3 Policies and laws Users >267,972 active users[notes 3] and
3.1 Content policies and guidelines >69,310,454 registered users
4 Governance
4.1 Administrators Launched January 15, 2001
4.2 Dispute resolution Current status Active
5 Community Content license CC Attribution / Share-Alike 3.0
5.1 Diversity
Most text is also dual-licensed under
6 Language editions
7 Critical reception GFDL; media licensing varies
7.1 Accuracy of content Written in LAMP platform[2]
7.2 Quality of writing
7.3 Coverage of topics and systemic OCLC number 52075003 (https://www.worldcat.o
bias rg/oclc/52075003)
7.4 Explicit content
7.5 Privacy
7.6 Sexism
8 Operation
8.1 Wikimedia Foundation and
Wikimedia movement affiliates
8.2 Software operations and support
8.3 Automated editing
8.4 Wikiprojects, and assessments of
articles' importance and quality
8.5 Hardware operations and support
8.6 Internal research and operational
development
8.7 Internal news publications
9 Access to content
9.1 Content licensing
9.2 Methods of access
10 Cultural impact
10.1 Readership
10.2 Cultural significance
10.3 Sister projects Wikimedia
10.4 Publishing
10.5 Scientific use
11 Related projects
12 See also
13 References
13.1 Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia 2/58