Wikipedia

Wikipedia
Version 1 by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); Wikimedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Wikipedia
Type	Online encyclopedia
Language	Multilingual
Owner	Wikimedia Foundation
Launch	15 January 2001
Country	United States

Wikipedia is a free, multilingual online encyclopedia collaboratively written and maintained by volunteer contributors. Founded in 2001 as a complementary project to Nupedia and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, it rapidly grew into a widely used reference covering subjects across geography such as United States, China, India, Russia, and Brazil, biographies of figures like Barack Obama, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, and Marie Curie, and events such as the World War II, French Revolution, Fall of the Berlin Wall, and September 11 attacks. Its projects encompass language editions ranging from English language and Spanish language to Mandarin Chinese and Arabic language, hosting articles on works such as Hamlet and The Lord of the Rings and institutions like the United Nations and the European Union.

History

Wikipedia was launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger as an open-content supplement to Nupedia, itself backed by early discussions involving figures from the Free Software Foundation and the Internet Archive. Early growth involved transitions from centralized editorial models exemplified by Nupedia toward the wiki model influenced by Ward Cunningham and WikiWikiWeb, enabling rapid article creation on topics including the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the 2000 United States presidential election, and biographies like Elvis Presley. The site's expansion produced major milestones: the creation of separate language editions, the founding of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003, and the launch of sister projects such as Wiktionary and Wikibooks. Controversies and crises—ranging from notable edit wars involving entries on George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin to legal disputes connected with Sheffield United F.C. and copyright—shaped policies and led to initiatives like the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view principle and community arbitration mechanisms inspired by practices in organizations such as Creative Commons.

Structure and Governance

Operational stewardship rests with the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco, while content governance is largely community-driven via local and global pages, projects, and advisory bodies. Decision-making uses mechanisms reminiscent of deliberative bodies such as ArbCom and dispute resolution modeled after institutions like the American Arbitration Association and organizational governance seen in entities like Mozilla Foundation. Local chapters—such as Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia UK, and Wikimedia India—support outreach and events tied to organizations like the Smithsonian Institution, British Library, and Library of Congress. Funding derives chiefly from fundraising drives and grants from funders including Google and foundations linked to philanthropy exemplified by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Content and Editorial Policies

Editorial rules emphasize verifiability, neutrality, and no original research, principles aligned with citation practices used by institutions like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Content spans topics from scientific articles referencing journals like Nature and Science to coverage of legal cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and treaties like the Treaty of Versailles. Policies on biographies of living persons are enforced to mitigate defamation risks raised in litigation involving entities such as Prince and Tiger Woods. Community norms are codified in pages that reflect precedents comparable to editorial standards at The New York Times and BBC News, and content moderation involves tools and roles akin to peer review processes used by PeerJ and organizational workflows at arXiv.

Technology and Infrastructure

Wikipedia runs on the MediaWiki software platform, originally developed by contributors including Brion Vibber and deployed on infrastructure drawing from technologies used by large-scale services like Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare for caching and content delivery. The technical stack includes databases such as MySQL and clustering patterns resembling deployments at Facebook and Twitter for scalability. APIs exposed to developers enable integrations with projects like Wikidata and data consumers including the European Commission and academic initiatives at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research collaborations with institutions such as Stanford University and University of Oxford investigate machine learning applications for vandalism detection and automated citation suggestions.

Community and Culture

The volunteer community comprises editors, administrators, and Wikimedia-affiliated staff, participating in events like Wikimania and edit-a-thons often hosted with partners such as the National Archives and Guggenheim Museum. Social dynamics reflect contributions from diverse regions including Africa and Latin America and involve mentorship practices comparable to academic advising at institutions like Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley. Tensions around representation have led to initiatives targeting gender and geographic gaps, analogous to programs run by organizations like UNESCO and Amnesty International, while outreach campaigns collaborate with cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Reception and Impact

Global usage metrics show extensive readership across countries including Germany, Japan, Mexico, and South Africa, and citations in scholarly work produced at universities such as Yale University and Princeton University. Critics and supporters cite issues of systemic bias highlighted by studies from researchers at University of Oxford and Harvard Kennedy School, legal scrutiny like cases in European Court of Human Rights, and recognition such as being referenced in awards like the Princess of Asturias Awards. Wikipedia's model has influenced projects and platforms including Stack Overflow and OpenStreetMap, and it remains integral to information ecosystems relied upon by media outlets such as Reuters and The Guardian.

Category:Online encyclopedias