Still working to recover. Please don't edit quite yet.

Difference between revisions of "Wikipedia"

From Anarchopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
(7 archived)
 
(36 intermediate revisions by 12 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Wikipedia''' is an [[online encyclopedia]] founded  on January 15, 2001 by two [[United States|American]] citizens, pornography entrepreneur and options trader [[Jimmy Wales]] and philosophy professor [[Larry Sanger]]. It is controlled by the [[United States]]-based [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Although it has editions in 250 languages, only 130 have more than 1000 articles.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia], accessed August 1, 2008.</ref> After about four years from the date of its foundation, Wikipedia had about 450,000 articles,<ref>Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.</ref> and after six years it had about 1.7 million entries.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed August 1, 2008</ref>
+
'''Wikipedia''' is an [[online encyclopedia]] founded  on January 15, 2001<ref>Morley Winograd, Michael D. Hais, ''Millennial Makeover'', pp 237, Rutgers University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780813543017</ref> with the money obtained through the Bomis<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/BIZ/803280327 |title=Wikipedia at a crossroads |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120916/http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/BIZ/803280327 |archivedate=2012-09-16}} ''Mail Tribune''</ref> web portal by two [[United States|American]] citizens, Internet entrepreneur and bond trader [[Jimmy Wales]] and philosophy professor [[Larry Sanger]]. It is controlled by the [[United States]]-based [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Although it has editions in 250 languages, only 130 have more than 1000 articles.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia], accessed August 1, 2008.</ref> After about four years from the date of its foundation, Wikipedia had about 450,000 articles,<ref>Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.</ref> and after six years it had about 2 million entries.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics]</ref>
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
Wikipedia began as a complementary project for [[Nupedia]], a free online [[English language|English-language]] encyclopedia project whose articles were written by experts and reviewed under a formal process. Nupedia was founded on [[March 9]], [[2000]], under the ownership of [[Bomis|Bomis, Inc]], a [[web portal]] company. Its main figures were [[Jimmy Wales]], Bomis [[Chief executive officer|CEO]], and [[Larry Sanger]], [[Editing|editor-in-chief]] for Nupedia and later Wikipedia. Nupedia was licensed initially under its own [[Nupedia Open Content License]], switching to the [[GNU Free Documentation License]] before Wikipedia's founding at the urging of [[Richard Stallman]].<ref name="stallman1999">{{cite web
+
In 1996 an American citizen named Jimmy Wales, who made money through bond trading, moved to San Diego, California, to found the Bomis web portal<ref name=Britannica>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192818/Wikipedia |title=Wikipedia |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120604/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1192818/Wikipedia |archivedate=2012-06-04}} ''Britannica Online''</ref> In March 2000, Wales founded Nupedia, an English language free content online encyclopaedia, with Larry Sanger as editor-in-chief. Nupedia was organized in a manner so that articles were to be written by experts and to be reviewed under a formal process. By January 2001, less than twenty four articles were completed in that project, and Sanger proposed supplementing Nupedia with an open-source encyclopaedia. On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched as a feature of Nupedia.com, but following objections from the advisory board, it was relaunched some days later as an independent website. In its first year, Wikipedia expanded to some 20,000 articles in 18 languages. In 2003, Nupedia was closed down and all its articles were moved into Wikipedia.<ref name=Britannica/>
|url=http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html
+
|title=The Free Encyclopedia Project
+
|accessdate=2008-01-04
+
|last=Stallman
+
|first=Richard M.
+
|authorlink=Richard Stallman
+
|date=2007-06-20
+
|publisher=[[Free Software Foundation]]}}</ref>
+
  
Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales are the founders of Wikipedia.<ref name="projectorigins"/><ref name="Sanger-NYTimes">
+
=== Wikia ===
{{cite news
+
In 2004, Wales and then-fellow member of the WMF Board of Trustees [[Angela Beesley]] founded the for-profit company [[Wikia]].<ref name="2.0">{{cite news
|first=Peter
+
|first=Tom
|last=Meyers
+
|last=McNichol
|title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You
+
|title=Building a Wiki World
|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fComputer%20Software
+
|url= http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401010/
|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''
+
|work=[[Business 2.0]]
|date=[[September 20]], [[2001]]
+
|publisher=CNN
|accessdate=2007-11-22}}<small>"I can start an article that will consist of one paragraph, and then a real expert will come along and add three paragraphs and clean up my one paragraph," said Larry Sanger of Las Vegas, who founded Wikipedia with Mr. Wales.</small></ref> While Wales is credited with defining the goal of making a publicly editable encyclopedia,<ref name="SangerMemoir" /> Sanger is usually credited with the [[Intuition (knowledge)|counter-intuitive]] [[strategy]] of using a [[wiki]] to reach that goal.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html|title=Wikipedia-l: LinkBacks?|accessdate=2007-02-20}}</ref> On [[January 10]], [[2001]], [[Larry Sanger]] proposed on the Nupedia [[mailing list]] to create a wiki as a "feeder" project for Nupedia.<ref>{{cite news |author=[[Larry Sanger]] |title=Let's make a wiki |date=[[January 10]], [[2001]] |publisher=Internet Archive |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html}}</ref>
+
|date=May 1, 2007
Wikipedia was formally launched on [[January 15]], [[2001]], as a single English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/ |title=Wikipedia: HomePage |accessdate= 2001-03-31}}</ref> and announced by Sanger on the Nupedia mailing list.<ref>{{cite news |author=[[Larry Sanger]] |title=Wikipedia is up! |date=[[January 17]], [[2001]] |publisher=Internet Archive |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010506042824/www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000684.html}}</ref>
+
|accessdate=October 31, 2007 |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120916/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401010/ |archivedate=2012-09-16}}</ref>
Wikipedia's policy of "neutral point-of-view"<ref name="NPOV">"[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view&oldid=102236018 Wikipedia:Neutral point of view], Wikipedia (21 January 2007)</ref> was codified in its initial months, and was similar to Nupedia's earlier "nonbiased" policy. Otherwise, there were relatively few rules initially and Wikipedia operated independently of Nupedia.<ref name="SangerMemoir">{{cite news |author=[[Larry Sanger]] |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir|date=[[April 18]], [[2005]] |publisher=[[Slashdot]] |url=http://features.slashdot.org/features/05/04/18/164213.shtml}}</ref>
+
<ref name=signon>{{cite news |last = Sidener | first = Jonathan | title = Everyone's encyclopedia | work = [[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] | date = December 6, 2004 | page = C1 | url = http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html | accessdate=April 22, 2009 |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120526/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |archivedate=2012-05-26}}</ref>
 
+
<ref name="utopia">
Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, [[Slashdot]] postings, and [[Web search engine|search engine]] indexing. It grew to approximately 20,000 articles, and 18 language editions, by the end of 2001. By late 2002 it had reached 26 language editions, 46 by the end of 2003, and 161 by the final days of 2004.<ref>"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_statistics Multilingual statistics]", Wikipedia, [[March 30]], [[2005]]</ref> Nupedia and Wikipedia coexisted until the former's servers went down permanently in 2003, and its text was incorporated into Wikipedia. [[English Wikipedia]] passed the 2,000,000-article mark on [[September 9]], [[2007]], making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled, eclipsing even the [[Yongle Encyclopedia]] (1407), which had held the record for exactly 600&nbsp;years.<ref name="EB_encyclopedia">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedias and Dictionaries |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed. |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica |date=2007 |volume=18 |pages=257–286}}</ref>
+
{{cite news |last=Getz |first=Arlene |title= In Search of an Online Utopia |work= [[Newsweek]] |publisher= [[msnbc.com]] |date= February 1, 2007 |url= http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16926950/site/newsweek/ |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20070418204627/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16926950/site/newsweek/|archivedate=April 18, 2007 |accessdate=October 31, 2008}}</ref>
 
+
<ref name=slashdot>{{cite news |author= Sanger, Larry |title= The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir |work= [[Slashdot]] |url= http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213 |date= April 18, 2005
Citing fears of commercial advertising and lack of control in a perceived English-centric Wikipedia, users of the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] forked from Wikipedia to create the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]'' in February 2002.<ref>{{cite web|title=
+
|accessdate= October 31, 2005 |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120711/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213 |archivedate=2012-07-11}}</ref>
 
+
[long] Enciclopedia Libre: msg#00008|url=http://osdir.com/ml/science.linguistics.wikipedia.international/2003-03/msg00008.html|work=Osdir}}</ref> Later that year, Wales announced that Wikipedia would not display advertisements, and its website was moved to wikipedia.org.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shirky|first=Clay|authorlink=Clay Shirky|title=Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations|pages=273|date=[[February 28]], [[2008]]|publisher=The Penguin Press via Amazon Online Reader|url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1594201536/ref=sib_dp_srch_pop?v=search-inside&keywords=spanish&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=Go%21#|isbn=1-594201-53-6}}</ref> Various other projects have since forked from Wikipedia for editorial reasons. [[Wikinfo]] does not require neutral point of view and allows original research. New Wikipedia-inspired projects — such as [[Citizendium]], [[Scholarpedia]], [[Conservapedia]] and Google's [[Knol]] — have been started to address perceived limitations of Wikipedia, such as its policies on [[peer review]], [[original research]] and commercial [[advertising]].
+
 
+
The [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was created from Wikipedia and Nupedia on [[June 20]], [[2003]].<ref>[[Jimmy Wales]]: "[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2003-June/010743.html Announcing Wikimedia Foundation]", [[June 20]], [[2003]], <Wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org></ref> It applied to the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] to [[trademark]] ''Wikipedia'' on [[September 17]], [[2004]]. The mark was granted registration status on [[January 10]], [[2006]]. Trademark protection was accorded by [[Japan]] on [[December 16]], [[2004]], and in the [[European Union]] on [[January 20]], [[2005]]. Technically a [[service mark]], the scope of the mark is for: "Provision of [[information]] in the field of general encyclopedic knowledge via the [[Internet]]"{{Fact|date=June 2008}}. There are plans to license the use of the Wikipedia trademark for some products, such as books or DVDs.<ref>{{cite news |first=Vipin |last=Nair|title=Growing on volunteer power |date=[[December 5]], [[2005]] |publisher=Business Line |url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2005/12/05/stories/2005120500070100.htm}}</ref>
+
  
 
==Is wikipedia free?==
 
==Is wikipedia free?==
 
It receives support from Bomis Inc. in the form of free [[w:bandwidth|bandwidth]] and this connection with a [[for-profit]] [[corporation]] is seen as a burden affecting the functioning of Wikipedia as a free encyclopedia as it claims to be.  
 
It receives support from Bomis Inc. in the form of free [[w:bandwidth|bandwidth]] and this connection with a [[for-profit]] [[corporation]] is seen as a burden affecting the functioning of Wikipedia as a free encyclopedia as it claims to be.  
 +
 +
==Criticisms==
 +
{{main|criticism of Wikipedia}}<br>
 +
Wikipedia is criticized for exhibiting systemic bias and inconsistency.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/oct/26/g2.onlinesupplement |title=Who knows? |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120715/http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/oct/26/g2.onlinesupplement |archivedate=2012-07-15}}</ref> Many university lecturers prohibit students from citing Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki |title=A Stand Against Wikipedia |archiveurl=http://archive.is/20120605/http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki |archivedate=2012-06-05}}</ref>
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
Line 43: Line 35:
 
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6947532.stm Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits']
 
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6947532.stm Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits']
  
 +
[[Category:Wikipedia| ]]
 +
 +
[[de:NPOV-pedia]]
 +
[[fr:Wikipedia]]
 
[[it:Wikipedia]]
 
[[it:Wikipedia]]
[[de:Wikipedia]]
+
[[pt:Wikipédia]]
 
+
[[es:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Wikipedia| ]]
+

Latest revision as of 10:06, 16 September 2012

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia founded on January 15, 2001[1] with the money obtained through the Bomis[2] web portal by two American citizens, Internet entrepreneur and bond trader Jimmy Wales and philosophy professor Larry Sanger. It is controlled by the United States-based Wikimedia Foundation. Although it has editions in 250 languages, only 130 have more than 1000 articles.[3] After about four years from the date of its foundation, Wikipedia had about 450,000 articles,[4] and after six years it had about 2 million entries.[5]

History[edit]

In 1996 an American citizen named Jimmy Wales, who made money through bond trading, moved to San Diego, California, to found the Bomis web portal[6] In March 2000, Wales founded Nupedia, an English language free content online encyclopaedia, with Larry Sanger as editor-in-chief. Nupedia was organized in a manner so that articles were to be written by experts and to be reviewed under a formal process. By January 2001, less than twenty four articles were completed in that project, and Sanger proposed supplementing Nupedia with an open-source encyclopaedia. On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia was launched as a feature of Nupedia.com, but following objections from the advisory board, it was relaunched some days later as an independent website. In its first year, Wikipedia expanded to some 20,000 articles in 18 languages. In 2003, Nupedia was closed down and all its articles were moved into Wikipedia.[6]

Wikia[edit]

In 2004, Wales and then-fellow member of the WMF Board of Trustees Angela Beesley founded the for-profit company Wikia.[7] [8] [9] [10]

Is wikipedia free?[edit]

It receives support from Bomis Inc. in the form of free bandwidth and this connection with a for-profit corporation is seen as a burden affecting the functioning of Wikipedia as a free encyclopedia as it claims to be.

Criticisms[edit]


Wikipedia is criticized for exhibiting systemic bias and inconsistency.[11] Many university lecturers prohibit students from citing Wikipedia.[12]

References[edit]

  1. Morley Winograd, Michael D. Hais, Millennial Makeover, pp 237, Rutgers University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780813543017
  2. Wikipedia at a crossroads. Archived from source 2012-09-16. Mail Tribune
  3. List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia, accessed August 1, 2008.
  4. Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.
  5. English Wikipedia statistics
  6. 6.0 6.1 Wikipedia. Archived from source 2012-06-04. Britannica Online
  7. McNichol, Tom (May 1, 2007). "Building a Wiki World". Business 2.0 (CNN). Archived from the original on 2012-09-16. http://archive.is/20120916/http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401010/. Retrieved October 31, 2007. </li>
  8. Sidener, Jonathan (December 6, 2004). "Everyone's encyclopedia". The San Diego Union-Tribune: p. C1. Archived from the original on 2012-05-26. http://archive.is/20120526/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html. Retrieved April 22, 2009. </li>
  9. Getz, Arlene (February 1, 2007). "In Search of an Online Utopia". Newsweek (msnbc.com). Archived from the original on April 18, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070418204627/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16926950/site/newsweek/. Retrieved October 31, 2008. </li>
  10. Sanger, Larry (April 18, 2005). "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir". Slashdot. Archived from the original on 2012-07-11. http://archive.is/20120711/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213. Retrieved October 31, 2005. </li>
  11. Who knows?. Archived from source 2012-07-15.
  12. A Stand Against Wikipedia. Archived from source 2012-06-05.
  13. </ol>

External links[edit]