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Wikipedia is the worst website in the world. Its editors are extremely rude and they do not get punished for their terrible behavior. [[User:HXL49]] should be blocked from editing wikipedia forever. I hate wikipedia. Sincerely [[User talk:Ryan Vesey]] |
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{{pp-semi-indef}}{{pp-move-indef}}{{Selfref|For Wikipedia's non-encyclopedic visitor introduction, see {{srlink|Wikipedia:About}}.}} |
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{{Infobox website |
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| name = Wikipedia |
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| logo = [[File:Wikipedia-v2-logo.svg|frameless|130px|alt=White sphere made of large jigsaw pieces. Letters from many alphabets are shown on the pieces.]]<br />[[File:Wikipedia wordmark.svg|120px|Wikipedia wordmark]] |
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| logocaption = The [[logo of Wikipedia]], a globe featuring [[glyph]]s from many different writing systems |
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| screenshot = [[File:Www.wikipedia.org_screenshot.png|border|300px|alt=Wikipedia's homepage with links to many languages.]] |
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| caption = Wikipedia's multilingual portal shows the project's different language editions. |
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| collapsible = yes |
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| caption = Screenshot of Wikipedia's multilingual portal. |
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| url = {{URL|http://wikipedia.org}} |
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| type of organization = [[Nonprofit]] |
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| location = [[Miami]], [[Florida]] |
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| type = [[Internet encyclopedia project]] |
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| language = 269 active editions (281 in total) |
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| registration = Optional (required only for certain tasks such as editing protected pages, creating new article pages or uploading files) |
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| owner = [[Wikimedia Foundation]] ([[non-profit]]) |
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| author = [[Jimmy Wales]], [[Larry Sanger]]<ref name=Sidener>{{Cite news|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html|author=Jonathan Sidener|title=Everyone's Encyclopedia|work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]]|accessdate=2006-10-15}}</ref> |
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| launch date = {{Start date and years ago|mf=yes|2001|1|15}} |
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| commercial = No |
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| alexa = {{steady}} 7 ({{As of|March 2011}})<ref name="AlexaStats" /> |
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| current status = Active |
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| slogan = The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. |
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| content license = {{nobr|[[Creative Commons licenses|Creative Commons Attribution/<br />Share-Alike]] 3.0}} (most text also dual-licensed under [[GFDL]])<br />Media licensing varies |
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}} |
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'''Wikipedia''' ({{IPAc-en|En-uk-Wikipedia.ogg|ˌ|w|ɪ|k|ɨ|ˈ|p|iː|d|i|.|ə}} or {{IPAc-en|en-us-Wikipedia.ogg|ˌ|w|ɪ|k|i|ˈ|p|iː|d|i|.|ə}} {{respell|WIK|i|PEE|dee-ə}}) is a [[Free content|free]], [[World Wide Web|web-based]], [[collaborative writing|collaborative]], [[multilingualism|multilingual]] [[encyclopedia]] project supported by the non-profit [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Its 18 million articles (over 3.6 million in [[English Wikipedia|English]]) have been written collaboratively by [[Community of Wikipedia|volunteers]] around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.<ref>In some parts of the world, the access to Wikipedia had been blocked.</ref> Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by [[Jimmy Wales]] and [[Larry Sanger]]<ref name=MiliardWho>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-5129-feature-wikipediots-who-are-these-devoted-even-obsessive-contributors-to-wikipedia.html|author=Mike Miliard|title=Wikipediots: Who Are These Devoted, Even Obsessive Contributors to Wikipedia?|work=[[Salt Lake City Weekly]]|date=2008-03-01|accessdate=2008-12-18}}</ref> and has become the largest and most popular general [[reference work]] on the [[Internet]],<ref name="AlexaStats">{{cite web|url=http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/wikipedia.org?range=5y&size=large&y=t|title = Five-year Traffic Statistics for Wikipedia.org|publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]|accessdate=2010-05-22 }}</ref><ref name=Tancer>{{Cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1595184,00.html|title=Look Who's Using Wikipedia|author=Bill Tancer|date=2007-05-01|publisher=''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''|accessdate=2007-12-01|quote=The sheer volume of content [...] is partly responsible for the site's dominance as an online reference. When compared to the top 3,200 educational reference sites in the U.S., Wikipedia is #1, capturing 24.3% of all visits to the category}} [[Cf.]] Bill Tancer (Global Manager, Hitwise), [http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2007/03/wikipedia_search_and_school_ho.html "Wikipedia, Search and School Homework"], ''[[Hitwise]]'': An [[Experian]] Company ([[Blog]]), March 1, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2008.</ref><ref name=Woodson>{{Cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0819429120070708 |title=Wikipedia remains go-to site for online news |date=2007-07-08|author=Alex Woodson |work=Reuters |accessdate=2007-12-16|quote=Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year, making it the top online news and information destination, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.}}</ref><ref name="AlexaTop500" /> ranking around seventh among all websites on [[Alexa Internet|Alexa]] and having 365 million readers.<ref>{{Cite document|url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org?p=&r=|title=Wikipedia.org Site Info|publisher=Alexa|accessdate=2010-07-13|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref><ref name="365M">[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/3/3a/TED2010%2C_Stuart_West_full_presentation_updated_with_January_data.pdf ''Wikipedia's Evolving Impact''], by Stuart West, slideshow presentation at TED2010</ref> |
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The name ''[[wikt:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]'' was coined by Larry Sanger<ref>How I started Wikipedia, presentation by Larry Sanger</ref> and is a [[portmanteau]] of '''''[[wiki]]''''' (a technology for creating collaborative [[website]]s, from the [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] word ''[[Wikt:wiki#Hawaiian|wiki]]'', meaning "quick") and [[Wikt:encyclopedia|''encyclo'''pedia''''']]. |
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Wikipedia's departure from the expert-driven style of encyclopedia building and the large presence of unacademic content has been noted several times. When ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine recognized [[You (Time Person of the Year)|You]] as its [[Time Person of the Year|Person of the Year]] for 2006, acknowledging the accelerating success of online collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world, it cited Wikipedia as one of several examples of [[Web 2.0]] services, along with [[YouTube]], [[MySpace]], and [[Facebook]].<ref name=Time2006>{{Cite news| date=2006-12-13| url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html |title= Time's Person of the Year: You |work=TIME |publisher=Time, Inc |accessdate=2008-12-26 | first=Lev | last=Grossman}}</ref> Some have noted the importance of Wikipedia not only as an encyclopedic reference but also as a frequently updated news resource because of how quickly articles about recent events appear.<ref name=Dee>{{Cite news| url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html | title = All the News That's Fit to Print Out|author=Jonathan Dee|publisher = The New York Times Magazine|date=2007-07-01|accessdate=2007-12-01}}</ref><ref name=Lih>{{Cite journal|author=Andrew Lih|title=Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism: Reliable Sources? Metrics for Evaluating Collaborative Media as a News Resource|journal=5th International Symposium on Online Journalism|location=[[University of Texas at Austin]]|date=2004-04-16|url=http://jmsc.hku.hk/faculty/alih/publications/utaustin-2004-wikipedia-rc2.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-10-13}}</ref> Students have been assigned to write Wikipedia articles as an exercise in clearly and succinctly explaining difficult concepts to an uninitiated audience.<ref>{{Cite document|title=Engaging with the World: Students of Comparative Law Write for Wikipedia|publisher=Legal Education Review|volume=19|issue=1 and 2|year=2009|pages=83–98|author=Witzleb, Normann|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> |
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Although the policies of Wikipedia strongly espouse {{srlink|Wikipedia:Verifiability|verifiability}} and a {{srlink|WP:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view}}, critics of Wikipedia accuse it of [[systemic bias]] and inconsistencies (including undue weight given to [[popular culture]]),<ref name="SangerElitism" /> and allege that it favors consensus over credentials in its editorial processes.<ref name="AcademiaAndWikipedia">{{cite web|author=Danah Boyd|url=http://many.corante.com/archives/2005/01/04/academia_and_wikipedia.php|title=Academia and Wikipedia|work=Many 2 Many: A Group [[Blog|Weblog]] on Social Software|publisher=Corante |date=2005-01-04|accessdate=2008-12-18|quote=[The author, Danah Boyd, describes herself as] an expert on social media[,] ... a doctoral student in the School of Information at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] [,] and a fellow at the [[Harvard University]] [[Berkman Center for Internet & Society]] [at [[Harvard Law School]].]}}</ref> Its [[Reliability of Wikipedia|reliability and accuracy]] are also targeted.<ref name="Who">{{Cite news| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/oct/26/g2.onlinesupplement | title = Who knows?|author=Simon Waldman|work=[[Guardian.co.uk]]|date=2004-10-26 | accessdate = 2007-02-11 | location=London}}</ref> Other criticisms center on its susceptibility to vandalism and the addition of spurious or unverified information;<ref name="DeathByWikipedia" /> however, scholarly work suggests that vandalism is generally short-lived.<ref name="MIT_IBM_study">{{Cite journal|author=Fernanda B. Viégas, Martin Wattenberg, and Kushal Dave|url=http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~fviegas/papers/history_flow.pdf|title=Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with History Flow Visualizations|journal=Proceedings of the [[CHI (conference)|ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)]]|publisher=ACM [[SIGCHI]]|pages=575–582|location=[[Vienna]], [[Austria]]|year=2004|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-01-24|doi=10.1145/985921.985953|isbn=1-58113-702-8}}</ref><ref name="CreatingDestroyingAndRestoringValue">{{Cite journal|author=Reid Priedhorsky, Jilin Chen, Shyong (Tony) K. Lam, Katherine Panciera, Loren Terveen, and John Riedl (GroupLens Research, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, [[University of Minnesota]])|title =Creating, Destroying, and Restoring Value in Wikipedia|journal =[[Association for Computing Machinery]] GROUP '07 conference proceedings|location =[[Sanibel Island]], [[Florida]]|date=2007-11-04|url =http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~reid/papers/group282-priedhorsky.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-10-13}}</ref> An investigation in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' found that the science articles they compared came close to the level of accuracy of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' and had a similar rate of "serious errors."<ref name="GilesJ2005Internet"/> |
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==History== |
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{{Main|History of Wikipedia}} |
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[[File:ImageNupedia.png|thumb|alt=Logo reading "Nupedia.com the free encyclopedia" in blue with large initial "N."|Wikipedia originally developed from another encyclopedia project, [[Nupedia]].]] |
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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 [[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 |
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|url=http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html|title=The Free Encyclopedia Project|author=Richard M. Stallman|authorlink=Richard Stallman|date=2007-06-20|publisher=Free Software Foundation |accessdate=2008-01-04}}</ref> |
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[[File:Wikipedia Main Page.png|thumb|Main Page of the English Wikipedia on October 20, 2010.]] |
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Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite news|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html|author=Jonathan Sidener|title=Everyone's Encyclopedia|date=2004-12-06|work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]]|accessdate=2006-10-15}}</ref><ref name=Meyers>{{Cite news|first=Peter |last=Meyers|title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fComputer%20Software |work=New York Times |publisher=The New York Times Company |date=2001-09-20|accessdate=2007-11-22|quote= '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 metropolitan area|Las Vegas]], who founded Wikipedia with Mr. Wales.}}</ref> While Wales is credited with defining the goal of making a publicly editable encyclopedia,<ref name=SangerMemoir>{{Cite news|first=Larry |last=Sanger |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir |date=April 18, 2005 |work=Slashdot |url=http://features.slashdot.org/features/05/04/18/164213.shtml|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref><ref name=Sanger>{{Cite news|first=Larry |last=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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> Sanger is usually credited with the [[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 [[electronic mailing list|mailing list]] to create a wiki as a "feeder" project for Nupedia.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Larry |last=Sanger|title=Let's Make a Wiki|date=2001-01-10|publisher=Internet Archive|url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html|archivedate=2003-04-14 |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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Wikipedia was formally launched on January 15, 2001, as a single English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com,<ref name=WikipediaHome>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikipedia.com/|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/|archivedate=2001-03-31|title=Wikipedia: HomePage|accessdate=2001-03-31}}</ref> and announced by Sanger on the Nupedia mailing list.<ref name=SangerMemoir/> 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 (January 21, 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/> |
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[[File:EnglishWikipediaArticleCountGraph linear.png|thumb|left|alt=Graph of number of articles and rate of increase showing article count doubling each year until the end of 2006, and becoming a linear increase in 2007.|Graph of the article count for the [[English Wikipedia]], from January 10, 2001, to September 9, 2007 (the date of the two-millionth article).]] |
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Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, [[Slashdot]] postings, and [[web 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>"{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual statistics |title=Multilingual statistics |work=Wikipedia |date=March 30, 2005 |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> Nupedia and Wikipedia coexisted until the former's servers were taken down permanently in 2003, and its text was incorporated into Wikipedia. [[English Wikipedia]] passed the two million-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 years.<ref name="EB_encyclopedia">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedias and Dictionaries |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed.|publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2007 |volume=18 |pages=257–286}}</ref> |
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Citing fears of commercial advertising and lack of control in a perceived English-centric Wikipedia, users of the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] [[Fork (software development)|forked]] from Wikipedia to create the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español|Enciclopedia Libre]]'' in February 2002.<ref>{{cite web|title=<nowiki>[long] Enciclopedia Libre: msg#00008</nowiki> |url=http://osdir.com/ml/science.linguistics.wikipedia.international/2003-03/msg00008.html |work=Osdir |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> Later that year, Wales announced that Wikipedia would not display advertisements, and its website was moved to wikipedia.org.<ref name=Shirky>{{Cite book|author= Clay Shirky|authorlink=Clay Shirky|title=Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations|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|page=273 |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> Various other wiki-encyclopedia projects have been started, largely under a different philosophy from the open and [[NPOV]] editorial model of Wikipedia. [[Wikinfo]] does not require a neutral point of view and allows original research. New Wikipedia-inspired projects – such as [[Citizendium]], [[Scholarpedia]], [[Conservapedia]], and Google's [[Knol]] where the articles are a little more essayistic<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7144970.stm |title=BBC News |publisher=BBC News |date=2007-12-15 |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> – have been started to address perceived limitations of Wikipedia, such as its policies on [[peer review]], [[original research]], and commercial [[advertising]]. |
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[[File:EnwikipediaGom.PNG|thumb|300px|Number of articles in the English Wikipedia plotted against [[Gompertz function]] trending to 4.4 million articles.]] |
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Though the English Wikipedia reached three million articles in August 2009, the growth of the edition, in terms of the numbers of articles and of contributors, appeared to have flattened off around early 2007.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/12/wikipedia-deletionist-inclusionist |title=Wikipedia approaches its limits |author=Bobbie Johnson | work=The Guardian | location=London | date=2009-08-12 | accessdate=2010-03-31}}</ref> In 2006, about 1,800 articles were added daily to the encyclopedia; by 2010 that average was roughly 1,000.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia#Annual growth rate]]</ref> A team at the [[Palo Alto Research Center]] speculated that this is due to the increasing exclusiveness of the project.<ref>{{cite conference |url=http://www.wikisym.org/ws2009/procfiles/p108-suh.pdf |title=The Singularity is Not Near: Slowing Growth of Wikipedia |year=2009|location=Orlando, Florida |conference=the International Symposium on Wikis}}</ref> New or occasional editors have significantly higher rates of their edits reverted (removed) than an elite group of regular editors, colloquially known as the "[[cabal]]." This could make it more difficult for the project to recruit and retain new contributors over the long term, resulting in stagnation in article creation. Others suggest that the growth is flattening naturally because the [[wikt:low-hanging fruit|low-hanging fruit]] already exist.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.bostonreview.net/BR34.6/morozov.php |title=Edit This Page; Is it the end of Wikipedia |publisher=Boston review |author=Evgeny Morozov}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Cohen |first=Noam |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/weekinreview/29cohen.html |title=Wikipedia – Exploring Fact City |publisher=NYTimes.com |date=2009-03-28 |accessdate=2011-04-19}}</ref> |
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In November 2009, a Ph.D thesis written by Felipe Ortega, a researcher at the [[Rey Juan Carlos University]] in Madrid, found that the English Wikipedia had lost 49,000 editors during the first three months of 2009; in comparison, the project lost only 4,900 editors during the same period in 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/26/wikipedia-losing-disgruntled-editors |title=Wikipedia falling victim to a war of words |publisher=Guardian |author=Jenny Kleeman | location=London | date=2009-11-26 | accessdate=2010-03-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://libresoft.es/Members/jfelipe/thesis-wkp-quantanalysis |title=Wikipedia: A quantitative analysis |format=PDF}}</ref> ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that "unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police [Wikipedia] are quitting." The array of rules applied to editing and disputes related to such content are among the reasons for this trend that are cited in the article.<ref>Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages, The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2009.</ref> These claims were disputed by Jimmy Wales, who denied the decline and questioned the methodology of the study.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/6660646/Wikipedias-Jimmy-Wales-denies-site-is-losing-thousands-of-volunteer-editors.html |title=Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales denies site is 'losing' thousands of volunteer editors |publisher=Telegraph | location=London | date=2009-11-26 | accessdate=2010-03-31 | first=Emma | last=Barnett}}</ref> |
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For the first time in January 2011, Wikipedia cracked the top ten list of the most popular websites in the United States, according to comScore Networks Inc. With 42.9 million unique visitors and rank #9, Wikipedia surpassed New York Times (#10) and Apple Inc. (#11). It is a significant increase as in January 2010 the rank was #33 with just 18.3 million unique visitors.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/129135/wikipedia_breaks_into_us_top_10_sites.html |title=Wikipedia Breaks Into U.S. Top 10 Sites |publisher=PCWorld |date=2007-02-17 |accessdate=2011-04-19}}</ref> |
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==Nature of Wikipedia== |
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{{See also|Reliability of Wikipedia|Academic studies about Wikipedia}} |
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===Editing=== |
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{{See also|Wikipedia:How to edit a page|Wikipedia:Template messages}} |
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[[File:Wiki feel stupid v2.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=2|In [[April 2009]], the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] conducted a Wikipedia usability study, questioning users about the editing mechanism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/UX_and_Usability_Study |title=UX and Usability Study |publisher=Usability.wikimedia.org |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref>]] |
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{{quote|Here, as in other human endeavours, it is evident that the active attention of many, when concentrated on one point, produces excellence. |[[Goethe]], The Experiment as Mediator between Subject and Object, 1772}} |
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In departure from the style of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia employs an open, "[[wiki]]" editing model. Except for a few particularly vandalism-prone pages, every article may be edited anonymously or with a user account, while only registered users may create a new article (only in the English edition). No article is owned by its creator or any other editor, or is vetted by any recognized authority; rather, the articles are agreed on by {{srlink|WP:CONSENSUS|consensus}}.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Ownership of articles]]</ref> |
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Importantly, when changes to an article are made, they usually become available immediately before undergoing any review, no matter if they contain an error, are somehow misguided, or even patent nonsense. The German and the Hungarian editions of Wikipedia are exceptions to this rule: the German Wikipedia has been testing a system of maintaining "stable versions" of articles,<ref>{{cite mailing list|first=P. |last=Birken |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikide-l/2008-December/021594.html |title=Bericht Gesichtete Versionen |mailinglist=Wikide-l |date=2008-12-14 |language=German |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |accessdate=2009-02-15}}</ref> to allow a reader to see versions of articles that have passed certain reviews. In June 2010, it was announced that the English Wikipedia would remove strict editing restrictions from "controversial" or vandalism-prone articles (such as [[George W. Bush]], [[David Cameron]] or [[homework]]) by using reviews.<ref>{{cite web| title = Wikimedia blog » Blog Archive » A quick update on Flagged Revisions| accessdate = 2009-08-30| url = http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/26/a-quick-update-on-flagged-revisions/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = Wikipedia:Flagged protection and patrolled revisions – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia| accessdate = 2009-08-25| url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Flagged_protection_and_patrolled_revisions#cite_ref-7}}</ref> In place of an editing prohibition for new or unregistered users, there would be a "new system, called 'pending changes'" which, [[Jimmy Wales]] told the [[BBC]], would enable the English Wikipedia "to open up articles for general editing that have been protected or semi-protected for years." The "pending changes" system was introduced on June 15, shortly after 11pm GMT. Edits to specified articles are now "subject to review from an established Wikipedia editor before publication." Wales opted against the German Wikipedia model of requiring editor review before edits to ''any'' article, describing it as "neither necessary nor desirable." He added that the administrators of the German Wikipedia were "going to be closely watching the English system, and I'm sure they'll at least consider switching if the results are good."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10312095.stm "Wikipedia introduces edit mechanism for divisive pages"], Jonathan Frewin, BBC, June 15, 2010</ref> |
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[[File:History comparison example.png|thumb|left|alt=Web page showing side-by-side comparison of an article highlighting changed paragraphs.|[[Editor]]s keep track of changes to articles by checking the difference between two revisions of a page, displayed here in red.]] |
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Contributors, registered or not, can take advantage of features available in the software that powers Wikipedia. The "History" page attached to each article records every single past revision of the article, though a revision with libelous content, criminal threats or copyright infringements may be removed afterwards.<ref name="Torsten_Kleinz"/><ref>The [[Japanese Wikipedia]], for example, is known for deleting every mention of real names of victims of certain high-profile crimes, even though they may still be noted in other language editions.</ref> This feature makes it easy to compare old and new versions, undo changes that an editor considers undesirable, or restore lost content. The "Discussion" pages associated with each article are used to coordinate work among multiple editors.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/papers/wikipedia_coordination_final.pdf|format=PDF|author=Fernanda B. Viégas, Martin Wattenberg, Jesse Kriss, Frank van Ham|title=Talk Before You Type: Coordination in Wikipedia|publisher=Visual Communication Lab, IBM Research|date=2007-01-03|accessdate=2008-06-27}}</ref> Regular contributors often maintain a "watchlist" of articles of interest to them, so that they can easily keep tabs on all recent changes to those articles. Computer programs called [[Internet bot]]s have been used widely to remove vandalism as soon as it was made,<ref name="CreatingDestroyingAndRestoringValue" /> to correct common misspellings and stylistic issues, or to start articles such as geography entries in a standard format from statistical data.<!-- In a time of content dispute, a page sometimes get locked for further edit until editors can work out differences.--> |
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[[File:Wikipedia editing interface.png|thumb|right|The editing interface of Wikipedia.]] |
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Articles in Wikipedia are organized roughly in three ways according to: [[Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment|development status]], [[Wikipedia:Categorization|subject matter]] and the [[Wikipedia:Protection policy|access level required for editing]]. The most developed state of articles is called "featured article" status: articles labeled as such are the ones that will be featured in the main page of Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2365/2182 |title=First Monday |publisher=First Monday |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/papers/hidden_order_wikipedia.pdf|author=Fernanda B. Viégas, Martin Wattenberg, and Matthew M. McKeon|title=The Hidden Order of Wikipedia|publisher=Visual Communication Lab, IBM Research |
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|date=2007-07-22|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref> Researcher Giacomo Poderi found that articles tend to reach the FA status via the intensive work of few editors.<ref>Poderi, Giacomo, ''Wikipedia and the Featured Articles: How a Technological System Can Produce Best Quality Articles'', (Master thesis), University of Maastricht, October 2008,</ref> In 2007, in preparation for producing a print version, the English-language Wikipedia introduced an assessment scale against which the quality of articles is judged.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/Assessment|title=Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment|accessdate=2007-10-28}}</ref> |
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A WikiProject is a place for a group of editors to coordinate work on a specific topic. The discussion pages attached to a project are often used to coordinate changes that take place across articles. Wikipedia also maintains a style guide called the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style|Manual of Style]] or MoS for short, which stipulates, for example, that, in the first sentence of any given article, the title of the article and any alternative titles should appear in bold. |
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===Rules and laws governing content=== |
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For legal reasons, content in Wikipedia is subject to the laws (in particular [[copyright|copyright law]]) of [[Florida]], where Wikipedia servers are hosted. Beyond that, the Wikipedian editorial principles are embodied in the "{{srlink|WP:Five pillars|five pillars}}", and numerous {{srlink|Wikipedia:List of policies and guidelines|policies and guidelines}} are intended to shape the content appropriately. Even these rules are stored in wiki form, and Wikipedia editors as a community write and revise those policies and guidelines<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1866322157;fp;2;fpid;2 |title=Who's behind Wikipedia?|publisher=PC World |date=2008-02-06 |accessdate=2008-02-07}}</ref> and enforce them by deleting, annotating with tags, or modifying article materials failing to meet them. The rules on the non-English editions of Wikipedia branched off a translation of the rules on the English Wikipedia and have since diverged to some extent. While they still show broad-brush similarities, they differ in many details. |
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According to the rules on the English Wikipedia, each entry in Wikipedia to be worthy of inclusion must be about a topic that is [[wikt:encyclopedic|encyclopedic]] and is not a [[dictionary]] entry or dictionary-like.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ISNOT |title=Wikipedia:ISNOT |accessdate=2010-04-01 |quote=Wikipedia is not a dictionary, usage, or jargon guide.}}</ref> A topic should also meet Wikipedia's standards of "[[Notability in Wikipedia|notability]]",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability |title=Wikipedia:Notability |accessdate=2008-02-13 |quote=A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject.}}</ref> which usually means that it must have received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources such as mainstream media or major academic journals that are independent of the subject of the topic. Further, Wikipedia must expose knowledge that is already established and recognized.<ref name=NOR>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research |title=Wikipedia:No original research |accessdate=2008-02-13|quote=Wikipedia does not publish original thought}}</ref> In other words, it must not present, for instance, new information or original works. A claim that is likely to be challenged requires a reference to a reliable source. Among Wikipedia editors, this is often phrased as "verifiability, not truth" to express the idea that the readers, not the encyclopedia, are ultimately responsible for checking the truthfulness of the articles and making their own interpretations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability |title= Wikipedia:Verifiability |accessdate=2008-02-13 |quote=Material challenged or likely to be challenged, and all quotations, must be attributed to a reliable, published source.}}</ref> Finally, Wikipedia must not take a side.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view|title=Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view|accessdate=2008-02-13 |quote=All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias.}}</ref> All opinions and viewpoints, if attributable to external sources, must enjoy an appropriate share of coverage within an article.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alternet.org/story/61365/?page=entire|title=Will Unethical Editing Destroy Wikipedia's Credibility?|author=Eric Haas|publisher=AlterNet.org|date=2007-10-26|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> This is known as neutral point of view, or NPOV. |
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Wikipedia has many methods of settling disputes. A "bold, revert, discuss" cycle sometimes occurs, in which a user makes an edit, another user reverts it, and the matter is discussed on the appropriate talk page. In order to gain a broader community consensus, issues can be raised at the Village Pump, or a Request for Comment can be made soliciting other users' input. "Wikiquette Alerts" is a non-binding noticeboard where users can report impolite, uncivil, or other difficult communications with other editors. |
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Specialized forums exist for centralizing discussion on specific decisions, such as whether or not an article should be deleted. [[Mediation]] is sometimes used, although it has been deemed by some Wikipedians to be unhelpful for resolving particularly contentious disputes. The [[Wikipedia Arbitration Committee]] settles disputes when other methods fail. The ArbCom generally does not rule on the factual correctness of article content, although it sometimes enforces the "Neutral Point of View" policy. Statistical analyses suggest that Wikipedia's dispute resolution ignores the content of user disputes and focuses on user conduct instead, functioning not so much to resolve disputes and make peace between conflicting users, but to weed out problematic users while weeding potentially productive users back in to participate. Its remedies include banning users from Wikipedia (used in 15.7% of cases), subject matter remedies (23.4%), article bans (43.3%) and cautions and [[probation]]s (63.2%). Total bans from Wikipedia are largely limited to instances of impersonation and [[anti-social behavior]]. Warnings tend to be issued for editing conduct and conduct that is anti-consensus, rather than anti-social.<ref>{{Cite document|title=Wikitruth through Wikiorder|url=http://www.law.emory.edu/fileadmin/journals/elj/59/59.1/Hoffman_Mehra.pdf|publisher=Emory Law Journal|volume=59|issue=1|year=2009|pages=151–210|author=Hoffman, David A.; Mehra, Salil K.|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> |
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===Content licensing=== |
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All text in Wikipedia was covered by [[GNU Free Documentation License]] (GFDL), a [[copyleft]] license permitting the redistribution, creation of derivative works, and commercial use of content while authors retain copyright of their work,<ref>[[Wikipedia:Copyrights]]</ref> up until June 2009, when the site switched to [[Creative Commons]] Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-by-SA) 3.0.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/05/21/wikimedia-community-approves-license-migration/ |title=Wikimedia community approves license migration |work=Wikimedia Foundation|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |accessdate=2009-05-21}}</ref> Wikipedia had been working on the switch to [[Creative Commons licenses]] because the GFDL, initially designed for software manuals, was not considered suitable{{Clarify|date=January 2011}} for online reference works and because the two licenses were incompatible.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:License_update |
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|title=Resolution:License update|year=2007|author=Walter Vermeir|publisher=Wikizine|accessdate=2007-12-04}}</ref> In response to the Wikimedia Foundation's request, in November 2008, the [[Free Software Foundation]] (FSF) released a new version of GFDL designed specifically to allow Wikipedia to {{srlink|Wikipedia:Licensing update|relicense its content to CC-BY-SA}} by August 1, 2009. Wikipedia and its sister projects held a community-wide referendum to decide whether or not to make the license switch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Questions_and_Answers |title=Licensing update/Questions and Answers |work=Wikimedia Meta |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |accessdate=2009-02-15}}</ref> The referendum took place from April 9 to 30.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Timeline |title=Licensing_update/Timeline |work=Wikimedia Meta |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |accessdate=2009-04-05}}</ref> The results were 75.8% "Yes," 10.5% "No," and 13.7% "No opinion."<ref name="voteresult">[[meta:Licensing update/Result|Wikimedia.org]]</ref> In consequence of the referendum, the Wikimedia Board of Trustees voted to change to the Creative Commons license, effective June 15, 2009.<ref name="voteresult"/> The position that Wikipedia is merely a hosting service has been successfully used as a defense in court.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL0280486220071102?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews|title=Wikipedia cleared in French defamation case|publisher=Reuters|date=2007-11-02|accessdate=2007-11-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080502-dumb-idea-suing-wikipedia-for-calling-you-dumb.html |title=Dumb idea: suing Wikipedia for calling you "dumb" |first=Nate |last=Anderson |date=2008-05-02 |publisher=Ars Technica |accessdate=2008-05-04}}</ref> |
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The handling of media files (e.g., image files) varies across language editions. Some language editions, such as the English Wikipedia, include non-free image files under [[fair use]] doctrine, while the others have opted not to. This is in part because of the difference in copyright laws between countries; for example, the notion of fair use does not exist in [[Japanese copyright law]]. Media files covered by [[free content]] licenses (e.g., Creative Commons' cc-by-sa) are shared across language editions via [[Wikimedia Commons]] repository, a project operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. |
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===Reusing Wikipedia's content=== |
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Because Wikipedia content is distributed under an open license, anyone can re-distribute it at no charge. The content of Wikipedia has been published in many forms, both online and offline, outside of the Wikipedia website. |
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Thousands of "[[mirror site]]s" exist that republish content from Wikipedia; two prominent ones, that also include content from other reference sources, are [[Reference.com]] and [[Answers.com]]. Another example is [[Wapedia]], which began to display Wikipedia content in a mobile-device-friendly format before Wikipedia itself did. |
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Some [[web search engine]]s also display content from Wikipedia on search results: examples include [[Bing.com]] (via technology gained from [[Powerset (company)|Powerset]])<ref>[http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2009/07/27/researching-with-bing-reference.aspxResearching With Bing Reference], Bing Community blog, July 27, 2009</ref> and [[Duck Duck Go]]. |
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Some wikis, most notably Enciclopedia Libre and Citizendium, began as forks of Wikipedia content. |
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The website [[DBpedia]], begun in 2007, is a project that extracts data from the infoboxes and category declarations of the English-language Wikipedia and makes it available in a queriable [[Semantic Web|semantic]] format, [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]]. The possibility has also been raised to have Wikipedia export its data directly in a semantic format, possibly by using the [[Semantic MediaWiki]] extension. Such an export of data could also help Wikipedia reuse its own data, both between articles on the same language Wikipedia and between different language Wikipedias.<ref>[http://technologyreview.com/web/25728/page2/ Wikipedia to Add Meaning to Its Pages], Tom Simonite, ''Technology Review'', July 7, 2010</ref> |
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Collections of Wikipedia articles have also been published on [[optical disk]]s. An English version, [[Wikipedia CD Selection|2006 Wikipedia CD Selection]], contained about 2,000 articles.<ref>"[http://www.wikipediaondvd.com/ Wikipedia on DVD]." Linterweb. Accessed June 1, 2007. "Linterweb is authorized to make a commercial use of the Wikipedia trademark restricted to the selling of the Encyclopedia CDs and DVDs."</ref><ref>"[http://www.wikipediaondvd.com/site.php?temp=buy Wikipedia 0.5 Available on a CD-ROM]." ''Wikipedia on DVD''. Linterweb. Accessed June 1, 2007. "The DVD or CD-ROM version 0.5 was commercially available for purchase."</ref> The Polish-language version contains nearly 240,000 articles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Polska_Wikipedia_na_DVD_%28z_Helionem%29/en |title=Polish Wikipedia on DVD |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> There are also German-language versions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia-Distribution |title=Wikipedia:DVD |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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"Wikipedia for Schools", the Wikipedia series of CDs/DVDs, produced by Wikipedians and [[SOS Children's Villages UK|SOS Children]], is a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia targeted around the [[National Curriculum (UK)|UK National Curriculum]] and intended to be useful for much of the English-speaking world.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia CD Selection|Wikipedia CD Selection]]. Retrieved 8 September 2009.</ref> The project is available online; an equivalent print encyclopedia would require roughly 20 volumes. |
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There has also been an attempt to put a select subset of Wikipedia's articles into printed book form.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Wikipedia turned into book|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5549589/Wikipedia-turned-into-book.html|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5jeCgQjpj|publisher=Telegraph Media Group|work=Telegraph.co.uk|date=2009-06-16|accessdate=2009-09-08|archivedate=2009-09-08 | location=London}}</ref><ref>[http://schools-wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia Selection for Schools]. Retrieved 8 September 2009.</ref> Since 2009, tens of thousands of [[print on demand]] books which reproduced English, German, Russian and French Wikipedia articles have been produced by the American company [[Books LLC]] and by three [[Mauritius|Mauritian]] subsidiaries of the German publisher [[VDM Publishing|VDM]].<ref name=FAZ>{{cite web |
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| last = Thiel |
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| first = Thomas |
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| title = Wikipedia und Amazon: Der Marketplace soll es richten |
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| work = Faz.net |
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| publisher = [[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]] |
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| language = German |
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| accessdate = 2010-12-06 |
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| date = 2010-09-27 |
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| url = http://www.faz.net/s/RubCF3AEB154CE64960822FA5429A182360/Doc~E7A20980B9C0D46E99A9F60BC09506343~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html |
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}}</ref> |
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Obtaining the full contents of Wikipedia for reuse presents challenges, since direct cloning via a [[web crawler]] is discouraged.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Database download|Wikipedia policies]] on data download</ref> Wikipedia publishes "dumps" of its contents, but these are text-only; as of 2007 there is no dump available of Wikipedia's images.<ref>[[meta:Data dumps#Downloading Images|Data dumps: Downloading Images]], [[Wikimedia Meta-Wiki]]</ref> |
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===Defenses against undesirable edits=== |
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The open nature of the editing model has been central to most criticism of Wikipedia. For example, a reader of an article cannot be certain that it has not been compromised by the insertion of false information or the removal of essential information.<!-- eventually we have to merge this sentence with a paragraph on vandalism below. --> Former ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' editor-in-chief [[Robert McHenry]] once described this by saying:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.caslon.com.au/wikiprofile1.htm |title=Caslon.com |publisher=Caslon.com |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> |
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{{quote|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>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=111504A |
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|title= The Faith-Based Encyclopedia |
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|publisher=TCS Daily |
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|author=Robert McHenry |
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|date=2004-11-15 |
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|accessdate=2009-09-10}}</ref>}} |
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[[File:John Seigenthaler Sr. speaking.jpg|thumb|left|alt=White-haired elderly gentleman in suit and tie speaks at a podium.|[[John Seigenthaler]] has described Wikipedia as "a flawed and irresponsible research tool."<ref name="Seigenthaler" />]] |
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Obvious vandalism is easy to remove from wiki articles, since the previous versions of each article are kept. In practice, the median time to detect and fix vandalisms is very low, usually a few minutes,<ref name="MIT_IBM_study"/><ref name="CreatingDestroyingAndRestoringValue"/> but in one particularly well-publicized [[Seigenthaler incident|incident]], false information was introduced into the biography of American political figure [[John Seigenthaler]] and remained undetected for four months.<ref name="Seigenthaler">{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm |
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|last=Seigenthaler |
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|first=John |
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|title=A False Wikipedia 'biography' |
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|date=2005-11-29 |
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|publisher=USA Today |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> John Seigenthaler, the founding editorial director of ''[[USA Today]]'' and founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at [[Vanderbilt University]], called Jimmy Wales and asked if Wales had any way of knowing who contributed the misinformation. Wales replied that he did not, but nevertheless the perpetrator was eventually traced.<ref>Thomas L. Friedman ''The World is Flat'', p. 124, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007 ISBN 978-0-374-29278-2</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20070212171844/http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17798 |title=Founder shares cautionary tale of libel in cyberspace By Brian J. Buchanan |publisher=Firstamendmentcenter.org |date=2005-11-30 |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> This incident led to policy changes on the site, specifically targeted at tightening up the verifiability of all {{srlink|WP:BLP|biographical articles of living people}}. |
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Wikipedia's open structure inherently makes it an easy target for Internet [[troll (Internet)|trolls]], [[Spam (electronic)|spamming]], and those with an agenda to push.<ref name="Torsten_Kleinz">{{Cite news |
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|first=Torsten |
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|last=Kleinz |
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|title=World of Knowledge |
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|work =The Wikipedia Project |
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|url=http://w3.linux-magazine.com/issue/51/Wikipedia_Encyclopedia.pdf |
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|format=PDF |
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|publisher=Linux Magazine |
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|date=February, 2005 |
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|accessdate=2007-07-13 |
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|quote= The Wikipedia's open structure makes it a target for trolls and vandals who malevolently add incorrect information to articles, get other people tied up in endless discussions, and generally do everything to draw attention to themselves.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|title=Toward a New Compendium of Knowledge (longer version) |
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|url=http://www.citizendium.org/essay.html |
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|work=Citizendium.org |
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|accessdate=2006-10-10 |
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}}</ref> The addition of political [[Spin (public relations)|spin]] to articles by organizations including members of the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] and special interest groups<ref name="DeathByWikipedia">{{Cite news |
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|title=Death by Wikipedia: The Kenneth Lay Chronicles |
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|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800135.html |
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|first=Frank |
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|last=Ahrens |
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|publisher=The Washington Post |
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|date=2006-07-09 |
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|accessdate=2006-11-01}}</ref> has been noted,<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6032713-7.html |
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|title=Politicians notice Wikipedia |
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|publisher=CNET |
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|author=Kane, Margaret |
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|date=2006-01-30 |
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|accessdate=2007-01-28 |
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}}</ref> and organizations such as [[Microsoft]] have offered financial incentives to work on certain articles.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16775981/ |
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|title=Microsoft offers cash for Wikipedia edit |
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|publisher=MSNBC |
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|author=Bergstein, Brian |
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|authorlink=Brian Bergstein |
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|date=2007-01-23 |
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|accessdate=2007-02-01 |
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}}</ref> These issues have been parodied, notably by [[Stephen Colbert]] in ''[[The Colbert Report]]''.<ref name="wikiality">{{Cite news |
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|title=Wikiality |
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|publisher=Comedycentral.com |
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|url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality |
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|author=Stephen Colbert |
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|date=2006-07-30 |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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For example, in August 2007, the website [[WikiScanner]] began to trace the sources of changes made to Wikipedia by anonymous editors without Wikipedia accounts. The program revealed that many such edits were made by corporations or government agencies changing the content of articles related to them, their personnel or their work.<ref name="Seeing Corporate Fingerprints">{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/technology/19wikipedia.html |
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|title=Seeing Corporate Fingerprints From the Editing of Wikipedia |
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|first=Katie |
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|last=Hafner |
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|date=2007-08-19 |
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|publisher=New York Times |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref><!-- Wales called WikiScanner "a very clever idea," and said that he was considering some changes to Wikipedia to help visitors better understand what information is recorded about them. "When someone clicks on 'edit,' it would be interesting if we could say, 'Hi, thank you for editing. We see you're logged in from ''[[The New York Times]]''. Keep in mind that we know that, and it's public information,'" he said. "That might make them stop and think."<ref name="Seeing Corporate Fingerprints"/>--> |
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In practice, Wikipedia is defended from attack by multiple systems and techniques. These include users checking pages and edits (e.g. '[[Help:Watching pages|watchlist]]'s and '[[Help:Recent changes|recent changes]]'), computer programs ('bots') that are carefully designed to try to detect attacks and fix them automatically (or semi-automatically), filters that warn users making undesirable edits,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-03-23/Abuse_Filter |title=Wikipedia signpost: Abuse Filter is enabled |publisher=En.wikipedia.org |date=2009-03-23 |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> blocks on the creation of links to particular websites, blocks on edits from particular accounts, IP addresses or address ranges. |
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For heavily attacked pages, particular articles can be ''semi-protected'' so that only well established accounts can edit them,<ref>[[Protection policy#Semi-protection|English Wikipedia's semi-protection policy]]</ref> or for particularly contentious cases, locked so that only administrators are able to make changes.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Full protection|English Wikipedia's full protection policy]]</ref> Such locking is applied sparingly, usually for only short periods of time while attacks appear likely to continue. |
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===Coverage of topics=== |
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{{See also|Notability in Wikipedia}} |
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[[File:Wikipedia content by subject.png|thumb|right|Pie chart of Wikipedia content by subject as of January 2008.<ref name=Kittur2009/>]] |
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[[File:Wikipedia article on Pichilemu earthquake, camera perspective.jpg|thumb|right|Wikipedia compresses information in a variety of topics, including [[earthquake]]s, by example.]] |
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Wikipedia seeks to create a summary of all human knowledge in the form of an online encyclopedia, with each topic of knowledge covered encyclopedically in one article. Since it has virtually unlimited disk space, it can have far more topics than can be covered by any conventional print encyclopedias.<ref>[[Wikipedia:PAPER]]</ref> It also contains materials that some people may find objectionable, offensive, or pornographic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_censored |title=Wikipedia is not censored |publisher=Wikipedia |accessdate=2008-04-30}}</ref> It was made clear that this policy is not up for debate, and the policy has sometimes proved controversial. For instance, in 2008, Wikipedia rejected an online petition against the inclusion of [[Online petition on Wikipedia Muhammad article|Muhammad's depictions]] in its [[English Wikipedia|English edition]], citing this policy. The presence of politically sensitive materials in Wikipedia had also led the [[Blocking of Wikipedia by the People's Republic of China|People's Republic of China to block access]] to parts of the site.<ref name=Taylor>{{Cite news|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idINIndia-32865420080405|title=China allows access to English Wikipedia|work=Reuters|author=Sophie Taylor|date=2008-04-05|accessdate=2008-07-29}}</ref> (See also: [[Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia|IWF block of Wikipedia]]) |
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{{As of|2009|9}}, Wikipedia articles cover about half a million places on Earth. However, research conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute has shown that the geographic distribution of articles is highly uneven. Most articles are written about North America, Europe, and East Asia, with very little coverage of large parts of the developing world, including most of Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zerogeography.blogspot.com/2009/11/mapping-geographies-of-wikipedia.html |title=Mapping the Geographies of Wikipedia Content |work=Mark Graham Oxford Internet Institute|publisher=ZeroGeography |accessdate=2009-11-16}}</ref> |
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A 2008 study conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Palo Alto Research Center gave a distribution of topics as well as growth (from July 2006 to January 2008) in each field:<ref name=Kittur2009>Kittur, A., Chi, E. H., and Suh, B. 2009. [http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~echi/papers/2009-CHI2009/p1509.pdf What’s in Wikipedia? Mapping Topics and Conflict Using Socially Annotated Category Structure] In Proceedings of the 27th international Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Boston, MA, USA, April 04 – 09, 2009). CHI '09. ACM, New York, NY, 1509–1512.</ref> |
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* Culture and the arts: 30% (210%) |
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* Biographies and persons: 15% (97%) |
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* Geography and places: 14% (52%) |
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* Society and social sciences: 12% (83%) |
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* History and events: 11% (143%) |
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* Natural and the physical sciences: 9% (213%) |
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* Technology and the applied science: 4% (−6%) |
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* Religions and belief systems: 2% (38%) |
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* Health: 2% (42%) |
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* Mathematics and logic: 1% (146%) |
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* Thought and philosophy: 1% (160%) |
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However, it must be considered that these numbers relate only to articles; it is possible that one topic contains a lot of short articles and another one quite large ones. |
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Furthermore, the exact coverage of Wikipedia is under constant review by the editors, and disagreements are not uncommon (see also [[deletionism and inclusionism in Wikipedia|deletionism and inclusionism]]).<ref>{{Cite news|title=The battle for Wikipedia's soul |url=http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10789354 |publisher=The Economist|date=2008-03-06 |accessdate=2008-03-07 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3354752/Wikipedia-an-online-encyclopedia-torn-apart.html|title=Wikipedia: an online encyclopedia torn apart |date=2007-11-10|publisher=Daily Telegraph|accessdate=2010-11-23|location=London|first=Ian|last=Douglas}}</ref> |
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===Quality of writing=== |
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Because contributors usually rewrite small portions of an entry rather than making full-length revisions, high- and low-quality content may be intermingled within an entry. Critics sometimes argue that non-expert editing undermines quality. For example, [[Roy Rosenzweig]] had several criticisms of its prose and its failure to distinguish the genuinely important from the merely sensational. He said that Wikipedia is "surprisingly accurate in reporting names, dates, and events in U.S. history" (Rosenzweig's own field of study) and that most of the few factual errors that he found "were small and inconsequential" and that some of them "simply repeat widely held but inaccurate beliefs", which are also repeated in ''Encarta'' and the ''Britannica''. However, he made one major criticism. |
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<blockquote>Good historical writing requires not just factual accuracy but also a command of the scholarly literature, persuasive analysis and interpretations, and clear and engaging prose. By those measures, ''American National Biography Online'' easily outdistances Wikipedia.<ref name=Rosenzweig/></blockquote> |
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Contrasting Wikipedia's treatment of [[Abraham Lincoln]] to that of [[American Civil War|Civil War]] historian [[James M. McPherson|James McPherson]] in ''American National Biography Online'', he said that both were essentially accurate and covered the major episodes in Lincoln's life, but praised "McPherson's richer contextualization... his artful use of quotations to capture Lincoln's voice ... and ... his ability to convey a profound message in a handful of words." By contrast, he gives an example of Wikipedia's prose that he finds "both verbose and dull." Rosenzweig made a further criticism, contrasting "the skill and confident judgment of a seasoned historian" displayed by McPherson and others to the "[[wikt:antiquarianism|antiquarianism]]" of Wikipedia (which he compares in this respect to ''[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]'' magazine), and said that while Wikipedia often provides extensive references, they are not the best ones.<ref name=Rosenzweig>{{Cite journal|author=Roy Rosenzweig|title=Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past|journal=The Journal of American History|volume=93|issue=1|month=June | year=2006|pages=117–146|url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-on-history-new-media/essays/?essayid=42|accessdate=2006-08-11|doi=10.2307/4486062}} (Center for History and New Media)</ref> |
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Rosenzweig also criticized the "waffling—encouraged by the npov policy—[which] means that it is hard to discern any overall interpretive stance in Wikipedia history." By example, he quoted the conclusion of Wikipedia's article on [[William Clarke Quantrill]]. While generally praising the article, he pointed out its "waffling" conclusion: "Some historians...remember him as an opportunistic, bloodthirsty outlaw, while others continue to view him as a daring soldier and local folk hero."<ref name=Rosenzweig/> |
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Other critics have made similar charges that, even if Wikipedia articles are factually accurate, they are often written in a poor, almost unreadable style. Frequent Wikipedia critic Andrew Orlowski commented: "Even when a Wikipedia entry is 100 per cent factually correct, and those facts have been carefully chosen, it all too often reads as if it has been translated from one language to another then into to a third, passing an illiterate translator at each stage."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/page2.html|title=Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems|author=Andrew Orlowski|date=2005-10-18|work=The Register|accessdate=2007-09-30}}</ref> A study of cancer articles by [[Yaacov Lawrence]] of the Kimmel Cancer Center at [[Thomas Jefferson University]] found that the entries were mostly accurate, but they were written at college reading level, as opposed to the ninth grade level seen in the [[Physician Data Query]]. He said that "Wikipedia's lack of [[readability]] may reflect its varied origins and haphazard editing."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/06/04/Wikipedia-cancer-information-accurate/UPI-87311275628573/|title=Wikipedia cancer information accurate|date=4 June 2010|work=UPI|accessdate=31 December 2010}}</ref> ''The Economist'' noted that the quality of writing of Wikipedia articles can be a guide to the reader: "inelegant or ranting prose usually reflects muddled thoughts and incomplete information."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/8820422?story_id=8820422|title=Fact or fiction? Wikipedia's variety of contributors is not only a strength|date=10 March 2007|work=The Economist|accessdate=31 December 2010}}</ref> A 2005 study by the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' compared Wikipedia's science content to that of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', stating that Wikipedia's accuracy was close to that of ''Britannica'', but that the structure of Wikipedia's articles was often poor."<ref name="GilesJ2005Internet"/> |
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===Reliability=== |
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{{Main|Reliability of Wikipedia}} |
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[[File:Campus Party.jpg|thumb|right|The way Wikipedia [[Crowdsourcing|crowdsources]] means that anyone can lie or vandalize, yet these risks are common knowledge. Moreover, anyone can correct suspect assertions or criticize openly, behaviors empowered by the system.]] |
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As a consequence of the open structure, Wikipedia "makes no guarantee of validity" of its content, since no one is ultimately responsible for any claims appearing in it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer |title=Wikipedia:General disclaimer |publisher=English Wikipedia |accessdate=2008-04-22}}</ref> Concerns have been raised regarding the lack of [[accountability]] that results from users' anonymity,<ref name="WikipediaWatch">Public Information Research, Wikipedia Watch</ref> the insertion of spurious information,<ref>{{cite web|last=Raphel |first=JR |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/170874/the_15_biggest_wikipedia_blunders.html |title=The 15 Biggest Wikipedia Blunders |publisher=[[PC World (magazine)|PC World]] |accessdate=2009-09-02}}</ref> [[vandalism]], and similar problems. |
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Wikipedia has been accused of exhibiting [[systemic bias]] and inconsistency;<ref name="Who" /> additionally, critics argue that Wikipedia's open nature and a lack of proper sources for much of the information makes it unreliable.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Stacy Schiff | date = 2006-07-31 | title = Know It All | work = The New Yorker}}</ref> Some commentators suggest that Wikipedia is generally reliable, but that the reliability of any given article is not always clear.<ref name="AcademiaAndWikipedia" /> Editors of traditional [[reference work]]s such as the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' have questioned the project's utility and status as an encyclopedia.<ref name="McHenry_2004">[[Robert McHenry]], "[http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html The Faith-Based Encyclopedia]," [[TCS Daily|Tech Central Station]], November 15, 2004.</ref> Many [[university]] [[lecturer]]s discourage students from citing any encyclopedia in [[Academia|academic work]], preferring [[primary source]]s;<ref name="WideWorldOfWikipedia">{{cite web| title = Wide World of Wikipedia | publisher = The Emory Wheel | url = http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=17902 | date = April 21, 2006 | accessdate = 2007-10-17 }}</ref> some specifically prohibit Wikipedia citations.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Scott |last=Jaschik |title=A Stand Against Wikipedia |url=http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki |publisher=Inside Higher Ed |date=2007-01-26 |accessdate=2007-01-27 }}</ref> Co-founder [[Jimmy Wales]] stresses that encyclopedias of any type are not usually appropriate as primary sources, and should not be relied upon as authoritative.<ref name="AWorkInProgress">{{Cite news|first=Burt |last=Helm |title= Wikipedia: "A Work in Progress" |url= http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051214_441708.htm |publisher=BusinessWeek |date=2005-12-14 |accessdate=2007-01-29 }}</ref> |
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However, an investigation reported in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in 2005 suggested that for scientific articles Wikipedia came close to the level of accuracy of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' and had a similar rate of "serious errors."<ref name="GilesJ2005Internet">{{Cite journal | author = [[Jim Giles (reporter)|Jim Giles]] | title = Internet encyclopedias go head to head | journal = [[Nature journal)|Nature]] |
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| volume = 438 | issue = 7070 | pages = 900–901 | month = December | year = 2005 | pmid = 16355180 |
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| url = http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html | doi = 10.1038/438900a}} |
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The study (that was not in itself peer reviewed) was cited in several news articles, e.g., |
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* {{Cite news | title=Wikipedia survives research test | date=December 15, 2005 | work=[[BBC News]] | publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm}} |
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</ref> These claims have been disputed by ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.<ref name="corporate.britannica.com">[http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Fatally Flawed: Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature] Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., March 2006</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nature.com/press_releases/Britannica_response.pdf?item |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica and Nature: a response |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> |
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Economist [[Tyler Cowen]] writes, "If I had to guess whether Wikipedia or the median refereed journal article on economics was more likely to be true, after a not so long think I would opt for Wikipedia." He comments that many traditional sources of non-fiction suffer from systemic biases. Novel results are over-reported in journal articles, and relevant information is omitted from news reports. However, he also cautions that errors are frequently found on Internet sites, and that academics and experts must be vigilant in correcting them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tnr.com/story.html?id=82eb5d70-13bd-4086-9ec0-cb0e9e8411b3 |
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|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080318103017/http://www.tnr.com/story.html?id=82eb5d70-13bd-4086-9ec0-cb0e9e8411b3|archivedate=2008-03-18|title=Cooked Books|author=Tyler Cowen|publisher=The New Republic |
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|date=2008-03-14|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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In February 2007, an article in ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' newspaper reported that some of the professors at [[Harvard University]] include Wikipedia in their [[syllabus|syllabi]], but that there is a split in their perception of using Wikipedia.<ref>Child, Maxwell L.,[http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517305 "Professors Split on Wiki Debate"], The Harvard Crimson, Monday, February 26, 2007.</ref> In June 2007, former president of the [[American Library Association]] [[Michael Gorman (librarian)|Michael Gorman]] condemned Wikipedia, along with [[Google]],<ref name="stothart">Chloe Stothart, [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=209408 Web threatens learning ethos], ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'', 2007, 1799 (June 22), page 2</ref> stating that academics who endorse the use of Wikipedia are "the intellectual equivalent of a [[dietitian]] who recommends a steady diet of [[Big Mac]]s with everything." He also said that "a generation of intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the Internet" was being produced at universities. He complains that the web-based sources are discouraging students from learning from the more rare texts which are either found only on paper or are on subscription-only web sites. In the same article Jenny Fry (a research fellow at the [[Oxford Internet Institute]]) commented on academics who cite Wikipedia, saying that: "You cannot say children are intellectually lazy because they are using the Internet when academics are using search engines in their research. The difference is that they have more experience of being critical about what is retrieved and whether it is authoritative. Children need to be told how to use the Internet in a critical and appropriate way."<ref name="stothart" /> |
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Speaking at a conference in Pennsylvania, Wales said he receives about ten e-mails weekly from students saying they got failing grades on papers because they cited Wikipedia. According to ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' of London, Wales told the students they got what they deserved. "For God's sake, you're in college; don't cite the encyclopedia", he said.<ref>"Jimmy Wales," ''Biography Resource Center Online''. (Gale, 2006)</ref> |
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So what? First we need some paragraph discussing the reliance of Wikipedia in school. – Taku |
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--> |
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===Plagiarism concerns=== |
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The Wikipedia Watch criticism website in 2006 has listed dozens of examples of [[plagiarism]] by Wikipedia editors on the English version.<ref name="wwplagiarism">{{cite web|title=Plagiarism by Wikipedia editors|url=http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/psamples.html|publisher=Wikipedia Watch|date=27 October 2006}}</ref> [[Jimmy Wales]], the Wikipedia co-founder,<ref name="GlynMoody">{{Cite news|url=http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html|title=This time, it'll be a Wikipedia written by experts|author=Glyn Moody|work=The Guardian|date=2006-07-13|accessdate=2007-04-28| location=London}}</ref> has said in this respect: "We need to deal with such activities with absolute harshness, no mercy, because this kind of plagiarism is 100% at odds with all of our core principles."<ref name="wwplagiarism"/> |
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===Sexual content=== |
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Wikipedia has been criticized for allowing graphic sexual content such as images and videos of [[masturbation]] and [[ejaculation]] as well as photos from [[hardcore pornography|hardcore pornographic]] films found on its articles. Child protection campaigners say graphic sexual content appears on many Wikipedia entries, displayed without any warning or age verification.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/09/09/Wikipedia_attacked_over_porn_pages |title=Wikipedia attacked over porn pages |publisher=Livenews.com.au |date= |accessdate=2010-03-31}}</ref> |
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The Wikipedia article ''[[Virgin Killer]]'' – a 1976 album from [[music of Germany|German]] [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]] [[rock band|band]] [[Scorpions (band)|Scorpions]] – features a picture of the album's original cover, which depicts a naked [[prepubescent]] girl. The original release cover caused controversy and was replaced in some countries. In December 2008, access to the Wikipedia article ''[[Virgin Killer]]'' was [[Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia|blocked for four days]] by most Internet service providers in the United Kingdom, after it was reported by a member of the public as [[child pornography]].<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The Register]]|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/07/brit_isps_censor_wikipedia/|title=Brit ISPs censor Wikipedia over 'child porn' album cover|date= 7 December 2008|first=Cade|last=Metz|accessdate=10 May 2009}}</ref> The [[Internet Watch Foundation]], a nonprofit, nongovernment-affiliated organization, criticized the inclusion of the picture as "distasteful."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803188.html|work=The Washington Post|date=December 10, 2008|first=JR|last=Raphael|title=Wikipedia Censorship Sparks Free Speech Debate|accessdate=May 10, 2009}}</ref> |
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In April 2010, [[Reporting of child pornography images on Wikimedia Commons|Larry Sanger wrote a letter]] to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], outlining his concerns that two categories of images on [[Wikimedia Commons]] contained child pornography, and were in violation of U.S. federal obscenity law.<ref>{{cite news|last=Farrell|first=Nick|title=Wikipedia denies child abuse allegations: Co-founder grassed the outfit to the FBI |url=http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1603521/wikipedia-denies-child-abuse-allegations|accessdate=9 October 2010|newspaper=The Inquirer|date=April 29, 2010}}</ref> Sanger later clarified that the images, which were related to [[pedophilia]] and one about [[lolicon]], were not of real children, but said that they constituted "obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children", under the [[Child pornography laws in the United States#Section 1466A|PROTECT Act of 2003]].<ref name="The Register-April" /> That law bans photographic child pornography and cartoon images and drawings of children that are [[Obscenity#United States obscenity law|obscene under American law]].<ref name="The Register-April">{{Cite news|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/sanger_reports_wikimedia_to_the_fbi/|work=The Register|date=April 9, 2010|first=Cade|last=Metz|title=Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over 'child porn'|accessdate=April 19, 2010}}</ref> Sanger also expressed concerns about access to the images on Wikipedia in schools.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/internet/Wikipedia-blasts-co-founders-accusations-of-child-porn-on-website/articleshow/5871943.cms|title=Wikipedia blasts co-founder's accusations of child porn on website|date=April 29, 2010|work=[[The Economic Times]]|accessdate=29 April 2010}}</ref> Wikipedia strongly rejected Sanger's accusation.<ref name=AFP/> [[Wikimedia Foundation]] spokesman Jay Walsh said that Wikipedia does not have "material we would deem to be illegal. If we did, we would remove it."<ref name=AFP>{{Cite news|url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPnPNqEkWafeVXnPIWfaS2wN6XSQ|title=Wikipedia blasts talk of child porn at website|date=April 28, 2010|publisher=[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]]|accessdate=29 April 2010}}</ref> Following the complaint by Larry Sanger, Wales deleted sexual images without consulting the community. After some editors who volunteer to maintain the site argued that the decision to delete had been made hastily, Wales voluntarily gave up some of the powers he had held up to that time as part of his co-founder status. He wrote in a message to the Wikimedia Foundation mailing list that this action was "in the interest of encouraging this discussion to be about real philosophical/content issues, rather than be about me and how quickly I acted."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10104946.stm |title=Wikimedia pornography row deepens as Wales cedes rights |publisher=BBC News |date=May 10, 2010 |accessdate=May 19, 2010}}</ref> |
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===Privacy=== |
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Most [[privacy]] concerns refer to cases of government or employer data gathering; or to computer or electronic monitoring; or to trading data between organizations. "The Internet has created conflicts between personal privacy, commercial interests and the interests of society at large" warn James Donnelly and Jenifer Haeckl.<ref name=DH>{{cite web|url=http://www.modl.com/images/library/114.html|title=Privacy and Security on the Internet: What Rights, What Remedies?|date=2001-04-12|author=James Donnelly and Jenifer Haeckl|publisher=MCLE}}{{Dead link|date=March 2010}}</ref> Balancing the rights of all concerned as technology alters the social landscape will not be easy. It "is not yet possible to anticipate the path of the common law or governmental regulation" regarding this problem.<ref name=DH /> |
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The concern in the case of Wikipedia is the right of a private citizen to remain private; to remain a "private citizen" rather than a "[[public figure]]" in the eyes of the law.<ref>See [http://www.texaspress.com/Lawpress/LawMedia/Libel/LibelCases.htm "Libel"]{{Dead link|date=March 2010}} by David McHam for the legal distinction</ref> It is somewhat of a battle between the right to be anonymous in [[cyberspace]] and the right to be anonymous in [[real life]] ("[[meatspace]]"). Wikipedia Watch argues that "Wikipedia is a potential menace to anyone who values privacy" and that "a greater degree of accountability in the Wikipedia structure" would be "the very first step toward resolving the privacy problem."<ref>[http://wikipedia-watch.org/hivemind.html Wikipedia's Hive Mind Administration], November 9, 2005 ([http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2005-11-10-n36.html copy of original text] at Google Blogoscoped)</ref> A particular problem occurs in the case of an individual who is relatively unimportant and for whom there exists a Wikipedia page against their wishes. |
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In 2005 Agence France-Presse quoted Daniel Brandt, the Wikipedia Watch owner, as saying that "the basic problem is that no one, neither the trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, nor the volunteers who are connected with Wikipedia, consider themselves responsible for the content."<ref name="agfrancpresse">{{cite web|title=Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, Faces Crisis|url=http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Wikipedia_Becomes_Internet_Force__Faces_Crisis.html|publisher=Agence France-Presse|date=2005-12-11|accessdate=2007-12-26 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20071006093627/http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Wikipedia_Becomes_Internet_Force__Faces_Crisis.html |archivedate = October 6, 2007}}</ref> |
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In January 2006, a German court ordered the [[German Wikipedia]] shut down within Germany because it stated the full name of [[Boris Floricic]], aka "Tron", a deceased hacker who was formerly with the [[Chaos Computer Club]]. More specifically, the court ordered that the URL within the German <tt>.de</tt> domain (<tt>http://www.wikipedia.de/</tt>) may no longer redirect to the encyclopedia's servers in Florida at <tt>http://de.wikipedia.org</tt> although German readers were still able to use the US-based URL directly, and there was virtually no loss of access on their part. The court order arose out of a lawsuit filed by Floricic's parents, demanding that their son's surname be removed from Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-01-16/Tron_dispute|date=2006-01-16|work=Wikipedia Signpost|publisher=Wikipedia|title=Tron dispute}}</ref> On February 9, 2006, the injunction against Wikimedia Deutschland was overturned, with the court rejecting the notion that Tron's right to privacy or that of his parents were being violated.<ref>[http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/69391 Heise Online: "Court overturns temporary restraining order against Wikimedia Deutschland]{{Dead link|date=March 2010}}, by Torsten Kleinz, 9 February 2006.</ref> The plaintiffs appealed to the Berlin state court, but were refused relief in May 2006. |
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===Community=== |
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{{main|Community of Wikipedia}} |
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[[File:WIkimania-2006 010.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wikimania]], an annual conference for users of Wikipedia and other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation.]] |
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Wikipedia's community has been described as "[[cult|cult-like]],"<ref>{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/dec/15/wikipedia.web20 |
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|title=Log on and join in, but beware the web cults |
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|first=Charles |last=Arthur |
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|date=2005-12-15 |
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|publisher= Guardian |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26 | location=London}}</ref> although not always with entirely negative connotations,<ref>{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/03/wikipedia/index.html |
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|title=Wikipedia: The know-it-all Web site |
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|date=2003-08-04 |
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|first=Kristie |
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|last=Lu Stout|publisher=CNN |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> and criticized for failing to accommodate inexperienced users.<ref>"{{cite web |
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|url=http://wikinfo.org/index.php/Critical_views_of_Wikipedia |
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|title=Critical views of Wikipedia |
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|author=Wikinfo |
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|date=2005-03-30 |
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|accessdate=2007-01-29 |
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}}</ref><!--While they are welcomed by the community,<ref name="TheNewYorker"> |
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{{Cite news |
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|first=Stacy |
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|last=Schiff |
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|title=Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? |
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|work =Know It All |
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|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/31/060731fa_fact |
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|publisher =The New Yorker |
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|date =July 24, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref> authors new to Wikipedia are encouraged to read policies to help them learn the ways of Wikipedia.<ref name="Torsten_Kleinz" />--> |
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====Power structure==== |
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The Wikipedia community has established "a bureaucracy of sorts", including "a clear power structure that gives volunteer administrators the authority to exercise editorial control."<ref name="NYTimesJune17-2006"> |
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{{Cite news |
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|first=Kate |
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|last=Hafner |
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|title=Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy |
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|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?scp=8&sq=wikipedia&st=cse |
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|publisher=New York Times |
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|date=June 17, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2009-07-12}}</ref><ref name="iTWireJune18-2006"> |
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{{Cite news |
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|first=Stuart |
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|last=Corner |
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|title=What's all the fuss about Wikipedia? |
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|url=http://www.itwire.com/content/view/4666/127/ |
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|publisher=iT Wire |
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|date=June 18, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2184487 |title=The Wisdom of the Chaperones |date=2008-02-22 |first=Chris |last=Wilson |publisher=Slate |accessdate=2008-03-04}}</ref> |
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Editors in good standing in the community can run for one of many levels of volunteer stewardship; this begins with "administrator,"<ref>{{srlink|Wikipedia:Administrators}}</ref><ref name="David_Mehegan">{{Cite news |
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|first=David |
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|last=Mehegan |
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|title=Many contributors, common cause |
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|url=http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/02/13/many_contributors_common_cause/ |
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|publisher=The Boston Globe |
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|date=February 13, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref> a group of privileged users who have the ability to delete pages, lock articles from being changed in case of vandalism or editorial disputes, and block users from editing. Despite the name, administrators do not enjoy any special privilege in decision-making; instead they are mostly limited to making edits that have project-wide effects and thus are disallowed to ordinary editors, and to block users making disruptive edits (such as vandalism).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators#Administrator_conduct |title=Wikipedia:Administrators |accessdate=2009-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RfA_Review/Reflect |title=Wikipedia:RfA_Review/Reflect |accessdate=2009-09-24}}</ref><!--From the beginning, the role of founder Jimmy Wales, within the Wikipedia community, has been unclear, while co-founder Larry Sanger in the early days had served as an editor-in-chief. --> |
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====Contributors==== |
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[[File:WMFstratplanSurvey1.png|thumb|left|Demography of Wikipedia editors]] |
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Wikipedia does not require that its users provide identification.<ref name="user identification">{{cite web|title=The Authority of Wikipedia|url=http://www.public.iastate.edu/~goodwin/pubs/goodwinwikipedia.pdf|accessdate=31 January 2011|author=Jean Goodwin|year=2009|quote=Wikipedia's commitment to anonymity/pseudonymity thus imposes a sort of epistemic agnosticism on its readers}}</ref> although some participants are known. However, as Wikipedia grows with its unconventional model of encyclopedia building, "Who writes Wikipedia?" has become one of the questions frequently asked on the project, often with a reference to other Web 2.0 projects such as [[Digg]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.viktoria.se/altchi/submissions/submission_edchi_1.pdf |title=Power of the Few vs. Wisdom of the Crowd: Wikipedia and the Rise of the Bourgeoisie |first=Aniket |last=Kittur |format=PDF | accessdate =2008-02-23}}</ref> Jimmy Wales once argued that only "a community ... a dedicated group of a few hundred volunteers" makes the bulk of contributions to Wikipedia and that the project is therefore "much like any traditional organization." Wales performed a study finding that over 50% of all the edits are done by just 0.7% of the users (at the time: 524 people). This method of evaluating contributions was later disputed by [[Aaron Swartz]], who noted that several articles he sampled had large portions of their content (measured by number of characters) contributed by users with low edit counts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia |title=Raw Thought: Who Writes Wikipedia? |first=Aaron |last=Swartz |date=2006-09-04 |accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref> A 2007 study by researchers from [[Dartmouth College]] found that "anonymous and infrequent contributors to Wikipedia ... are as reliable a source of knowledge as those contributors who register with the site."<ref>{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=good-samaritans-are-on-the-money |
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|title=Wikipedia "Good Samaritans'' Are on the Money |
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|publisher=Scientific American |
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|date=2007-10-19 |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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Although some contributors are authorities in their field, Wikipedia requires that even their contributions be supported by published and verifiable sources. The project's preference for {{srlink|WP:CONSENSUS|consensus}} over [[credential]]s has been labeled "[[anti-elitism]]."<ref name="SangerElitism">[[Larry Sanger]], [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25 Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism], [[Kuro5hin]], December 31, 2004.</ref> |
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In a 2003 study of Wikipedia as a community, economics [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] student 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> |
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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 (journal)|First Monday]]'' December 2003. |
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</ref> In his 2008 book, ''[[The Future Of The Internet|The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It]]'', [[Jonathan Zittrain]] of the [[Oxford Internet Institute]] and Harvard Law School’s [[Berkman Center for Internet & Society]] cites Wikipedia's success as a case study in how open collaboration has fostered innovation on the web.<ref>{{Cite book |
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| last = Zittrain |
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| first = Jonathan |
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|title = The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It — Chapter 6: The Lessons of Wikipedia |
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| author-link = Jonathan Zittrain |
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| publisher = Yale University Press |
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| year = 2008 |
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| url = http://yupnet.org/zittrain/archives/16 |
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| isbn = 978-0300124873 |
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| accessdate = 2008-12-26}}</ref> A 2008 study found that Wikipedia users were less agreeable and open, though more conscientious, than non-Wikipedia users.<ref>Yair Amichai–Hamburger, Naama Lamdan, Rinat Madiel, Tsahi Hayat [http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2007.0225 Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members] ''CyberPsychology & Behavior'' December 1, 2008, 11(6): 679–681. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.0225</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126883.900-wikipedians-are-closed-and-disagreeable.html |title=Wikipedians are 'closed' and 'disagreeable' |publisher=Newscientist.com |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> A 2009 study suggested there was "evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content."<ref>Jim Giles [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17554-after-the-boom-is-wikipedia-heading-for-bust.html After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?] ''New Scientist'' 04 August 2009</ref> |
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At [[OOPSLA]] 2009, [[Wikimedia]] CTO and Senior Software Architect Brion Vibber gave a presentation entitled "Community Performance Optimization: Making Your People Run as Smoothly as Your Site"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoq.com/presentations/vibber-community-perf-opt |title=Infoq.com |publisher=Infoq.com |date= |accessdate=2010-07-13}}</ref> in which he discussed the challenges of handling the contributions from a large community and compared the process to that of software development. |
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====Interactions==== |
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[[File:Editing Hoxne Hoard at the British Museum.ogv|thumb|right|Wikipedians and [[British Museum]] curators collaboration on the article [[Hoxne Hoard]] in June 2010.]] |
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The community predominantly interact with each other via 'talk' pages, which are wiki-edited pages which are associated with articles, as well as via talk pages that are specific to particular contributors, and talk pages that help run the site. These pages help the contributors reach consensus about what the contents of the articles should be, how the site's rules may change, and to take actions with respect to any problems within the community.<ref>[[Help:Using talk pages]] – "A talk page (also known as a discussion page) is a page which editors can use to discuss improvements to an article or other Wikipedia page." Retrieved 18 April 2011.</ref> |
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''The Wikipedia Signpost'' is the community newspaper on the [[English Wikipedia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost|title=''The Wikipedia Signpost''|accessdate=2009-03-24|publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> and was founded by [[Michael Snow (attorney)|Michael Snow]], an administrator and the former chair of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] board of trustees.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/technology/05wikipedia.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1 |title=A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side |date=2007-03-05 |first=Noam |last=Cohen |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=2008-10-18}}</ref> It covers news and events from the site, as well as major events from sister projects, such as [[Wikimedia Commons]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2005/12/19/ten-more-wikipedia-hacks |title=Ten More Wikipedia Hacks |date=2005-12-19 |first=Steve |last=Rubel |work=WebProNews |accessdate=2008-10-18}}</ref> |
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====Recognition==== |
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Wikipedians sometimes award one another [[barnstar]]s for good work. These personalized tokens of appreciation reveal a wide range of valued work extending far beyond simple editing to include social support, administrative actions, and types of articulation work. The barnstar phenomenon has been analyzed by researchers seeking to determine what implications it might have for other communities engaged in large-scale collaborations.<ref>{{Cite document|title=Articulations of wikiwork: uncovering valued work in wikipedia through barnstars|url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1460563.1460573|publisher=Proceedings of the ACM|author=T Kriplean, I Beschastnikh, et al|year=2008|postscript=<!--None-->|doi=10.1145/1460563.1460573|pages=47}}</ref> |
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====New users==== |
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60% of registered users never make another edit after their first 24 hours. Possible explanations are that such users only register for a single purpose, or are scared away by their experiences.<ref>{{Cite document|author=Panciera, Katherine et al.|title=Wikipedians Are Born, Not Made|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work|pages=51, 59|year=2009|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> Goldman writes that editors who fail to comply with Wikipedia cultural rituals, such as signing talk pages, implicitly signal that they are Wikipedia outsiders, increasing the odds that Wikipedia insiders will target their contributions as a threat. Becoming a Wikipedia insider involves non-trivial costs; the contributor is expected to build a user page, learn Wikipedia-specific technological codes, submit to an arcane dispute resolution process, and learn a "baffling culture rich with in-jokes and insider references." Non-logged-in users are in some sense second-class citizens on Wikipedia,<ref>{{Cite document|title=Wikipedia's Labor Squeeze and its Consequences|publisher=Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law|author=Goldman, Eric|volume=8|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> as "participants are accredited by members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest in preserving the quality of the work product, on the basis of their ongoing participation,"<ref>{{Cite document|title=Wikipedia and the Future of Legal Education|author=Noveck, Beth Simone|publisher=Journal of Legal Education|volume=57|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> but the contribution histories of IP addresses cannot necessarily with any certainty be credited to, or blamed upon, a particular user. |
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====Demographics==== |
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{{Expand section|date=April 2011}} |
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New York Times ran a column about a Wikipedia survey at the time of Wikipedia's 10th anniversary. Quoting from it, "Wikimedia Foundation...collaborated on a study of Wikipedia’s contributor base and discovered that it was barely 13 percent women; the average age of a contributor was in the mid-20s, according to the study by a joint center of the [[United Nations University]] and [[Maastricht University]]" and also notes that "surveys suggest that less than 15 percent of its hundreds of thousands of contributors are women." A goal set by [[Sue Gardner]], Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director, is to see female editing contributions increase to 25 percent by 2015.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?scp=1&sq=wikipedia%20gender&st=cse Define Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia’s Contributor List, New York Times]</ref> [[Linda Basch]], President of the [[National Council for Research on Women]] notes the contrast in these Wikipedia editors' statistics with the majority percentage which women are currently filling in enrollment in BA, Masters and PhD programs in nations such as the US.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/opinion/l06wiki.html?_r=1&ref=wikipedia |title=Male-Dominated Web Site Seeking Female Experts |publisher=New York Times|date= |accessdate=2011-04-19}}</ref> |
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===Language editions=== |
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{{See also|List of Wikipedias}} |
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[[File:PercentWikipediasGraph.png|thumb|300px|Percentage of all Wikipedia articles in English (red) and top ten largest language editions (blue). As of July 2007, less than 23% of Wikipedia articles are in English.]] |
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There are currently 279 [[List of Wikipedias|language editions (or language versions) of Wikipedia]]; of these, 3, the English, German, and French Wikipedias have over 1 million articles, 36 have over 100,000 articles and 99 have over 1,000 articles.<ref name="ListOfWikipedias">{{cite web| url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics | title = Statistics | publisher = [[English Wikipedia]] | accessdate = 2008-06-21 }}</ref> The largest, the English Wikipedia, has {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles. According to Alexa, the English [[subdomain]] (en.wikipedia.org; [[English Wikipedia]]) receives approximately 54% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining split among the other languages (Japanese: 10%, German: 8%, Spanish: 5%, Russian: 4%, French: 4%, Italian: 3%).<ref name="AlexaStats" /> As of July 2008, the five largest language editions are (in order of article count) [[English Wikipedia|English]], [[German Wikipedia|German]], [[French Wikipedia|French]], [[Polish Wikipedia|Polish]], and [[Japanese Wikipedia]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_statistics |title=Wikipedia:Multilingual statistics |publisher=English Wikipedia |accessdate=2007-12-23}}</ref> |
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Since Wikipedia is web-based and therefore worldwide, contributors of a same language edition may use different dialects or may come from different countries (as is the case for the [[English Wikipedia|English edition]]). These differences may lead to some conflicts over [[American and British English spelling differences|spelling differences]], (e.g. ''color'' vs. ''colour'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Spelling|title= spelling | work = Manual of Style | publisher = Wikipedia |accessdate=2007-05-19}}</ref> or points of view.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias|title=Countering systemic bias|accessdate=2007-05-19}}</ref> |
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Though the various language editions are held to global policies such as "neutral point of view," they diverge on some points of policy and practice, most notably on whether images that are not [[free content|licensed freely]] may be used under a claim of [[fair use]].<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fair_use |
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|title=Fair use |
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|publisher=Meta wiki |
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|accessdate=2007-07-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Images_on_Wikipedia |
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|title=Images on Wikipedia |
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|accessdate=2007-07-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |
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|url=http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/papers/viegas_hicss_visual_wikipedia.pdf |
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|format=PDF|author=Fernanda B. Viégas |
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|title=The Visual Side of Wikipedia |
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|publisher=Visual Communication Lab, IBM Research |
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|date=2007-01-03 |
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|accessdate=2007-10-30}}</ref> |
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Jimmy Wales has described Wikipedia 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>[[Jimmy Wales]], "[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-March/020469.html Wikipedia is an encyclopedia]," March 8, 2005, <Wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org></ref> Though each language edition functions more or less independently, some efforts are made to supervise them all. They are coordinated in part by Meta-Wiki, the Wikimedia Foundation's wiki devoted to maintaining all of its projects (Wikipedia and others).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/|title=Meta-Wiki|accessdate=2009-03-24|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref> For instance, Meta-Wiki provides important statistics on all language editions of Wikipedia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Statistics|title=Meta-Wiki Statistics|accessdate=2008-03-24|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref> and it maintains a list of articles every Wikipedia should have.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_have|title=List of articles every Wikipedia should have|accessdate=2008-03-24|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref> The list concerns basic content by subject: biography, history, geography, society, culture, science, technology, foodstuffs, and mathematics. As for the rest, it is not rare for articles strongly related to a particular language not to have counterparts in another edition. For example, articles about small towns in the United States might only be available in English. |
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Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in most editions, in part because fully automated translation of articles is disallowed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Translations |title=Wikipedia: Translation |work=English Wikipedia |accessdate=2007-02-03}}</ref> Articles available in more than one language may offer "[[Interwiki links]]", which link to the counterpart articles in other editions. |
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==Operation== |
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===Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia chapters=== |
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[[File:Wikimedia Foundation RGB logo with text.svg|thumb|upright|[[Wikimedia Foundation]] logo]] |
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{{main|Wikimedia Foundation}} |
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Wikipedia is hosted and funded by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], a non-profit organization which also operates Wikipedia-related projects such as [[Wiktionary]] and [[Wikibooks]]. The Wikimedia chapters, local associations of users and supporters of the Wikimedia projects, also participate in the promotion, the development, and the funding of the project. |
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===Software and hardware=== |
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{{see also|MediaWiki}} |
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The operation of Wikipedia depends on [[MediaWiki]], a custom-made, [[free software|free]] and [[open source software|open source]] [[wiki software]] platform written in [[PHP]] and built upon the [[MySQL]] database.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nedworks.org/~mark/presentations/san/Wikimedia%20architecture.pdf |format=PDF|title=Wikimedia Architecture |author=Mark Bergman |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation Inc. |accessdate=2008-06-27}}</ref> The software incorporates programming features such as a [[Macro (computer science)|macro language]], [[variable (programming)|variables]], a [[transclusion]] system for [[Web template|templates]], and [[URL redirection]]. MediaWiki is licensed under the [[GNU General Public License]] and it is used by all Wikimedia projects, as well as many other wiki projects. Originally, Wikipedia ran on [[UseModWiki]] written in [[Perl]] by Clifford Adams (Phase I), which initially required [[CamelCase]] for article hyperlinks; the present double bracket style was incorporated later. Starting in January 2002 (Phase II), Wikipedia began running on a [[PhpWiki|PHP wiki]] engine with a MySQL database; this software was custom-made for Wikipedia by Magnus Manske. The Phase II software was repeatedly modified to accommodate the [[Exponential growth|exponentially increasing]] demand. In July 2002 (Phase III), Wikipedia shifted to the third-generation software, MediaWiki, originally written by [[Lee Daniel Crocker]]. |
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Several MediaWiki extensions are installed<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Version#Installed_extensions |
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|title=Version: Installed extensions}}</ref> to extend the functionality of MediaWiki software. |
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In April 2005 a [[Lucene]] extension<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-04-18/Lucene_search |
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|title=Lucene search: Internal search function returns to service |
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|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation Inc.|author=Michael Snow|accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-April/016297.html |
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|title=[Wikitech-l] Lucene search|author=Brion Vibber|accessdate=2009-02-26}}</ref> was added to MediaWiki's built-in search and Wikipedia switched from [[MySQL]] to Lucene for searching. Currently Lucene Search 2.1,<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Lucene-search |
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|title=Extension:Lucene-search|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation Inc.|accessdate=2009-08-31}}</ref> which is written in [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and based on Lucene library 2.3,<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/branches/lucene-search-2.1/lib/ |
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|title=mediawiki — Revision 55688: /branches/lucene-search-2.1/lib |
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|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation Inc.|accessdate=2009-08-31}}</ref> is used. |
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[[File:Wikimedia-servers-2010-12-28.svg|thumb|alt=Diagram showing flow of data between Wikipedia's servers. Twenty database servers talk to hundreds of Apache servers in the backend; Apaches talk to fifty squids in the frontend.|Overview of system architecture, December 2010. See [[:meta:Server layout diagrams|server layout diagrams on Meta-Wiki]].]] |
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Wikipedia currently runs on dedicated [[cluster (computing)|clusters]] of [[Linux]] servers (mainly [[Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]]),<ref>{{cite news |title=Wikipedia simplifies IT infrastructure by moving to one Linux vendor |first=Todd R. |last=Weiss |url=http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9116787/Wikipedia_simplifies_IT_infrastructure_by_moving_to_one_Linux_vendor?taxonomyId=154&pageNumber=1&taxonomyName=Servers%20and%20Data%20Center |newspaper=[[Computerworld]] |date=2008-10-09 |accessdate=2008-11-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Wikipedia adopts Ubuntu for its server infrastructure |first=Ryan |last=Paul |url=http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/10/wikipedia-adopts-ubuntu-for-its-server-infrastructure.ars |newspaper=[[Ars Technica]] |date=2008-10-09 |accessdate=2008-11-01}}</ref> with a few [[OpenSolaris]] machines for [[ZFS]]. As of December 2009, there were 300 in [[Florida]] and 44 in [[Amsterdam]].<ref name="servers">{{cite web|url=http://wikitech.wikimedia.org/view/Server_roles|title=Server roles at wikitech.wikimedia.org|accessdate=2009-12-08}}</ref> Wikipedia employed a single server until 2004, when the server setup was expanded into a distributed [[multitier architecture]]. In January 2005, the project ran on 39 [[Dedicated hosting service|dedicated servers]] in Florida. This configuration included a single master [[database server]] running [[MySQL]], multiple slave database servers, 21 [[web server]]s running the [[Apache HTTP Server]], and seven [[Squid (software)|Squid cache]] servers. |
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Wikipedia receives between 25,000 and 60,000 page requests per second, depending on time of day.<ref>"[[tools:~leon/stats/reqstats/reqstats-monthly.png|Monthly request statistics]]," Wikimedia. Retrieved on 2008-10-31.</ref> Page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of [[Squid (software)|Squid caching]] servers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dammit.lt/uc/workbook2007.pdf |format=PDF|title=Wikipedia: Site internals, configuration, code examples and management issues |author=Domas Mituzas |publisher=MySQL Users Conference 2007 |accessdate=2008-06-27}}</ref> Further statistics are available based on a publicly available 3-months Wikipedia access trace.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globule.org/publi/WWADH_comnet2009.html |title=Wikipedia Workload Analysis for Decentralized Hosting |author=Guido Urdaneta, Guillaume Pierre and Maarten van Steen |publisher=Elsevier Computer Networks 53(11), pp. 1830–1845, June 2009}}</ref> Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the [[Linux Virtual Server]] software, which in turn pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page rendering from the database. The web servers deliver pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the language editions of Wikipedia. To increase speed further, rendered pages are cached in a distributed memory cache until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. Two larger clusters in the Netherlands and Korea now handle much of Wikipedia's traffic load. |
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===Mobile access{{anchor|Wikipedia mobile access|Wikipedia mobile}}=== |
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Wikipedia's original medium was for users to read and edit content using any standard [[web browser]] through a fixed [[internet access|internet connection]]. However, Wikipedia content is now also accessible through the [[mobile web]]. |
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Access to Wikipedia from [[mobile phone]]s was possible as early as 2004, through the [[Wireless Application Protocol]] (WAP), via the [[Wapedia]] service. In June 2007, Wikipedia launched [http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org/ en.mobile.wikipedia.org], an official website for wireless devices. In 2009 a newer mobile service was officially released,<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikimedia Mobile is Officially Launched|url=http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/wikimedia-mobile-launch/|date=2009-06-30|work=Wikimedia Technical Blog|accessdate=2009-07-22}}</ref> located at [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/ en.m.wikipedia.org], which caters to more advanced mobile devices such as the [[iPhone]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]]-based devices, or the [[Palm Pre]]. Several other methods of mobile access to Wikipedia have emerged (See {{srlink|Help:Mobile access}}). Several devices and applications optimise or enhance the display of Wikipedia content for mobile devices, while some also incorporate additional features such as use of Wikipedia [[metadata]] (See {{srlink|Wikipedia:Metadata}}), such as [[geoinformation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/15802/ |title=iPhone Gems: Wikipedia Apps |date=30 November 2008 |accessdate=22 July 2008 }}</ref> |
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==Impact== |
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===Impact on publishing=== |
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Some observers claim that Wikipedia is undesirable, because it is an economic threat to publishers of traditional encyclopedias, many of whom may be unable to compete with a product that is essentially free. [[Nicholas G. Carr|Nicholas Carr]] writes in the essay "The amorality of Web 2.0", speaking of the so-called [[Web 2.0]] as a whole: "Implicit in the ecstatic visions of Web 2.0 is the hegemony of the amateur. I for one can't imagine anything more frightening."<ref>{{cite web| title = The amorality of Web 2.0 |
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| url = http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/10/the_amorality_o.php | date = 2005-10-03 |
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| work = Rough Type | accessdate = 2006-07-15 }}</ref> Others dispute the notion that Wikipedia, or similar efforts, will entirely displace traditional publications. For instance, [[Chris Anderson (writer)|Chris Anderson]], the editor-in-chief of ''[[Wired Magazine]]'', wrote in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' that the "[[wisdom of the crowds]]" approach of Wikipedia will not displace top [[scientific journal]]s with their rigorous [[peer review]] process.<ref>{{cite web| title = Technical solutions: Wisdom of the crowds | url = http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/nature04992.html | work = Nature | accessdate = 2006-10-10 }}</ref> |
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===Cultural significance=== |
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<!-- Every single cultural, media or Internet reference to Wikipedia does not need to be mentioned here and differentiation between what constitutes a matter of significance and what is run-of-the-mill is important when adding content here. --> |
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{{Main|Wikipedia in culture}} |
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[[File:Time Between Edits Graph Jul05-Present.png|thumb|Graph showing the number of days between every 10,000,000th edit.]] |
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[[File:White Nerdy YOU SUCK cropped.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Wikipedia page on Atlantic Records being edited to read: "You suck!"|Wikipedia shown in [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Weird Al]]'s music video for his song "[[White & Nerdy]]."]] |
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In addition to [[Logistic function|logistic growth]] in the number of its articles,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Modelling_Wikipedia%27s_growth |title=Wikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia's growth |accessdate=2007-12-22}}</ref> Wikipedia has steadily gained status as a general reference website since its inception in 2001.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=849 |title=694 Million People Currently Use the Internet Worldwide According To comScore Networks |date=2006-05-04 |publisher=comScore |accessdate=2007-12-16 |quote=Wikipedia has emerged as a site that continues to increase in popularity, both globally and in the U.S.|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080730011713/http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=849|archivedate=2008-07-30}}</ref> According to [[Alexa Internet|Alexa]] and [[comScore]], Wikipedia is among the ten most visited websites worldwide.<ref name="AlexaTop500">{{cite web|url=http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&lang=none |title=Top 500 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet|Alexa]] |accessdate=2009-10-13 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comscore.com/press/data/top_worldwide_properties.asp |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080124110845/www.comscore.com/press/data/top_worldwide_properties.asp |archivedate=2008-01-15 |title=comScore Data |month=December | year=2007 |accessdate=2008-01-19}}</ref> The growth of Wikipedia has been fueled by its dominant position in Google search results;<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/16111162.html |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080327230211/http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/16111162.html |archivedate=2008-03-27 |title=Wikipedia or Wickedpedia? |journal=Hoover Institution |first=Michael J |last= Petrilli |volume=8 |issue=2 |accessdate=2008-03-21}}</ref> about 50% of search engine traffic to Wikipedia comes from Google,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2007/02/wikipedia_traffic_sources.html |title=Google Traffic To Wikipedia up 166% Year over Year |publisher=Hitwise |date=2007-02-16 |accessdate=2007-12-22}}</ref> a good portion of which is related to academic research.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/10/wikipedia_and_academic_researc.html |title=Wikipedia and Academic Research |publisher=Hitwise |date=2006-10-17 |accessdate=2008-02-06}}</ref> The number of readers of Wikipedia worldwide reached 365 million at the end of 2009.<ref name="365M"/> The [[Pew Research Center|Pew]] Internet and American Life project found that one third of US Internet users consulted Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web|first=Lee |last=Rainie |coauthors=Bill Tancer |title=Wikipedia users |publisher=Pew Research Center |work=Pew Internet & American Life Project |date=2007-12-15 |url=http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080306031354/http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf |archivedate=2008-03-06 |format=PDF |accessdate=2007-12-15 |quote=36% of online American adults consult Wikipedia. It is particularly popular with the well-educated and current college-age students.}}</ref> In October 2006, the site was estimated to have a hypothetical market value of $580 million if it ran advertisements.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.watchmojo.com/web/blog/?p=626 |
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|title=What is Wikipedia.org's Valuation? |
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|first=Ashkan |
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|last=Karbasfrooshan |
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|date=2006-10-26 |
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|accessdate=2007-12-01}}</ref> |
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Wikipedia's content has also been used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media |title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media |work=Wikipedia |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200216886.pdf|title=Bourgeois ''et al.'' v. Peters ''et al.''|format=PDF|accessdate=2007-02-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1346311_code835394.pdf?abstractid=1346311|title=Wikipedian Justice|format=PDF|accessdate=2009-06-09}}</ref> The [[Parliament of Canada]]'s website refers to Wikipedia's article on [[same-sex marriage]] in the "related links" section of its "further reading" list for the [[Civil Marriage Act]].<ref>[http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Session=13&query=4381&List=ot#2 C-38 Government of Canada Site | Site du gouvernement du Canada], LEGISINFO (March 28, 2005)</ref> The encyclopedia's assertions are increasingly used as a source by organizations such as the U.S. Federal Courts and the [[World Intellectual Property Organization]]<ref name="WP_court_source">{{Cite journal|last=Arias |first=Martha L. |date=2007-01-29 |url=http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1668 |title=Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia and its Use as Court Source |journal=Internet Business Law Services |accessdate=2008-12-26}} (the name "''World Intellectual Property Office''" should however read "''World Intellectual Property Organization''" in this source)</ref> – though mainly for ''supporting information'' rather than information decisive to a case.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cohen |first=Noam |date=2007-01-29 |title=Courts Turn to Wikipedia, but Selectively |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/technology/29wikipedia.html |journal=New York Times |accessdate=2008-12-26 | work=The New York Times}}</ref> Content appearing on Wikipedia has also been cited as a source and referenced in some [[United States Intelligence Community|U.S. intelligence agency]] reports.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/03/the_wikipedia_factor_in_us_int.html |title=The Wikipedia Factor in U.S. Intelligence |first=Steven | last= Aftergood |publisher=Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy |date=2007-03-21 |accessdate=2007-04-14}}</ref> In December 2008, the scientific journal [[RNA Biology]] launched a new section for descriptions of families of RNA molecules and requires authors who contribute to the section to also submit a draft article on the [[Rfam|RNA family]] for publication in Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite journal| last = Butler | first = Declan | date = December 16, 2008 | title = Publish in Wikipedia or perish | journal = Nature News | doi = 10.1038/news.2008.1312 }}</ref> |
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Wikipedia has also been used as a source in [[journalism]],<ref>{{Cite news|title=Wikipedia in the Newsroom |url=http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4461 |date=[[February 2008|February]]/March 2008 |publisher=American Journalism Review|first=Donna |last=Shaw |accessdate=2008-02-11}}</ref> often without attribution, and several reporters have been dismissed for plagiarizing from Wikipedia.<ref>Shizuoka newspaper plagiarized Wikipedia article, ''Japan News Review'', July 5, 2007</ref><ref>"[http://web.archive.org/web/20071015045010/http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA010307.02A.richter.132c153.html Express-News staffer resigns after plagiarism in column is discovered]," ''[[San Antonio Express-News]]'', January 9, 2007.</ref><ref>"[http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/01/13/news/story03.html Inquiry prompts reporter's dismissal]," ''[[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]]'', January 13, 2007.</ref> |
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In July 2007, Wikipedia was the focus of a 30-minute documentary on [[BBC Radio 4]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/efv21/|title=Radio 4 Documentary |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> which argued that, with increased usage and awareness, the number of references to Wikipedia in popular culture is such that the term is one of a select band of 21st-century nouns that are so familiar ([[Google]], [[Facebook]], [[YouTube]]) that they no longer need explanation and are on a par with such 20th-century terms as [[The Hoover Company|Hoovering]] or [[Coca-Cola]]. |
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On September 28, 2007, Italian politician [[Franco Grillini]] raised a parliamentary question with the Minister of Cultural Resources and Activities about the necessity of [[Panoramafreiheit|freedom of panorama]]. He said that the lack of such freedom forced Wikipedia, "the seventh most consulted website" to forbid all images of modern Italian buildings and art, and claimed this was hugely damaging to tourist revenues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grillini.it/show.php?4885|title=Comunicato stampa. On. Franco Grillini. Wikipedia. Interrogazione a Rutelli. Con "diritto di panorama" promuovere arte e architettura contemporanea italiana. Rivedere con urgenza legge copyright|date=October 12, 2007 |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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[[File:Quadriga-verleihung-rr-02.jpg|thumb|[[Jimmy Wales]] receiving the [[Quadriga (award)|Quadriga]] ''A Mission of Enlightenment'' award.]] |
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On September 16, 2007, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' reported that Wikipedia had become a focal point in the [[United States presidential election, 2008|2008 U.S. election campaign]], saying, "Type a candidate's name into Google, and among the first results is a Wikipedia page, making those entries arguably as important as any ad in defining a candidate. Already, the presidential entries are being edited, dissected and debated countless times each day."<ref>{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601699_pf.html |
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|title=On Wikipedia, Debating 2008 Hopefuls' Every Facet |
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|author=Jose Antonio Vargas |
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|publisher=The Washington Post |
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|date=2007-09-17 |
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|accessdate=2008-12-26}} |
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</ref> An October 2007 [[Reuters]] article, titled "Wikipedia page the latest status symbol," reported the recent phenomenon of how having a Wikipedia article vindicates one's notability.<ref>{{Cite news |
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|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2232893820071022?sp=true|title=Wikipedia page the latest status symbol|author=Jennifer Ablan|publisher=Reuters|date=2007-10-22|accessdate=2007-10-24}}</ref> |
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====Awards==== |
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Wikipedia won two major awards in May 2004.<ref>"[[m:Trophy box|Trophy Box]]," [[Wikipedia:Meta|Meta-Wiki]] (March 28, 2005).</ref> The first was a Golden Nica for Digital Communities of the annual [[Prix Ars Electronica]] contest; this came with a €10,000 (£6,588; $12,700) grant and an invitation to present at the PAE Cyberarts Festival in [[Austria]] later that year. The second was a Judges' [[Webby Award]] for the "community" category.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/winners-2004.php|title=Webby Awards 2004|publisher=The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences|year=2004|accessdate=2007-06-19}}</ref> Wikipedia was also nominated for a "Best Practices" Webby. On January 26, 2007, Wikipedia was also awarded the fourth highest brand ranking by the readers of brandchannel.com, receiving 15% of the votes in answer to the question "Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?"<ref>{{Cite news|first=Anthony |last=Zumpano |title=Similar Search Results: Google Wins |url=http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=352 |publisher=Interbrand |date=2007-01-29 |accessdate=2007-01-28 }}</ref> |
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In September 2008, Wikipedia received [[Quadriga (award)|Quadriga]] ''A Mission of Enlightenment'' award of Werkstatt Deutschland along with [[Boris Tadić]], [[Eckart Höfling]], and [[Peter Gabriel]]. The award was presented to [[Jimmy Wales]] by [[David Weinberger]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://loomarea.com/die_quadriga/e/index.php?title=Award_2008|title=Die Quadriga — Award 2008 |accessdate=2008-12-26}}</ref> |
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====Satire==== |
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Many parody Wikipedia's openness and susceptibility to inserted inaccuracies, with characters vandalizing or modifying the online encyclopedia project's articles. |
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Comedian [[Stephen Colbert]] has parodied or referenced Wikipedia on numerous episodes of his show ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' and coined the related term ''[[wikiality]]'' that meant "together we can create a reality that we all agree on—the reality we just agreed on."<ref name="wikiality" /> Another example can be found in a front-page article in ''[[The Onion]]'' in July 2006, with the title "Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902 |title=Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence |accessdate=October 15, 2006 |year=2006 |work=[[The Onion]]}}</ref> Others draw upon Wikipedia's motto, such as in "[[The Negotiation]]," an episode of ''[[The Office (U.S. TV series)|The Office]]'', where character [[Michael Scott (The Office)|Michael Scott]] says "Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." "[[My Number One Doctor]]", a 2007 episode of the TV show ''[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]'', also lampooned Wikipedia's reliance on editors who edit both scholarly and pop culture articles with a scene in which Dr. [[Perry Cox]] reacts to a patient who says that a Wikipedia article indicates that the [[raw food diet]] reverses the effects of [[bone cancer]] by retorting that the same editor who wrote that article also wrote the [[List of Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) episodes|''Battlestar Galactica'' episode guide]].<ref>Bakken, Janae. "[[My Number One Doctor]]"; ''[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]''; [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]; December 6, 2007</ref> |
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In July 2009, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast a comedy series called ''[[Bigipedia]]'', which was set on a website which was a [[parody]] of Wikipedia. Some of the sketches were directly inspired by Wikipedia and its articles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.comedy.org.uk/guide/radio/bigipedia/interview/|title=Interview With Nick Doody and Matt Kirshen|publisher=[[British Comedy Guide]]|accessdate=31 July 2009}}</ref> |
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The comedic website CollegeHumor produced a video sketch named "Professor Wikipedia," in which the fictitious Professor Wikipedia instructs a class with a medley of unverifiable and occasionally absurd statements.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collegehumor.com/video/3581424/professor-wikipedia |title=Professor Wikipedia – CollegeHumor Video |publisher=Collegehumor.com |date=2009-11-17 |accessdate=2011-04-19}}</ref> |
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==Related projects== |
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A number of interactive multimedia encyclopedias incorporating entries written by the public existed long before Wikipedia was founded. The first of these was the 1986 [[BBC Domesday Project]], which included text (entered on [[BBC Micro]] computers) and photographs from over 1 million contributors in the [[United Kingdom|UK]], and covering the geography, art, and culture of the UK. This was the first interactive multimedia encyclopedia (and was also the first major multimedia document connected through internal links), with the majority of articles being accessible through an interactive map of the UK. The user-interface and part of the content of the Domesday Project were emulated on a website until 2008.<ref name="Domesday Project">[http://www.domesday1986.com/ Website discussing the emulator of the Domesday Project User Interface] for the data from the Community Disc (contributions from the general public); the site is currently out of action following the death of its creator</ref> One of the most successful early online encyclopedias incorporating entries by the public was [[h2g2]], which was created by [[Douglas Adams]] and is run by the [[BBC]]. The h2g2 encyclopedia was relatively light-hearted, focusing on articles which were both witty and informative. Both of these projects had similarities with Wikipedia, but neither gave full editorial privileges to public users. A similar non-wiki project, the [[GNUPedia]] project, co-existed with Nupedia early in its history; however, it has been retired and its creator, [[free software]] figure [[Richard Stallman]], has lent his support to Wikipedia.<ref name="stallman1999" /> |
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Wikipedia has also spawned several sister projects, which are also run by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. The first, "In Memoriam: September<!--Do not reformat this date, it is quoted--> 11 Wiki,"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sep11memories.org/wiki/In_Memoriam |title=In Memoriam: September 11, 2001 |accessdate=2007-02-06}}</ref> created in October 2002,<ref>[http://www.sep11memories.org/index.php?title=In_Memoriam&oldid=1502 First edit to the wiki] In Memoriam: September 11 wiki (October 28, 2002),</ref> detailed the [[September 11 attacks]]; this project was closed in October 2006. [[Wiktionary]], a dictionary project, was launched in December 2002;<ref>"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_News&diff=prev&oldid=4133 Announcement of Wiktionary's creation]," December 12, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.</ref> [[Wikiquote]], a collection of quotations, a week after Wikimedia launched, and [[Wikibooks]], a collection of collaboratively written free textbooks and annotated texts. Wikimedia has since started a number of other projects, including [[Wikiversity]], a project for the creation of free learning materials and the provision of online learning activities.<ref name="OurProjects">"[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects Our projects]," [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Retrieved on 2007-01-24</ref> None of these sister projects, however, has come to meet the success of Wikipedia. |
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Several languages of Wikipedia also maintain a reference desk, where volunteers answer questions from the general public. According to a study by Pnina Shachaf in the Journal of Documentation, the quality of the Wikipedia reference desk is comparable to a standard library reference desk, with an accuracy of 55%.<ref>"[http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=2064 Wikipedia Reference Desk]," fetched 17 February 2010</ref> |
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Other websites centered on collaborative [[knowledge base]] development have drawn inspiration from or inspired Wikipedia. Some, such as [[Susning.nu]], [[Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español|Enciclopedia Libre]], [[Hudong]], [[Baidu Baike]], and [[WikiZnanie]] likewise employ no formal review process, whereas others use more traditional [[peer review]], such as [[Encyclopedia of Life]], [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]], [[Scholarpedia]], [[h2g2]], and [[Everything2]]. The online wiki-based encyclopedia [[Citizendium]] was started by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger in an attempt to create an "expert-friendly" Wikipedia.<ref name="defactoleader">{{Cite news |
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|first=Holden |
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|last=Frith |
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|url=http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1571519.ece |
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|title=Wikipedia founder launches rival online encyclopedia |
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|publisher=The Times |
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|date=March 26, 2007, |
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|accessdate=2007-06-27 |
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|quote=Wikipedia's de facto leader, Jimmy Wales, stood by the site's format. – Holden Frith. | location=London}}</ref><ref name="Orlowski18"> |
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{{Cite news |
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|first=Andrew |
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|last=Orlowski |
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|authorlink=Andrew Orlowski |
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|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/ |
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|title=Wikipedia founder forks Wikipedia, More experts, less fiddling? |
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|publisher=The Register |
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|date=September 18, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-06-27 |
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|quote=Larry Sanger describes the Citizendium project as a "progressive or gradual fork," with the major difference that experts have the final say over edits.}} – Andrew Orlowski.</ref><ref name="JayLyman">{{Cite news |
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|first=Jay |
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|last=Lyman |
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|url=http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/53137.html |
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|title=Wikipedia Co-Founder Planning New Expert-Authored Site |
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|publisher=LinuxInsider |
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|date=September 20, 2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-06-27}}</ref> |
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==See also== |
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{{meta|List of Wikipedias}} |
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{{Spoken Wikipedia|Wikipedia.ogg|2005-06-25}} |
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* [[Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge]], philosophical background |
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* [[Wikipedia in culture]] |
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* [[Democratization of knowledge]] |
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* [[Interpedia]], an early proposal for a collaborative Internet encyclopedia |
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* [[GNUPedia]] |
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* [[Nupedia]] |
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* [[List of online encyclopedias]] |
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* [[List of wikis]] |
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* [[Network effect]] |
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* [[USA Congressional staff edits to Wikipedia]] |
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* [[User-generated content]] |
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* [[Wikipedia Review]] |
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{{clear}} |
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* {{intitle|Wikipedia}} |
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* {{lookfrom|Wikipedia}} |
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==Notes== |
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{{reflist|colwidth=30em}} |
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==Further reading== |
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;Academic studies |
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{{Main|Academic studies about Wikipedia}} |
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* {{Cite journal|first=Finn|last=Nielsen|url=http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/nielsen/index.html|title=Scientific Citations in Wikipedia|journal=[[First Monday (journal)|First Monday]]|volume=12 |issue=8|month=August|year=2007|accessdate=2008-02-22}} |
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* {{Cite journal|last=Pfeil|first=Ulrike|year=2006|title=Cultural Differences in Collaborative Authoring of Wikipedia|journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication|volume=12|issue=1|url=http://jcmc.indiana.edu./vol12/issue1/pfeil.html |accessdate=2008-12-26|doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00316.x|page=88|coauthors=Panayiotis Zaphiris and Chee Siang Ang|unused_data=DUPLICATE DATA: page=88}} |
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* Priedhorsky, Reid, Jilin Chen, Shyong (Tony) K. Lam, Katherine Panciera, Loren Terveen, and John Riedl. [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1316624.1316663 "Creating, Destroying, and Restoring Value in Wikipedia"]. Proc. GROUP 2007, doi: 1316624.131663. |
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* {{Cite conference |
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| first = Joseph |
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| last = Reagle |
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| title = Do as I Do: Authorial Leadership in Wikipedia |
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| booktitle = WikiSym '07: Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium on Wikis |
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| publisher = ACM |
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| year = 2007| location = Montreal, Canada |
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| url = http://reagle.org/joseph/2007/10/Wikipedia-Authorial-Leadership.pdf |
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| accessdate = 2008-12-26}} |
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* {{Cite journal|url=http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_4/wilkinson/index.html |title=Assessing the Value of Cooperation in Wikipedia |first=Dennis M.|last=Wilkinson |journal=First Monday|volume=12|issue=4|month=April|year=2007| accessdate=2008-02-22 |coauthor=Bernardo A. Huberman}} |
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* {{Cite journal|url=http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1458162## |title=Wikipedia’s Labor Squeeze and its Consequences |first=Eric |last=Goldman |year=2010 |journal=Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law |volume=8}} ([http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/02/catching_up_wit.htm a blog post by the autor]) |
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;Books |
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* {{Cite book|author=Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates|title=How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It |publisher=No Starch Press |location=San Francisco |month=September |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59327-176-3 |accessdate=2008-12-26}} |
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* {{Cite book|last=Broughton |first=John|title=[[Wikipedia - The Missing Manual]] |publisher=O'Reilly Media |location= |month= |year=2008 |isbn=0-596-51516-2 |accessdate=2008-12-26}} (See book rev. by Baker, as listed below.) |
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* {{Cite book| last = Broughton | first = John | title = Wikipedia Reader's Guide | publisher = Pogue Press | location = Sebastopol | year = 2008 | isbn = 059652174X }} |
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* {{Cite book| last = Lih | first = Andrew | authorlink = Andrew Lih | title = [[The Wikipedia Revolution|The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia]] | publisher = Hyperion | location = New York | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-1-4013-0371-6 }} |
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* {{Cite book| last = Dalby | first = Andrew | authorlink = Andrew Dalby |title = [[The World and Wikipedia|The World and Wikipedia: How We are Editing Reality]] | publisher = Siduri | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0956205209 }} |
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* {{Cite book| last = Reagle | first = Joseph Michael Jr. | title = Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia | publisher = The MIT Press | location = Cambridge, MA | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-262-01447-2 }} |
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* {{Cite book|author=[[Andrew Keen|Keen, Andrew]] | title=[[The Cult of the Amateur]] | publisher=Doubleday/Currency | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-385-52080-5}} (substantial criticisms of Wikipedia and other web 2.0 projects). Listen to: {{cite web|last=Keen |first=Andrew |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11131872 |title=Does the Internet Undermine Culture? |publisher=Npr.org |date=2007-06-16 |accessdate=2010-03-31}} the NPR interview with A. Keen, Weekend Edition Saturday, June 16, 2007. |
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* [[Sheizaf Rafaeli]] & Yaron Ariel (2008). "Online motivational factors: Incentives for participation and contribution in Wikipedia." In {{Cite book |author=Barak, A. |title=Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications |pages=243–267 |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}} |
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;Book reviews and other articles |
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* [[L. Gordon Crovitz|Crovitz, L. Gordon]]. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123897399273491031.html "Wikipedia's Old-Fashioned Revolution: The online encyclopedia is fast becoming the best."] (Originally published in [[Wall Street Journal|''Wall Street Journal'' online]] – April 6, 2009, 8:34 A.M. ET) |
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* [[Nicholson Baker|Baker, Nicholson]]. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21131 "The Charms of Wikipedia"]. ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', March 20, 2008. Accessed December 17, 2008. (Book rev. of ''The Missing Manual'', by John Broughton, as listed above.) |
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* [[Roy Rosenzweig|Rosenzweig, Roy]]. [http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42 Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past]. (Originally published in ''[[Journal of American History]]'' 93.1 (June 2006): 117–46.) |
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;Learning resources |
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* [[v:wikipedia#Learning resources|Wikiversity list of learning resources]]. (Includes related courses, [[Web conferencing|Web-based seminars]], slides, lecture notes, text books, quizzes, glossaries, etc.) |
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;Other media coverage |
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* {{Cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin |title=All the News That's Fit to Print Out|first=Jonathan |last=Dee|work=The New York Times Magazine |publisher=The New York Times Company |date=2007-07-01|accessdate=2008-02-22}} |
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* {{Cite news|last name=Balke|first name=Jeff|url=http://blogs.chron.com/brokenrecord/2008/03/for_music_fans_wikipedia_myspa.html|title=For Music Fans: Wikipedia; MySpace|work=[[Houston Chronicle]] ([[Blog]])|date=March 2008|accessdate=2008-12-17}} |
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* {{Cite news|first=Jim |last=Giles|title=Wikipedia 2.0 – Now with Added Trust |url=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526226.200|date=2007-09-20|work=[[New Scientist]] |accessdate=2008-01-14}} |
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* {{Cite news|first=Mike |last=Miliard|title=Wikipedia Rules |url=http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Life/52864-Wikipedia-rules/|publisher=[[The Phoenix (newspaper)|The Phoenix]]|date=2007-12-02|accessdate=2008-02-22}} |
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* {{Cite news|first=Marshall|last=Poe|authorlink=Marshall Poe|url=http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia|title=The Hive|work=[[The Atlantic|The Atlantic Monthly]]|date=September 2006|accessdate=2008-03-22}} |
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* {{Cite news|first=Chris|last=Taylor|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1066904-1,00.html|title=It's a Wiki, Wiki World|date=2005-05-29|work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|publisher=Time, Inc|accessdate=2008-02-22}} |
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* {{Cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11484062 |title=Technological Quarterly: Brain Scan: The Free-knowledge Fundamentalist|work=[[The Economist|The Economist Web]] and [[Magazine|Print]]|date=2008-06-05|accessdate=2008-06-05|quote=Jimmy Wales changed the world with Wikipedia, the hugely popular online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. What will he do next? [leader].}} |
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* [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/is-wikipedia-cracking-up-1543527.html Is Wikipedia Cracking Up?, The Independent, February 3, 2009] |
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* {{Cite news|first=David|last=Runciman|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n10/runc01_.html |title=Like Boiling a Frog|date=2009-05-28|work=London Review of Books|accessdate=2009-06-03}} |
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* {{Cite news|first=Michael S.|last=Rosenwald|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102204715.html?hpid=topnews |title=Gatekeeper of D.C.'s entry: Road to city's Wikipedia page goes through a DuPont Circle bedroom|date=2009-10-23|work=The Washington Post|accessdate=2009-10-22}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Sister project links}} |
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* [http://www.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia] – multilingual portal (contains links to all language editions of the project) |
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** [[Wikipedia:Press coverage|Press coverage of Wikipedia]] at the English Wikipedia |
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* [http://mobile.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia mobile phone portal] |
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* {{Twitter|Wikipedia}} |
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* {{Dmoz|Computers/Open_Source/Open_Content/Encyclopedias/Wikipedia}} |
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*{{Guardiantopic|technology/wikipedia}} |
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* [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/wikipedia/index.html Wikipedia] topic page at ''[[The New York Times]]'' |
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* [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html Video of TED Talk by Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia] |
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* [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/03/wales_on_wikipe.html Audio of interview with Jimmy Wales about Wikipedia in general] on the [[EconTalk]] podcast |
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* [http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/020116.html Wikipedia and why it matters] – Larry Sanger's 2002 talk at [[Stanford University]] about Wikipedia. [http://stanford-online.stanford.edu/courses/ee380/020116-ee380-100.asx video archive] and [[meta:Wikipedia and why it matters|transcript of the talk]] |
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* {{youtube|id=cqOHbihYbhE|title="Intelligence in Wikipedia" Google TechTalk}}, describing an intelligence project utilizing Wikipedia, and how Wikipedia articles could be auto-generated from web content |
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{{Wikipedia}} |
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Revision as of 14:19, 7 May 2011
Wikipedia is the worst website in the world. Its editors are extremely rude and they do not get punished for their terrible behavior. User:HXL49 should be blocked from editing wikipedia forever. I hate wikipedia. Sincerely User talk:Ryan Vesey