Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia that everybody can contribute to and edit articles in. Wikipedia was founded in 2001 by Americans Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Wikipedia is one of the most frequently visited sites in the world. The name is a combination of 'wiki', which is Hawaian for 'fast' and affix '-pedia', which obviously refers to 'encyclopaedia'.
Before 2002, Wikipedia tried to raise money via advertising. Users did not like this, however. Now, the website is managed by Wikimedia, which survives on donations.
In 2001, less than a year after its founding, Wikipedia contained more than 20.000 articles in 18 languages. Today, the website has 15 million articles in 262 languages.
On september 9, 2009, the English Wikipedia reached 2 million articles and became the world's biggest encyclopaedia. It broke the Yongle Encyclopedia record, which had been the biggest since 1407.
Source: De Standaard
I'd say Wikipedia is the McDonald's of knowledge. It fills the brain with information in a fast-food fashion, but the ingredients it consists of may or may not be as nutritious as 'official' definitions and/or explanations.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, what is 'true'? Isn't all language just an agreement between people?
Who's to be the judge of 'the one righteous explanation'? So in this pov you could interpret Wikipedia as a democratic encyclopedia...
(even though I know science doesn't survive by mere agreement, and solid knowledge is created by putting every bit of result and every discovery through a whole filtering procedure)
Very interesting indeed!
ReplyDeleteMC clopedia: "But then again, what is 'true'? Isn't all language just an agreement between people?
Who's to be the judge of 'the one righteous explanation'? So in this pov you could interpret Wikipedia as a democratic encyclopedia..."