Characteristics
The Wikipedia logo
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The Wikipedia logo
Wikipedia uses a type of software called a "wiki", allowing visitors to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change its content. It is therefore possible for large numbers of people to create articles and update them quickly as new information becomes available; it also means vandalism and disagreement about content is common.
Many other internet encyclopedia projects use traditional multilingual editorial policies and article ownership such as the expert-written Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Nupedia, h2g2 and Everything2. Projects such as Susning.nu, Enciclopedia Libre and WikiZnanie are other wikis in which articles are developed by numerous authors, and there is no formal process of review. Unlike many encyclopedias, Wikipedia has licensed its content under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
Wikipedia has a set of policies identifying types of information appropriate for inclusion. These policies are often cited in disputes over whether particular content should be added, revised, transferred to a sister project, or removed. One of Wikipedia's core policies is that articles must be written from a "neutral point of view", presenting all noteworthy perspectives on an issue along with the evidence supporting them. The project also forbids the use of original research. Wikipedia articles do not attempt to determine an objective truth on their subjects, but rather to describe them impartially from all significant viewpoints. Following the introduction of a more user friendly citation functionality (cite.php, early 2006), articles increasingly include an extensive reference section to support the information presented in the article.
Free content
The GFDL, the license through which Wikipedia's articles are made available, is one of many "copyleft" licenses that permit the redistribution, creation of derivative works, and commercial use of content, provided that its authors are attributed and this content remains available under the GFDL. When an author contributes original material to the project, the copyright over it is retained by them, but they agree to make the work available under the GFDL. However, a significant proportion of images and sounds on Wikipedia are not free. Items such as corporate logos, song samples, or copyrighted news photos are used with a claim of fair use.
Wikipedia's content has been reflected and forked by hundreds of resources from database dumps. Wikipedia content has also been used in academic studies, books and conferences, albeit more rarely, and very recently, in movies. Wikipedia was once used in a United States court case,[3] and the Parliament of Canada website refers to Wikipedia's article on same-sex marriage in the "further reading" list of Civil Marriage Act.[4] Some Wikipedia users, or Wikipedians, maintain (noncomprehensive) lists of such uses.[5]
Language editions
An example of Wikipedia's range in language editions: Wikipedia in Hebrew.
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An example of Wikipedia's range in language editions: Wikipedia in Hebrew.[6]
Currently Wikipedia encompasses 159 "active" language editions (ones with 100+ articles).[7] In total, Wikipedia contains 229 language editions of varying states, with a combined 5 million articles.[8]
Language editions operate independently from one another. Editions are not bound to the content of other language editions, nor are articles on the same subject required to be translations of each other. Automated translation of articles is explicitly disallowed, though multilingual editors of sufficient fluency are encouraged to manually translate articles. The various language editions are held to global policies such as "neutral point of view", though they may diverge on subtler points of policy and practice. Articles and images are shared between Wikipedia editions, the former through "InterWiki" links and pages to request translations, and the latter through the Wikimedia Commons repository. Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in most editions.[9]
Wikipedia's article count has shown rapid growth in some of the major language editions.
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Wikipedia's article count has shown rapid growth in some of the major language editions.
According to Alexa Internet's audience measurement service, the English sub-domain (en.wikipedia.org) gets just over 60% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining 40% being splintered between the numerous other languages in which Wikipedia is offered.
The following is a list of the largest editions — those containing over 100,000 articles — sorted by number of articles as of September 3, 2006. (Note that the article count, however, is a limited metric for comparing the editions, for a variety of reasons. In some Wikipedia versions, for example, nearly half of the articles are short articles created automatically by robots.[8] Further, many editions that have more articles also have fewer contributors. Although the Polish, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish and Italian Wikipedias have more articles than the Spanish Wikipedia, they have fewer users.)
1. English (1,380,493)
2. German (459,403)
3. French (354,947)
4. Polish (289,544)
5. Japanese (252,718)
6. Dutch (224 448)
7. Italian (192,265)
8. Swedish (181,484)
9. Portuguese (176,714)
10. Spanish (148,922)
11. Russian (103,897)
Editing
Editors keep track of changes to articles by checking the difference between two revisions of a page, displayed here in red.
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Editors keep track of changes to articles by checking the difference between two revisions of a page, displayed here in red.
Almost all visitors may edit Wikipedia's content: registered users can also create new articles. Changes made to pages are instantly displayed. Wikipedia is built on the expectation that collaboration among users will improve articles over time, in much the same way that open-source software develops. Some of Wikipedia's editors have explained its editing process as a "socially Darwinian evolutionary process".[10]
Some take advantage of Wikipedia's openness to add nonsense to the encyclopedia. This real-time, collaborative model allows editors to rapidly update existing topics as they develop and to introduce new ones as they arise. However, this collaboration also sometimes leads to "edit wars" and prolonged disputes when editors do not agree.[11]
The "recent changes" page shows the newest edits to the English Wikipedia. This page is often watched by users who revert vandalism. There is also a live recent changes IRC channel, #en.wikipedia @ irc.wikimedia.org.
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The "recent changes" page shows the newest edits to the English Wikipedia. This page is often watched by users who revert vandalism. There is also a live recent changes IRC channel, #en.wikipedia @ irc.wikimedia.org.
Articles are always subject to editing, unless the article is protected for a short time due to the aforementioned vandalism or revert wars. Wikipedia does not declare any of its articles to be "complete" or "finished". The authors of articles need not have any expertise or qualifications in the subjects that they edit, and users are warned that their contributions may be "edited mercilessly and redistributed at will" by anyone who wishes to do so. Its articles are not controlled or copyrighted by any particular user or editorial group; decisions on the content and editorial policies of Wikipedia are instead made largely through consensus decision-making and, occasionally, by vote. Jimmy Wales retains final judgement on Wikipedia policies and user guidelines.[12]
Regular users often maintain a "watchlist" of articles of interest to them, so that they can easily keep tabs on all recent changes to those articles, including new updates, discussions, and vandalism. Most past edits to Wikipedia articles also remain viewable after the fact, and are stored on "edit history" pages sorted chronologically, making it possible to see former versions of any page at any time. The only exceptions are the entire histories of articles that have been deleted, and many individual edits that contain libelous statements, copyright violations, and other content that could incur legal liability or be otherwise detrimental to Wikipedia. These edits may only be viewed by Wikipedia administrators.