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Who gives a flying FUCK about the history of wikipedia? I fucking hate your bulshit "speedy deletion" and your other crap. |
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{{redirect|Wikipedia in the news|an overview of Wikipedia mentioned in other media|Wikipedia:Wikipedia in the media}} |
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'''[[Wikipedia]]''' is an online [[encyclopedia]] that can be edited by anyone and that aims to provide free encyclopedic information to its readers. It was formally launched on [[15 January]] [[2001]]. Initially it was created as a complement and 'feeder' to the expert-written [[American English|English-language]] encyclopedia project '[[Nupedia]]', in order to provide an additional source of draft articles and ideas. It quickly overtook Nupedia, growing to become a large global project, and originating a wide range of additional reference projects. As of 2008, Wikipedia includes several million [[GFDL|freely usable]] articles and pages in hundreds of languages worldwide, and content from millions of contributors. |
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== History overview == |
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===Background=== |
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The concept of gathering all of the world's knowledge in a single place goes back to the ancient [[Library of Alexandria]] and [[Pergamon]], but the modern concept of a general purpose, widely distributed, printed [[encyclopedia]] dates from shortly before [[Denis Diderot]] and the 18th century [[encyclopedist]]s. The idea of using automated machinery beyond the [[printing press]] to build a more useful encyclopedia can be traced to librarian [[Charles Ammi Cutter]]'s article "[[wikisource:The Buffalo Public Library in 1983|The Buffalo Public Library in 1983]]" (''[[Library Journal]]'', 1883, p. 211–217), [[Paul Otlet]]'s book ''Traité de documentation'' (1934; Otlet also founded the [[Mundaneum]] institution, 1910), [[H. G. Wells]]' book of essays ''[[World Brain]]'' (1937) and [[Vannevar Bush]]'s future vision of the [[microfilm]] based [[Memex]] in ''[[As We May Think]]'' (1945). Another milestone was [[Ted Nelson]]'s [[Project Xanadu]] in 1973. |
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You guys are antisemetic bastards and you guys fucking suck. |
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With the development of the [[world wide web|web]], many people attempted to develop [[Internet encyclopedia project]]s. One little-acknowledged predecessor was the [[Interpedia]] (initiated in 1993), which [[Robert McHenry]] has linked conceptually to Wikipedia{{Fact|date=September 2008}}. [[Free software]] exponent [[Richard Stallman]] described the usefulness of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia.html |
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|title=The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource |
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|}}</ref> His published document "aims to lay out what the free encyclopedia needs to do, what sort of freedoms it needs to give the public, and how we can get started on developing it." On January 17, 2001, two days after the start of Wikipedia, the [[Free Software Foundation]]'s [[GNUPedia]] project went online, competing with [[Nupedia]]<ref>[http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9990&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=502603]</ref>, but today the FSF encourages people "to visit and contribute to [Wikipedia]".<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/ |
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|title=The Free Encyclopedia Project |
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|}}</ref> |
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===Formulation of the concept=== |
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Wikipedia was initially conceived as a feeder project for [[Nupedia]], an earlier (now defunct) project founded by [[Jimmy Wales]] to produce a free encyclopedia.<ref name="thehive"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Marshall |
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|last=Poe |
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|title=The Hive |
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|url=http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/ |
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|publisher=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |
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|month=September | year=2006 |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=Wales and Sanger created the first Nupedia wiki on January 10, 2001. The initial purpose was to get the public to add entries that would then be “fed into the Nupedia process” of authorization. Most of Nupedia’s expert volunteers, however, wanted nothing to do with this, so Sanger decided to launch a separate site called “Wikipedia.” Neither Sanger nor Wales looked on Wikipedia as anything more than a lark. This is evident in Sanger’s flip announcement of Wikipedia to the Nupedia discussion list. “Humor me,” he wrote. “Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes.” And, to Sanger’s surprise, go they did. Within a few days, Wikipedia outstripped Nupedia in terms of quantity, if not quality, and a small community developed. In late January, Sanger created a Wikipedia discussion list (Wikipedia-L) to facilitate discussion of the project.}}</ref><ref name="Jonathan Sidener">{{cite news |
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|first=Jonathan |
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|last=Sidener |
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|title=Everyone's Encyclopedia |
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|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |
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|work= |
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|publisher=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |
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|date=[[December 6]], [[2004]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}</ref><ref name="memoirofwiki"/> Nupedia was founded upon the use of highly qualified contributors and an elaborate multi-step [[peer review]] process. Despite its mailing-list of interested editors, and the presence of a full-time editor-in-chief, [[Larry Sanger]], a graduate [[philosophy]] student hired by Wales,<ref name="resignation">[http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=My_resignation--Larry_Sanger&oldid=523212 My resignation: Larry Sanger] (meta.wikimedia.com) - "I was more or less offered the job of editing Nupedia when I was, as an ABD philosophy graduate student, soliciting Jimbo's (and other friends') advice on a website I was thinking of starting. It was the first I had heard of Jimbo's idea of an open content encyclopedia, and I was delighted to take the job."</ref> the writing of content was extremely slow with only 12 articles written during the first year.<ref name="memoirofwiki"/>[[Image:Wiki logo Nupedia.jpg|150px|thumb|left|The Wikipedia logo used until late 2001]] [[Image:Wiki logo The Cunctator.png|150px|thumb|left|The logo used from late 2001 until 2003]] |
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Wales and Sanger discussed various ways to create content more rapidly.<ref name="Jonathan Sidener"/> The idea of a [[wiki]]-based complement originated from a conversation between Larry Sanger and [[WikiWikiWeb:BenKovitz|Ben Kovitz]].<ref name="Ben_Kovitz">{{cite news |
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|first= |
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|last= |
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|title=Ben kovitz |
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|url=http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz |
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|work= |
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|publisher=[[WikiWikiWeb]] |
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|date= |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}-- [[User:BenKovitz|Ben Kovitz]] wrote on his Wikipedia user page about his conversation in Pacific Beach, San Diego at the taco stand with Larry Sanger that led to the creation of Wikipedia, stating in part: "I suggested that he run Nupedia as a wiki: completely reverse the prior policy of careful review by credentialed experts before letting an article go live. I said, instead of trying to prevent error and bias, to openly invite error and bias ''and'' make it very easy for people to correct them. It's a rare thing to tell someone to do something exactly the opposite of what he's been doing and get a fair hearing. It almost ''never'' happens that someone actually takes the suggestion. But Larry is different. Larry listened to what I had to say, let his imagination engage, and ran with it. Back then, wikis were a very hard concept to "get," but Larry's mind began percolating immediately, and he got things started that very night."</ref><ref name="Glyn Moody">{{cite news |
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|first=Glyn |
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|last=Moody |
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|url=http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html |
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|title=This time, it'll be a Wikipedia written by experts |
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|publisher=[[The Guardian]] |
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|date=[[July 13]], [[2006]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}-- While casting around for a way to speed up article production, Sanger met with Ben Kovitz, an old friend, in January 2001. Kovitz introduced Sanger to the idea of the wiki, invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham: web pages that anyone could write and edit. "My first reaction was that this really could be what would solve the problem," Sanger explains, "because the software was already written, and this community of people on WikiWikiWeb" - the first wiki - "had created something like 14,000 pages". Nupedia, by contrast, had produced barely two dozen articles. Sanger took up the idea immediately: "I wrote up a proposal and sent it [to Wales] that evening, and the wiki was then set up for me to work on." But this was not Wikipedia as we know it. "Originally it was the Nupedia Wiki - our idea was to use it as an article incubator for Nupedia. Articles could begin life on this wiki, be developed collaboratively and, when they got to a certain stage of development, be put it into the Nupedia system."</ref><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia">{{cite news |
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|first=Jonathan |
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|last=Sidener |
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|title=Wikipedia co-founder looks to add accountability, end anarchy |
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|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html |
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|work= |
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|publisher=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |
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|date=[[September 23]], [[2006]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=The origins of Wikipedia date to 2000, when Sanger was finishing his doctoral thesis in philosophy and had an idea for a Web site.}}</ref> Ben Kovitz, a [[computer programmer]] and regular on [[Ward Cunningham]]'s wiki (the [[WikiWikiWeb]]), introduced Sanger to wikis over dinner on January 2, [[2001]].<ref name="Ben_Kovitz"/><ref name="Glyn Moody"/><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia"/><ref name="the hive"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Marshall |
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|last=Poe |
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|title=The Hive |
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|url=http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3 |
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|publisher=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |
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|month=September | year=2006 |
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|page=3 |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}-- Over tacos that night, Sanger explained his concerns about Nupedia’s lack of progress, the root cause of which was its serial editorial system. As Nupedia was then structured, no stage of the editorial process could proceed before the previous stage was completed. Kovitz brought up the wiki and sketched out “wiki magic,” the mysterious process by which communities with common interests work to improve wiki pages by incremental contributions. If it worked for the rambunctious hacker culture of programming, Kovitz said, it could work for any online collaborative project. The wiki could break the Nupedia bottleneck by permitting volunteers to work simultaneously all over the project. With Kovitz in tow, Sanger rushed back to his apartment and called Wales to share the idea. Over the next few days he wrote a formal proposal for Wales and started a page on Cunningham’s wiki called “WikiPedia.”</ref> Wales first stated, in October 2001, that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software",<ref name="wikipedia-l-000671"/> though he later claimed in December 2005 that Jeremy Rosenfeld, a [[Bomis]] employee, introduced him to the concept.<ref name="Wired News"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first= |
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|last= |
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|title=Assignment Zero First Take: Wiki Innovators Rethink Openness |
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|url=http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium |
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|work= |
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|publisher=[[Wired News]] |
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|date=[[May 3]], [[2007]] |
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|accessdate=2007-11-01 |
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|quote=}}Wired.com states: "Wales offered the following on-the-record comment in an e-mail to NewAssignment.net editor [and NYU Professor] [[Jay Rosen]] ...'Larry Sanger was my employee working under my direct supervision during the entire process of launching Wikipedia. He was not the originator of the proposal to use a wiki for the encyclopedia project -- that was Jeremy Rosenfeld'."</ref><ref name="cadenhead">{{cite web|url=http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1|author=Rogers Cadenhead|accessdate=2006-10-15|title=Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1}}</ref><ref name="rosenfeld">Also stated on Wikipedia, on December 2, 2005 [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 permanent reference]</ref> Sanger thought a wiki would be a good platform to use, and proposed on the Nupedia [[mailing list]] that a wiki based upon [[UseModWiki]] (then v. 0.90) be set up as a "feeder" project for Nupedia. Under the subject "Let's make a wiki", he wrote: |
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{{cquote|No, this is not an indecent proposal. It's an idea to add a little feature to Nupedia. Jimmy Wales thinks that many people might find the idea objectionable, but I think not. (…) As to Nupedia's use of a wiki, this is the ULTIMATE "open" and simple format for developing content. We have occasionally bandied about ideas for simpler, more open projects to either replace or supplement Nupedia. It seems to me wikis can be implemented practically instantly, need very little maintenance, and in general are very low-risk. They're also a potentially great source for content. So there's little downside, as far as I can determine.}} |
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Wales set one up and put it online on [[January 10]] [[2001]].<ref>{{cite news |author=[[Larry Sanger]]|title=Let's make a wiki|date=[[January 10]] [[2001]]|publisher=Nupedia mailing |
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list|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html}}</ref> |
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===Founding of Wikipedia=== |
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There was considerable resistance on the part of Nupedia's editors and reviewers to the idea of associating Nupedia with a wiki-style website. Sanger suggested giving the new project its own name, ''Wikipedia'', and Wikipedia was soon launched on its own domain, <tt>wikipedia.com</tt>, on [[January 15]] [[2001]]. |
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The [[bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] and [[Server (computing)|server]] (located in San Diego) used for these projects were donated by Bomis. Many current and past [[Bomis]] employees have contributed some content to the encyclopedia: notably [[Tim Shell]], co-founder and current CEO of Bomis, and programmer Jason Richey. |
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The first edits ever made on Wikipedia are believed to be test edits by [[Jimmy Wales|Wales]].{{Fact|date=April 2007}} However, the oldest article still preserved is the article [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:UuU&oldid=291430 UuU], created on [[16 January]] [[2001]], at 21:08 UTC.<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia's_oldest_articles Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles]", Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> [[Image:UuU.png|thumb|right|The '''UuU''' edit, the first edit that is still preserved on Wikipedia to this day, as it appears using the ''Nostalgia'' skin.]] |
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The project received many new participants after being mentioned three times on the [[Slashdot]] website,{{Fact|date=August 2008}} with two minor mentions in March 2001.<ref>[http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/02/1422244&tid=99 Nupedia and Project Gutenberg Directors Answer] March 5 2001</ref><ref>[http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/29/2035230&tid=95 Everything2 Hits One Million Nodes] March 29 2001</ref> It then received a prominent pointer to a story on the community-edited technologies and culture website [[Kuro5hin]] on [[July 25]].<ref>[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 Britannica or Nupedia? The Future of Free Encyclopedias] July 25 2001</ref> Between these relatively rapid influxes of traffic, there had been a steady stream of traffic from other sources, especially [[Google]], which alone sent hundreds of new visitors to the site every day. Its first major [[mainstream media]] coverage was in the ''[[New York Times]]'' on [[September 20]], 2001.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63 Fact driven? Collegial? This site wants you]", ''New York Times'', September 20, 2001</ref> |
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The project passed 1,000 articles around [[February 12]], [[2001]], and 10,000 articles around [[September 7]]. In the first year of its existence, over 20,000 encyclopedia entries were created—a rate of over 1,500 articles per month. On [[August 30]], [[2002]], the article count reached 40,000. The rate of growth has more or less steadily increased since the inception of the project, except for a few software- and hardware-induced slow-downs.{{Dubious|date=December 2007}} |
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===Namespaces and Internationalization=== |
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Early in Wikipedia's development, it began to expand internationally, with the creation of new namespaces, each with a distinct set of usernames. The first domain created for a non-English Wikipedia was ''[[German Wikipedia|deutsche.wikipedia.com]]'' (created on [[16 March]] [[2001]], 01:38 UTC),<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html Alternative language wikipedias]</ref> followed after a few hours by ''[[Catalan Wikipedia|catalan.wikipedia.com]]'' (at 13:07 UTC).<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010413083954/catalan.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage History of the Catalan Homepage]</ref> The Japanese Wikipedia, started as [[Japanese Wikipedia|nihongo.wikipedia.com]], was created around that period,<ref>[[Internet_Archive#Wayback_Machine | The Wayback Machine]]: An early [http://web.archive.org/web/20010420120143/nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 Japanese Wikipedia HomePage] (revision #3), dated 2001-03-20 23:00. Accessed 2008-11-04.</ref><ref>An [[Internet Archive]]'s snapshot of English Wikipedia [http://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/ HomePage], dated 2001-03-30, showing links to the three first sister projects, "Deutsch (German)", "Catalan", and "Nihongo (Japanese)".</ref> and initially used only [[Romanization of Japanese|Romanized]] Japanese. For about two months Catalan was the one with the most articles in a non-English language,<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_statistics_%282001%29 Multilingual monthly statistics]</ref><ref>[http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%80bac&oldid=1 First edition in the Catalan Wikipedia]</ref> although statistics of that early period are imprecise.<ref>This [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_statistics_(2001)&oldid=192353617 table], for instance, misses Japanese and German articles such as [http://web.archive.org/web/20010421123743/nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nihongo_no_funimekusu this one] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20010411030440/deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion this one,] both dated 2001-04-06.</ref> The [[French Wikipedia]] was created on or around May 11, 2001,<ref>The [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 Documentation on the French Wikipedia] mentions the date of March 23, 2001, but this date is not supported by Wikipedia snapshots on the [[Internet Archive]], nor by Jason Richney's letter, which was dated May 11, 2001 (see below).</ref> in a wave of new language versions that included also [[Chinese Wikipedia|Chinese]], [[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]], [[Esperanto Wikipedia|Esperanto]], [[Hebrew Wikipedia|Hebrew]], [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]], <!--[[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]] commenting out: although Japanese Wikipedia was announced together with the others on that email, it already existed under the domain nihongo.wikipedia.com-->, [[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]], [[Russian Wikipedia|Russian]], [[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish]], and [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]].<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html Letter of Jason Richey to wikipedia-l mailing list] 11 May 2001</ref> These languages were soon joined by [[Arabic Wikipedia|Arabic]]<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20011118054300/ar.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?HomePage HomePage from the Internet Archive]</ref> and [[Hungarian Wikipedia|Hungarian]].<ref>[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements_May_2001 Wikipedia:Announcements] May 2001</ref><ref>[http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=International_Wikipedia&action=history International_Wikipedia]</ref> In September 2001, an announcement pledged commitment to the multilingual provision of Wikipedia,<ref>[[Wikipedia:Announcements 2001#September 2001|Wikipedia: Announcements 2001]]</ref> notifying users of an upcoming roll-out of Wikipedias for all major languages, the establishment of core standards, and a push for the translation of core pages for the new wikis. At the end of that year, when international statistics first began to be logged, [[Afrikaans Wikipedia|Afrikaans]], [[Norwegian Wikipedia|Norwegian]], and [[Serbian Wikipedia|Serbian]] versions were announced.<ref>[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics International wikipedias statistics]</ref> |
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In January 2002, 90% of all Wikipedia articles were in English. By January 2004, less than 50% were English, and this internationalization has continued to increase. As of 2007, around 75% of all Wikipedia articles are contained within non-English Wikipedia versions. |
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===Development=== |
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In March 2002, following the withdrawal of funding by Bomis, Larry Sanger left both Nupedia and Wikipedia. Initially amicable, by 2004 differences between Sanger and Wales had driven a wedge between them, centering upon Sanger's criticism of Wikipedia's approach, his role in Wikipedia's success, and their views on how best to manage open encyclopedias (see [[#Early roles of Wales and Sanger|Early roles of Wales and Sanger]]). Both still supported the open-collaboration concept, but the two differed on how best to handle disruptive editors, specific roles for experts, and the best way to guide the project to success.[[Image:Old Wikipedia.png|thumb|left|A Screenshot from the main page, September 28th, 2002.]] |
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Wales, a believer in communal governance and "hands off" executive management, {{Fact|date=September 2007}} went on to establish self-governance and [[bottom-up]] self-direction by editors on Wikipedia. He made it clear that he would not be involved in the community's day to day management, but would encourage it to learn to self-manage and find its own best approaches. As of 2007, Wales mostly restricts his own role to occasional input on serious matters, executive activity, advocacy of knowledge, and encouragement of similar reference projects. |
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Sanger advocated a "two tier" expert-led culture and more "hands on" executive management, with final editorial control by chief editors closer to the traditional model. He returned briefly to academia, then after joining the [[Digital Universe]] Foundation, went on to found [[Citizendium]], an alternative open encyclopedia which uses real names for contributors in order to reduce disruptive editing, supports the specific recognition of experts, and is governed by a system of [[top-down]] management, including himself or agreed-upon editors or committees. He has stated that he intends to leave in a few years, when the project and its management are established.<ref name="Citizendium:_building_a_better_Wikipedia">{{cite news |
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|first=Nate |
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|last=Anderson |
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|title=Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia |
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|url=http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars/3 |
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|publisher=[[Ars Technica]] |
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|date=[[February 25]], [[2007]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref> |
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===Organization=== |
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The Wikipedia project has grown rapidly in the course of its life, at several levels. Individual wikis have grown organically through the addition of new articles, new wikis have been added in English and non-English languages, and entire new projects replicating these growth methods in other related areas (news, quotations, reference books and so on) have been founded as well. |
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Respectively, Wikipedia itself has grown, with the creation of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] to act as an umbrella body and the growth of software and policies to address the needs of the editorial community. These are documented below. |
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==Historical overview by year== |
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:''Articles summarizing each year are held within the Wikipedia project namespace and are linked to below. Additional resources for research are available within the Wikipedia records and archives, and are listed at the end of this article.<!-- DONE THIS WAY SINCE MANY OF THESE LINKS WOULD BE SELFREFS, AND YET WORTHWHILE POINTING OUT THEIR EXISTENCE TO RESEARCHERS--> |
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;2000 |
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The [[Nupedia]] project is started with Larry Sanger running the daily operations and formulating many of the initial policies. |
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;2001 |
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The ''Wikipedia.com'' and ''Wikipedia.org'' domain names are registered on [[January 12]], [[2001]]<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007) ''[http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.com from Network Solutions]'' Accessed July 27, 2007.</ref> and [[January 13]], [[2001]],<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007) ''[http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.org from Network Solutions]'' Accessed July 27, 2007.</ref> respectively, with the latter being brought online on January 13, [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Main_Page according to Alexa]; project formally opens Jan 15 ('[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Day|Wikipedia Day]]'); the first international Wikipedias are created (March-May: [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]]); "Neutral point of view" (NPOV) policy is formally formulated; first [[slashdot effect|slashdotter wave]] arrives July 26. The first media report about Wikipedia appears in August 2001 coincidentally by the newspaper ''[[Western Mail (Wales)|Wales on Sunday]]''.<ref>[[Western Mail (Wales)|Wales on Sunday]] (August 26, 2001) ''Knowledge at your fingertips. Game On : Internet Chat.''(writing, "Both Encarta and Britannica are official publications with well-deserved reputations. But there are other options, such as the homemade encyclopaedias. One is Wikipedia (www. wikipedia. com) which uses clever software to build an encyclopaedia from scratch. Wiki is software installed on a web server that allows anyone to edit any of the pages. At the Wikipedia, anyone can write about any subject they know about. The idea is that over time, enough experts will offer their knowledge for free and build up the world's ultimate hand-built database of knowledge. The disadvantage is that it's still an ongoing project. So far about 8,000 articles have been written and the editors are aiming for 100,000.")</ref> |
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;2002 |
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Year 2002 sees: the end of funding from [[Bomis]] and the departure of [[Larry Sanger]]; the [[fork (software development)|forking]] of the [[Spanish Wikipedia]] to establish the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]''; and the creation of the first portable [[Mediawiki]] software (went live Jan 25). Bots are introduced, Jimmy Wales confirms Wikipedia would never run commercial advertising, and the first sister project ([[Wiktionary]]) and first formal [[Manual of Style]] are launched. A separate board of directors to supervise the project is proposed and initially discussed at [[Meta-Wikipedia]]. |
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;2003 |
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Mathematical formulae using [[TeX]] are introduced; English Wikipedia passes 100,000 articles (the next largest, German, passes 10,000); the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] is established; Wikipedia adopts its jigsaw world [[logo]]; and the first Wikipedian social meeting is organized. The basic principles of Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:ArbCom|Arbitration system and committee]] (known colloquially as "Arbcom") are developed mostly by [[Florence Devouard]], [[Fred Bauder]] and other key early Wikipedians. |
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;2004 |
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The worldwide Wikipedia article pool continues to grow rapidly, doubling in size in 12 months, from under 500,000 articles to over 1 million (English Wikipedia was just less than half of these) in over 100 languages. The server farms are moved from [[California]] to [[Florida]]; [[Wikipedia:Categories|Categories]] and [[CSS]] style configuration sheets are introduced; and the first attempt to block Wikipedia occurs (China, June 2004, duration 2 weeks). Formal election of a board and ArbCom begin - Devouard is the only person elected who was instrumental in ArbCom. She and others begin to criticize balance and focus problems and lead efforts to fill in articles in neglected areas. The first formal projects are proposed to deliberately balance content and seek out [[systemic bias]] arising from Wikipedia's community structure. |
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;2005 |
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Multilingual and subject portals are established; the first quarter's formal fundraiser raises almost [[US $]] 100,000 for system upgrades to handle growing demand; Wikipedia becomes the most popular reference website on the Internet according to [[Hitwise]]; China again blocks Wikipedia (October); English Wikipedia passes 750,000 articles. The first Wikipedia scandal occurs, when a well known figure is found to have a vandalized biography which had gone unnoticed for months (the "[[Seigenthaler incident]]"). In the wake of this and other concerns,<ref name="Brandt">[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons WP:BLP] started 17 December 2005 with narrative "I started this due to the Daniel Brandt situation". [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956]</ref> the first policy and system changes specifically designed to counter this form of abuse are established. These include a new [[m:CheckUser policy|Checkuser]] privilege policy update (checkuser is a Mediawiki tool that assists in [[sock puppet]]ry investigations), a new feature called [[Wikipedia:Requests for page protection|semi-protection]], a more strict policy on biographies of living people and tagging of such articles for stricter review, and restriction of new article creation to registered users only. |
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;2006 |
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English Wikipedia gains its 1½ millionth article; the first approved Wikipedia article selection is made freely available to download; "Wikipedia" becomes registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation; The [[congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia|congressional aides biography scandals]] come to public attention: multiple incidents in which congressional staffers and a campaign manager are caught trying to covertly alter Wikipedia biographies, the campaign manager resigns. |
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Jimmy Wales indicates, at Wikimania 2006, that Wikipedia has achieved sufficient volume and calls for an emphasis on quality, perhaps best expressed in the call for [http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:100%2C000_feature-quality_articles 100,000 feature-quality articles]; A new privilege "oversight" is created allowing specific versions of archived pages with unacceptable content to be marked as non-viewable; Semi-protection against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proves more successful than anticipated, with over 1,000 pages semi-protected at any given time; Wikipedia is rated as one of the top 2006 global brands.<ref>[http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?fa_id=352 Similar Search Results: Google Wins] January 29, 2007</ref> |
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Wales leaves his formal role to focus on Wikia and other projects.{{fact|date=November 2008}} He and [[Larry Sanger]] publicly clash over project philosophy and co-foundership. {{fact|date=November 2008}} |
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;2007 |
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Wikipedia continues to grow, with some 5 million registered editor accounts;<ref>See the special page: [[Special:Statistics]]: 5,078,036 registered user accounts as at 13 August 2007, excluding anonymous editors who have not created accounts.</ref> the combined Wikipedias in all languages together contain 1.74 billion words in 7.5 million articles in approximately 250 languages;<ref>Source: [[Wikipedia:Size comparisons]] as at 13 August 2007</ref> the English Wikipedia gains a steady 1,700 articles a day,<ref>From around Q3 2006 Wikipedia's growth rate has been approximately linear, source: [[Wikipedia:Statistics]] - new article count by month 2006-2007.</ref> with the wikipedia.org domain name ranked at around the 10th busiest on the Internet (See [http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics Wikipedia Statistics]); Wikipedia continues to garner visibility in [[:Category:Wikipedia publicity|the press]] and to slowly but steadily [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a court source|gain traction as a tertiary source]] both in serious legal decision-making and as a source of collated information on [[current events]]; the [[Essjay controversy]] breaks when a prominent member of Wikipedia is found to have lied about his credentials; [[Citizendium]] launches publicly; a trend develops that the encyclopedia addresses people whose notability stems from being a participant in a news story by adding a redirect from their name to the larger story, rather than creation of a distinct biographical article.<ref>E.g., cases such as [[Crystal Gail Mangum]] and Daniel Brandt.</ref> |
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;2008 |
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Various [[WikiProject]]s in many areas continue to expand and refine article contents within their scope. In April, the 10 millionth Wikipedia article was created, an article within the [[Hungarian Wikipedia]], and, only several months later, the English Wikipedia exceeds 2.5 million articles, containing {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles as of {{FULLDATE}}. |
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== History by subject area == |
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=== Hardware and software === |
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{{main|Mediawiki}} |
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:''The [[software]] that runs Wikipedia, and the [[hardware]], [[server farm]]s and other systems upon which Wikipedia relies.'' |
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* In January 2001, Wikipedia ran on [[UseModWiki]], written in [[Perl]] by [[Clifford Adams]]. The server has run on [[Linux]] to this day, although the original text was stored in files rather than in a database. Articles were named with the [[CamelCase]] convention. |
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* In January 2002, "Phase II" of the wiki software powering Wikipedia was introduced, replacing the older [[UseModWiki]]. Written specifically for the project by [[Magnus Manske]], it included a [[PHP]] [[wiki engine]]. |
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* In July 2002, a [[Rewrite (programming)|major rewrite]] of the software powering Wikipedia went live; dubbed "Phase III", it replaced the older "Phase II" version, and became [[MediaWiki]]. It was written by [[Lee Daniel Crocker]] in response to the increasing demands of the growing project. |
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* In October 2002, Derek Ramsey started to use a "bot", or program, to add a large number of articles about [[United States]] towns; these articles were automatically generated from [[U.S. census]] data. Occasionally, similar bots had been used before for other topics. These articles were generally well received, but some users criticized them for their initial uniformity and writing style (for example, see [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/wiki.phtml?title=La_Grange%2C_Illinois&oldid=2963634 this version] of an original bot-generated town article, and compare to [[La Grange, Illinois|current version]]). |
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* In January 2003, support for mathematical formulas in [[TeX]] was added. The code was contributed by Tomasz Wegrzanowski. |
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* June 9, 2003 - ISBNs in articles now link to Special:Booksources, which fetches its contents from the user-editable page [[Wikipedia:Book sources]]. Before this, ISBN link targets were coded into the software and new ones were suggested on the [[Wikipedia:ISBN]] page. See [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AISBN&diff=1029062&oldid=1024040 the edit] that changed this. |
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* After [[6 December]] [[2003]], various system messages shown to Wikipedia users were no longer [[hard coding|hard coded]], allowing Wikipedia [[WP:ADMIN|administrators]] to modify certain parts of MediaWiki's interface, such as the message shown to blocked users. |
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* On [[February 12]], [[2004]], server operations were moved from [[San Diego, California]] to [[Tampa, Florida]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2004-February/008418.html | accessdate = 2007-02-10 | title = Server swapping soon}}</ref> |
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* On [[May 29]], [[2004]], all the various websites were updated to a new version of the [[MediaWiki]] software. |
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* On [[May 30]], [[2004]], the first instances of "categorization" entries appeared. Category schemes, like Recent Changes and Edit This Page, had existed from the founding of Wikipedia. However, Larry Sanger had viewed the schemes as lists, and even hand-entered articles, whereas the [[categorization]] effort centered on individual categorization entries in each article of the encyclopedia, as part of a larger automatic categorization of the articles of the encyclopedia.<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Categorization Wikipedia:Categorization]", Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> |
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* After [[3 June]], [[2004]], administrators could edit the ''style'' of the interface by changing the [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] in the monobook stylesheet at [http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/MediaWiki:Monobook.css MediaWiki:Monobook.css]. |
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* Also on 30 May 2004, with MediaWiki 1.3, the Template namespace was created, allowing [[transclusion]] of standard texts.<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_namespace Wikipedia:Template namespace]", Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-09-17]].</ref> |
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* On [[7 June]] [[2005]] at 3:00AM Eastern Standard Time the bulk of the Wikimedia servers were moved to a new facility across the street. All Wikimedia projects were down during this time. |
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=== Look and feel === |
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:''The external face of Wikipedia, its [[look and feel]], and the Wikipedia [[brand]]ing, as presented to users'' |
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* On [[April 4]], [[2002]] ''Brilliant Prose'', since renamed to ''Featured Articles'',<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles Wikipedia:Featured articles]", Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> was moved to the Wikipedia Namespace from the article namespace. |
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* Around [[October 15]] [[2003]], the current Wikipedia logo was installed. The logo concept was selected by a voting process,<ref name="logovote">{{cite web| url = http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_logo_vote/Finalists| title = International logo vote/Finalists| accessdate = 2006-07-08| work = Meta-Wiki| publisher = Wikimedia}}</ref> which was followed by a revision process to select the best variant. The final selection was created by [[User:Nohat|David Friedland]] based on a logo design and concept created by [[User:Paul Stansifer|Paul Stansifer]]. |
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* On [[February 22]], [[2004]] DYK made [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Template:Did_you_know&oldid=2500457 its first Main Page appearance.] |
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* On [[February 23]], [[2004]] a coordinated new look for the Main Page appeared [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=2500386 at 19:46 UTC]. Hand-chosen entries for the Daily Featured Article, Anniversaries, In the News, and Did You Know rounded out the new look. |
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* On [[January 10]], [[2005]], the multilingual portal at [http://www.wikipedia.org www.wikipedia.org] was set up, replacing a redirect to the English-language Wikipedia. |
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* On [[February 5]], [[2005]], the [[Portal:Biology]] was created, first "portal" on the English Wikipedia.<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Portal:Biology Portal:Biology]", English Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-31]].</ref> However, the concept was pioneered on the German Wikipedia where [[:de:Portal:Recht|Portal:Recht]] (law studies) was set up in October 2003.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Portale/2003|Portals on German Wikipedia ordered by date of creation]].</ref> |
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* On [[July 16]], [[2005]], the English Wikipedia began the practice of including the day's "featured pictures" on the Main Page. |
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* On [[March 19]], [[2006]], following a vote, the Main Page of the English language Wikipedia featured its first redesign in nearly two years. |
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=== Internal structures === |
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:''Landmarks in the Wikipedia community, and the development of its organization, [[Wikipedia:Editorial oversight and control|internal structures]], and [[Wikipedia:Policy|policies]].'' |
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* April 2001, Wales formally defines the "neutral point of view",<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010416035757/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/NeutralPointOfView NeutralPointOfView]</ref> Wikipedia's core non-negotiable editorial policy,<ref>"A few things are absolute and non-negotiable, though. NPOV for example." in [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-November/008096.html statement by Jimbo Wales in November 2003] and, [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-April/044379.html in this thread] reconfirmed by [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-April/044388.html Jimbo Wales in April 2006] in the context of lawsuits.</ref> a reformulation of the "Lack of Bias" policy outlined by Sanger for Nupedia<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20010331211742/www.nupedia.com/policy.shtml Nupedia.com editorial policy guidelines]. Version 3.31 (November 16, 2000). Retrieved [[2007-09-07]].</ref> in spring or summer 2000, which covered many of the same core principles.<ref>"Nupedia articles are, in terms of their content, to be unbiased. There may be respectable reference works that permit authors to take recognizable stands on controversial issues, but this is not one of them ... "On every issue ... is it very difficult or impossible for the reader to determine what the view is to which the author adheres?" ... for each controversial view discussed, the author of an article (at a bare minimum) mention various opposing views that are taken seriously by any significant minority of experts (or concerned parties) on the subject ... In a final version of the article, every party to the controversy in question must be able to judge that its views have been fairly presented, or as fairly as is possible in a context in which other, opposing views must also be presented as fairly as possible." [http://web.archive.org/web/20010331211742/www.nupedia.com/policy.shtml]</ref> |
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* In September 2001, collaboration by subject matter in [[Wikipedia:WikiProject|WikiProject]]s is introduced.<ref>http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_proposal</ref> |
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* In February 2002, concerns over the risk of future censorship and commercialization by Bomis Inc (Wikipedia's original host) combined with a lack of guarantee this would not happen, led most participants of the [[:es:|Spanish Wikipedia]] to break away and establish it independently as the ''[[Enciclopedia Libre]]''.<ref>'[http://enciclopedia.us.es/index.php/Enciclopedia:Por_qu%E9_estamos_aqu%ED_y_no_en_es.wikipedia.org Why we are here and not in Wikipedia]'' (in Spanish, under GFDL)</ref> Following clarification of Wikipedia's status and non-commercial nature later that year, re-merger talks between Enciclopedia Libre and the re-founded Spanish Wikipedia occasionally took place in 2002 and 2003, but no conclusion was reached. As of July 2007, the two continue to coexist as substantial Spanish language reference sources, with around 36,700 articles (EL) and 248,800 articles (Sp.W)<ref>http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Especial:Statistics</ref> respectively. |
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* Also in 2002, policy and style issues were clarified with the creation of the ''Manual of Style'', along with a number of other policies and guidelines.<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style&direction=next&oldid=171151 First substantial edit to Wikipedia:Manual of Style], Wikipedia ([[August 23]], [[2002]]). Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> |
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* November 2002 - new mailing lists for WikiEN and Announce are set up, as well as other language mailing lists (eg Polish), to reduce the volume of traffic on mailing lists.[http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_News/2002&oldid=486954] |
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* In July 2003, the rule against editing your [[Wikipedia:autobiography|autobiography]] is introduced.<ref>http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Autobiography&oldid=1220207</ref> |
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* On [[October 28]] [[2003]], the first "real" meeting of Wikipedians happened in [[Munich]]. Many cities followed suit, and soon a number of regular Wikipedian get-togethers were established around the world. Several Internet communities, including one on the popular [[blog]] website [[LiveJournal]], have also sprung up since. |
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* From [[July 10]] to [[August 30]], [[2004]] the {{srlink|Wikipedia:Browse}} and {{srlink|Wikipedia:Browse by overview}} formerly on the Main Page were replaced by links to overviews. On [[August 27]], [[2004]] the ''Community Portal'' was started,<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal Wikipedia:Community Portal]", Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> to serve as a focus for community efforts. These were previously accomplished on an informal basis, by individual queries of the Recent Changes, in wiki style, as ad-hoc collaborations between like-minded editors. |
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* During September to December 2005 following the [[Seigenthaler controversy]] and other similar concerns,<ref name="Brandt" /> several anti-abuse features and policies were added to Wikipedia. These were: |
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::* The [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CheckUser_Policy policy for "Checkuser"] (a [[MediaWiki]] [[software tool|extension]] to assist detection of abuse via [[sock puppet (Internet)|internet sock-puppetry]]) was established in November 2005.<ref>"[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CheckUser_policy CheckUser policy]", [[Meta-Wiki]]. Retrieved on [[2007-01-25]]. Checkuser function had previously existed, but was known as ''Espionage'' -- for example, in the Arbitration Committee [http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-09-26/Arbitration_report case of JarlaxleArtemis].</ref> but was viewed more as a system tool at the time, as a result of which there had been no need for a policy covering use on a more routine basis.<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-10-17/News_and_notes Checkuser proposal]</ref> |
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::*Creation of new pages on the English Wikipedia was restricted to editors who had created a user account.<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-12-05/Page_creation_restrictions Page creation restrictions]", Wikipedia Signpost / English Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-31]].</ref> |
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::* The introduction and rapid adoption of the policy [[Wikipedia:Biographies of living people]], giving a far tighter quality control and fact-check system to biographical articles related to living people. |
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::* The "semi-protection" function and policy,<ref>"[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-12-26/Semi-protection Semi-protection policy]", Wikipedia Signpost / English Wikipedia. Retrieved on [[2007-01-30]].</ref> allowing pages to be protected so that only those with an account could edit. |
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* In May 2006, a new "oversight" feature was introduced on the English Wikipedia, allowing a handful of highly trusted users to permanently erase page revisions containing copyright infringements or libelous or personal information from a page's history. Previous to this, page version deletion was laborious, and also deleted versions remained visible to other administrators and could be un-deleted by them. |
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* On January 1 2007, the subcommunity named [[Wikipedia:Esperanza|Esperanza]] was disbanded by communal consent. Esperanza had begun as an effort to promote "[[Wikipedia:Wikilove|wikilove]]" and a social support network, but had developed its own subculture and private structures.<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-01-02/Experanza Esperanza organization disbanded after deletion discussion] January 2, 2007</ref><ref name="Ezperanza">http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/WP:MFD/EA</ref> Its disbanding was described as the painful but necessary remedy for a project that had allowed editors to "see themselves as Esperanzans first and foremost".<ref name="Ezperanza" /> A number of Esperanza's subprojects (including [[Wikipedia:Admin coaching|coaching]] and [[Wikipedia:Stress Alerts|stress alerts]]) were integrated back into Wikipedia as free-standing projects. When the group was founded in September 2005, there had been concerns expressed that it would eventually be condemned as such.<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-09-19/Esperanza_group New group aims to promote Wiki-Love] September 19, 2005</ref> |
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* In April 2007 the results of 4 months policy review by a working group of several hundred editors seeking to merge the core Wikipedia policies into one core policy (See: [[Wikipedia:Attribution]]) was polled for community support. The proposal did not gain consensus; a significant view became evident that the existing structure of three strong focussed policies covering the respective areas of policy, was frequently seen as more helpful to quality control than one more general merged proposal. |
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=== The Wikimedia Foundation and legal structures === |
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:''Legal and organizational structure of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], its executive, and its activities as a [[Foundation (nonprofit organization)|foundation]].'' |
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* In August 2002, shortly after Jimmy Wales announced that he would never run commercial [[advertisement]]s on Wikipedia, the [[Uniform Resource Locator|URL]] of Wikipedia was changed from ''wikipedia.com'' to ''wikipedia.org'' (see: [[.com]] and [[.org]]). |
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* On [[June 20]] [[2003]], the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was founded. |
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* Communications committee was [http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Communications_committee&oldid=623013 formed] in January 2006 to handle media inquiries and emails received for the foundation and Wikipedia via the newly implemented [[OTRS]] (a ticket handling system). |
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* [[Angela Beesley]] and [[Florence Nibart-Devouard]] were elected to the Board of [[Trustee]]s of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. During this time, Angela was active in editing content and setting policy, such as privacy policy, within the Foundation.<ref name=Riehle>Riehle, Dirk. [http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2006/wikisym-2006-interview.html "How and Why Wikipedia Works: An Interview with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko"], ''www.riehle.org'', 2006.</ref> |
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* On [[January 10]], ''Wikipedia'' became a registered trademark of Wikimedia Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-01-16/Trademark_registered&oldid=35499220|title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-16/Trademark registered|accessdate=2007-01-14|date=2006-01-16|publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> |
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* In July 2006, [[Angela Beesley]] resigned from the board of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].<ref name=WFpressrelease>[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Angela_Beesley_resigns_from_Wikimedia_Foundation_board "Angela Beesley resigns from Wikimedia Foundation board"], Wikimedia Foundation press release, [[July 7]] [[2006]].</ref> |
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* In June 2006, Brad Patrick was hired to be the first executive director of the Foundation. He resigned in January 2007, and was later replaced by Sue Gardner (June 2007). |
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* In October 2006, [[Florence Nibart-Devouard]] became chair of the board of Wikimedia Foundation. |
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=== Projects and landmarks === |
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{{Main|Wikipedia:Statistics}} |
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:''Sister projects, and landmarks related to articles, user base, and other statistics.'' |
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* In December 2002, the first sister project, [[Wiktionary]], was created; aiming to produce a [[dictionary]] and [[thesaurus]] of the words in all languages. It uses the same software as Wikipedia. |
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* On [[January 22]] [[2003]], the English Wikipedia was again [[slashdot effect|slashdotted]] after having reached the 100,000 article milestone with the [[Hastings, New Zealand]] article. Two days later, the German language Wikipedia, the largest non-English version, passed the 10,000 article mark. |
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* On [[June 20]] [[2003]], the same day that the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] was founded, "[[Wikiquote]]" was created. A month later, "[[Wikibooks]]" was launched. "[[Wikisource]]" was set up towards the end of the year. |
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* In January 2004, Wikipedia passed the 200,000 article milestone in English with the article on [[Neil Warnock]], and reached 450,000 articles for both English and non-English wikis. The next month, the combined article count of the English and non-English wikis reached 500,000. |
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* On [[April 20]], [[2004]], the article count of the English wiki reached 250,000. |
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* On [[July 7]], [[2004]], the article count of the English wiki reached 300,000. |
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* On [[September 20]], [[2004]], Wikipedia reached one million articles in over 105 languages, and received a flurry of related attention in the press.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PR-1mil-US One million Wikipedia articles]</ref> The one millionth article was published in the [[Hebrew language]] Wikipedia, and discusses the [[flag of Kazakhstan]]. |
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* On [[November 20]], [[2004]], the article count of the English Wikipedia reached 400,000. |
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* On [[March 18]], [[2005]], Wikipedia passed the 500,000 article milestone in English, with [[Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union]] being announced in a press release as the landmark article.<ref>[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/500k_English_articles Wikipedia Publishes 500,000th English Article]</ref> |
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* In May 2005, Wikipedia became the most popular reference website on the Internet according to traffic monitoring company [[Hitwise]], relegating [[Dictionary.com]] to second place. |
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* On [[September 29]], [[2005]], the English Wikipedia passed the 750,000 article mark. |
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* On [[March 1]], [[2006]], the English language Wikipedia passed the '''1,000,000''' article mark, with [[Jordanhill railway station]] being announced on the Main Page as the milestone article<ref name="milestone_articles">While this article was announced as the milestone on the Main Page, multiple articles qualified due to the continuous creation and deletion of pages on the site.</ref> |
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* On [[June 8]], [[2006]], the English language Wikipedia passed the '''1,000''' featured article mark, with [[Iranian peoples]].<ref>Wikimedia Foundation: [http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_Announces_Thousandth_Featured_Article English Wikipedia Announces Thousandth Featured Article]</ref> |
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* On [[August 15]], [[2006]] the Wikimedia Foundation launches [[Wikiversity]].<ref>[http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Opening_Plenary_%28transcript%29#Wikiversity_.2826:35.29 Welcome speech], Jimbo Wales, Wikimania 2006 ([http://www.supload.com/listen?s=SI0OG2vN04i audio])</ref> |
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* On [[November 24]], [[2006]], the English language Wikipedia passed the '''1,500,000''' article mark, with [[Kanab ambersnail]] being announced on the Main Page as the milestone article.<ref name="milestone_articles">{{Fact|date=February 2007}}</ref> |
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* On [[April 4]], [[2007]], the first CD selection in English was published as a free download (see [[2006 Wikipedia CD Selection]]).<ref>[http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection A Schools Global Citizen Resource from SOS Children]</ref> |
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* On [[September 9]], [[2007]], the English language Wikipedia passed the '''2,000,000''' article mark. '''[[El Hormiguero]]''', an article which covers a [[Spain|Spanish]] TV comedy show, is accepted by consensus as the 2,000,000th article. |
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* On [[August 12]], [[2008]], the English language Wikipedia passed the '''2,500,000''' article mark. |
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=== Funding === |
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* One of the first{{Fact|date=July 2007}} fundraisers was held from [[February 18]], [[2005]] to [[March 1]], [[2005]], raising $94,000, which was $21,000 more than expected.<ref>"[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q1 Fund drives/2005/Q1]", [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Retrieved on [[2007-01-25]].</ref> |
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* On [[January 6]] [[2006]], the Q4 2005 fundraiser concluded, raising a total of just over $390,000.<ref>"[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4 Fund drives/2005/Q4]", [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. Retrieved on [[2007-01-25]].</ref> |
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* In June 2007 it was announced that the German Wikipedia will be receiving state funding.<ref>[http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/91733 German Wikipedia receives state funding] June 26, 2007</ref> |
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=== External impact === |
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* In 2007, Wikipedia is deemed fit to be used as a major source by the [[UK Intellectual Property Office]] in the [[Formula One]] trademark case ruling.<ref>In deciding [http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/o16907.pdf the trademark of F1 racing], the [[UK Intellectual Property Office]] considered both the reliability of Wikipedia, and its usefulness as a reliable source of evidence: |
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: "Wikipedia has sometimes suffered from the self-editing that is intrinsic to it, giving rise at times to potentially [[libel]]lous statements. However, inherently, I cannot see that what is in Wikipedia is any less likely to be true than what is published in a book or on the websites of news organisations. [Formula One's lawyer] did not express any concerns about the Wikipedia evidence [presented by the plaintiff]. I consider that the evidence from Wikipedia can be taken at face value." |
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The case turned substantively upon evidence cited from Wikipedia in 2006 as to the usage and interpretation of the term "F1".</ref> |
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* Over time Wikipedia gains recognition amongst other traditional media as a "key source" for some current new events such as the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]] and related [[tsunami]], the biographies of [[2008 Presidential election]] candidates,<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601699.html?hpid=topnews On Wikipedia, Debating 2008 Hopefuls' Every Facet], Washington Post, September 17, 2007; Page A01 -- "...at the same time, it's hard to find a more up-to-date, detailed, thorough article on [[Barack Obama|Obama]] than Wikipedia's. As of Friday, Obama's article -- more than 22 pages long, with 15 sections covering his personal and professional life -- had a reference list of 167 sources."</ref> and the 2007 [[Virginia Tech massacre]]. The latter article is accessed 750,000 times in two days, with newspapers published local to the shootings adding that "Wikipedia has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event."<ref>Source: [http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/004178.php Wikipedia emerges as key source for Virginia Tech shootings] - ''cyberjournalist.net'' citing the ''[[New York Times]]'' [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/technology/23link.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin], stating: "Even ''[[The Roanoke Times]]'', which is published near [[Blacksburg, Virginia|Blacksburg, Va.]], where the university is located, noted on Thursday that Wikipedia 'has emerged as the clearinghouse for detailed information on the event'."</ref> |
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* On [[February 21]] Noam Cohen of the ''New York Times'' publishes [http://www.uh.edu/ednews/2007/nytimes/200702/20070221wikipedia.html A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia as a Research Source] |
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* On [[February 27]], An article in [[The Harvard Crimson]] newspaper reported that some of the professors at [[Harvard University]] do include Wikipedia in their 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, by:MAXWELL L. CHILD, Monday, February 26, 2007.</ref> |
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====Effect of biographical articles ==== |
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Because Wikipedia biographies are often updated as soon as new information comes to light, they are often used as a reference source on the lives of [[:Category:Living people|notable people]]. This has led to attempts to manipulate and falsify Wikipedia articles for promotional or defamatory purposes (see [[#Controversies|Controversies]]). It has also led to novel uses of the biographical material provided. Some notable people's lives are being affected by their Wikipedia biography. |
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* November 2005: The [[Seigenthaler controversy]]. Someone, who later committed that he wanted to make a joke, wrote into the article that journalist John Seigenthaler had been involved in the Kennedy murder of 1963. |
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* December 2006: German comedian "[[:de:Atze Schröder|Atze Schröder]]", who does not want his real name published, sued Arne Klempert, secretary of [[Wikimedia Deutschland]], because of the Wikipedia article. Then the artist drew back his complaint, but wanted his attorney's costs to be paid by Klempert. Trial decided that the artist had to cover those costs by himself.<ref>"Atze muss zahlen", Klemperts blog "recent changes" on June 27, 2007: http://recentchanges.de/blog/2007/06/atze-muss-zahlen/.</ref> |
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* [[February 16]], [[2007]]: Turkish historian [[Taner Akçam]] was briefly detained upon arrival at [[Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport]] because of false information on his biography that he was a terrorist.<ref name=Independent>[http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2469270.ece "Caught in the deadly web of the internet"], Robert Fisk, ''[[The Independent]]'', [[21 April]] [[2007]]. Retrieved [[2007-07-24]].</ref><ref name=CBC>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia2.html "A question of authority"], by Paul Jay, [[June 22]], [[2007]], ''[[CBC News]]''. Retrieved [[2007-07-24]].</ref> |
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* September 2008: Changes or "manipulations" at the [[Sarah Palin]] article in English Wikipedia have been noticed by the media. |
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* November 2008: Germany's Left Party politician [[Lutz Heilmann]] believed that some remarks in "his" article caused damage to his reputation. He succeded in getting a court order to make Wikimedia Deutschland stop linking from its page ''www.wikipedia.de'' to German Wikipedia ''de.wikipedia.org''. The result was a huge national support for Wikipedia, and Heilmann took his allegation back after some days. |
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=== Controversies === |
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* January 2005: The fake charity QuakeAID, in the month following the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]], attempts to promote itself on its Wikipedia page. |
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* October 2005: [[Alan Mcilwraith]] is exposed as a fake war hero with a Wikipedia page. |
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* November 2005: The [[Seigenthaler controversy]] causes Brian Chase to resign from his employment, after his identity is ascertained by Daniel Brandt of [[Wikipedia Watch]]. Following this, the scientific journal ''[[Nature]]'' undertakes a [[peer review]]ed study to test articles in Wikipedia against their equivalents in [[Encyclopedia Britannica]], and concludes they are comparable in terms of accuracy.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html Internet encyclopaedias go head to head]</ref><ref>[http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/multimedia/438900a_m1.html The (Nature) peer review]</ref> ''Britannica'' rejected their methodology and their conclusion.<ref>Britannica: [http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Fatally Flawed. Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature] (PDF)</ref> ''Nature'' refuses to make any apologies, asserting instead the reliability of its study and a rejection of the criticisms.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/nature/britannica/index.html ''Nature's'' responses to Encyclopaedia Britannica], ''Nature'' ([[23 March]] [[2006]]). Retrieved on [[2007-01-25]].</ref> (For studies like this, see [[Reliability of Wikipedia]]. For traffic impact see [[#Wikipedia history in images|Wikipedia history in images]]) |
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* Early-to-mid 2006: The [[congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia|congressional aides biography scandals]] come to public attention, in which several political aides are caught trying to influence the Wikipedia biographies of several politicians to remove undesirable information (including pejorative statements quoted, or broken campaign promises), add favorable information or "glowing" tributes, or replace the article in part or whole by staff authored biographies. The staff of at least five politicians were implicated: [[Marty Meehan]], [[Norm Coleman]], [[Conrad Burns]], [[Joe Biden]], [[Gil Gutknecht]].<ref>See for example: [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060130-6079.html this article] on the scandal. The activities documented were: |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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! Politician |
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! Editing undertaken |
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! Sources |
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|- |
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| [[Marty Meehan]] |
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| Replacement with staff-written biography |
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| [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060130-6079.html Congressional staffers edit boss's bio on Wikipedia] |
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|- |
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| [[Norm Coleman]] |
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| Rewrite to make more favorable, claimed to be "correcting errors") |
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| {{cite journal | first = | last = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = | month = | title =Web site's entry on Coleman revised Aide confirms his staff edited biography, questions Wikipedia's accuracy | journal =St. Paul Pioneer Press(Associated Press) | volume = | issue = | pages = | id = | url =http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/13750990.htm |
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}} |
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|- |
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| [[Conrad Burns]]<br />Montana |
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| Removal of quoted pejorative statements the Senator had made, and replacing them with "glowing tributes" as "the voice of the farmer") |
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| {{cite web |url=http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2006/02/09/news/wikipedia.txt |title=Burns' office may have tampered with Wikipedia entry |publisher=[[Bozeman Daily Chronicle]] |author=Williams, Walt |date=2007-01-01 |accessdate=2007-02-13}} |
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|- |
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| [[Joe Biden]] |
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| Removal of unfavorable information |
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| [http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060130-6079.html Congressional staffers edit boss's bio on Wikipedia] |
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|- |
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| [[Gil Gutknecht]] |
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| Staff rewrite and removal of information evidencing broken campaign promise. |
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(Multiple attempts) |
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| On [[August 16]] [[2006]], the ''Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune'' reported that the office of Representative [[Gil Gutknecht]] tried twice — on [[July 24]] and [[August 14]] [[2006]] — to remove a 128-word section in the Wikipedia article on him, replacing it with a more flattering 315-word entry taken from his official congressional biography. Most of the removed text was about the 12-year term-limit Gutknecht imposed on himself in 1995 (Gutknecht [[election|ran]] for re-election in 2006, breaking his promise). A spokesman for Gutknecht did not dispute that his office tried to change his Wikipedia entry, but questioned the reliability of the encyclopedia. ([http://www.startribune.com/587/story/618899.html "Gutknecht joins Wikipedia tweakers"], ''Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune'', August 16, 2006, accessed August 17, 2006) {{Failed verification|date=February 2007}}. |
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Multiple attempts, first using a [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Gil_Gutknecht&diff=65633218&oldid=65024590 named account], then an [http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Gil_Gutknecht&diff=69644632&oldid=69638576 anonymous IP account]. |
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|- |
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|}</ref> In a separate but similar incident the campaign manager for [[Cathy Cox]], [[Morton Brilliant]], resigns after being found to have added negative information to the Wikipedia entries of political opponents.<ref>Information included the mention of an opponent's son's arrest in a fatal drunk driving accident, and the allegation of questionable business practices of another [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002958137_campaign28m.html]. See article [[Morton Brilliant]] for detailed citations.</ref> Following media publicity, the incidents tapered off around August 2006. |
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* July 2006: [[Joshua Gardner]] is exposed as a fake Duke of Cleveland with a Wikipedia page. |
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* January 2007: English-language Wikipedians in [[Qatar]] were briefly blocked from editing, following a spate of vandalism, by an administrator who did not realize that the country's internet traffic is routed through a single [[IP address]]. Multiple media sources promptly declared that Wikipedia was banning Qatar from the site.<ref>[http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196800476 "Wikipedia Founder Refutes Claims That It Banned Qatar"] by Thomas Claburn, ''[[InformationWeek]], January 2, [[2007]]</ref> |
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* On [[January 23]] [[2007]], a [[Microsoft]] employee offered to pay [[Rick Jelliffe]] to review and change certain Wikipedia articles regarding an open-source document standard which was rival to a Microsoft format.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16775981/ |title=Microsoft offers cash for Wikipedia edit |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |author=Bergstein, Brian |date=2007-01-23 |accessdate=2007-02-01}}</ref> |
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* In February 2007, ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine issued a rare editorial correction that a prominent [[English Wikipedia]] editor and administrator known as "Essjay", had invented a persona using fictitious credentials.<ref name="New Yorker">{{cite web |
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| url = http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |
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| title = Annals of Information: Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? |
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| accessdate = 2007-04-16 |
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| last = Schiff |
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| first = Stacy |
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| authorlink = Stacy Schiff |
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| date = [[July 24]] [[2006]] |
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| publisher = [[The New Yorker]] |
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}} |
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</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite web |
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| url = http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2028328,00.html |
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| title = Read me first |
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| accessdate = 2007-04-16 |
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| last = Finkelstein |
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| first = Seth |
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| date = [[March 8]], [[2007]] |
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| work = Technology |
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| publisher = [[The Guardian]] |
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| archiveurl = |
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| archivedate = |
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}} |
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</ref> The editor, [[Essjay controversy|Ryan Jordan]], became a [[Wikia]] employee in January 2007 and divulged his real name; this was noticed by Daniel Brandt of [[Wikipedia Watch]], and communicated to the original article author. (See: [[Essjay controversy]]) |
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* February 2007: [[Fuzzy Zoeller]] sues a Miami firm because defamatory information was added to his Wikipedia biography in an anonymous edit that came from their network. |
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* February 16, 2007: Turkish historian [[Taner Akçam]] was briefly detained upon arrival at a Canadian airport because of false information on his biography indicating that he was a terrorist. |
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* In June 2007, an anonymous user [[Chris Benoit murder-suicide#Wikipedia controversy|posted hoax information]] that, by coincidence, foreshadowed the [[Chris Benoit murder-suicide]], hours before the bodies were found by investigators. The discovery of the edit attracted widespread media attention and was first covered in sister site [[Wikinews:Death of Nancy Benoit rumour posted on Wikipedia hours prior to body being found|Wikinews]]. |
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* In October 2007, in their obituaries of recently-deceased TV theme composer [[Ronnie Hazlehurst]], many British media organisations reported that he had co-written the [[S Club 7]] song "[[Reach (S Club 7 song)|Reach]]". In fact, he hadn't, and it was discovered that this information had been sourced from a hoax edit to Hazlehurst's Wikipedia article.<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/03/wikipedia_obituary_cut_and_paste/ Braindead obituarists hoaxed by Wikipedia] Andrew Orlowski, [[The Register]] 3 October 2007</ref> |
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* In January 2008, [[Barbara Bauer]], a literary agent, sued Wikimedia for defamation and causing harm to her business.<ref>[http://www.eff.org/cases/bauer-v-glatzer Bauer v. Wikimedia et al | Electronic Frontier Foundation<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In [[Bauer v. Glatzer]], Bauer claimed that information on Wikipedia critical of her abilities as a literary agent caused this harm. The [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] defended Wikipedia<ref>[http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/02 EFF and Sheppard Mullin Defend Wikipedia in Defamation Case | Electronic Frontier Foundation<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and moved to dismiss the case on May 2, 2008.<ref>http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/wikimedia/motiontoquashmemo-wikimedia.pdf</ref> The case against the Wikimedia Foundation was dismissed on 7/1/08.<ref>http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/bauer-v-wikimedia</ref> |
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===Notable forks and derivatives=== |
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See [[Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks]] for a partial list of Wikipedia mirrors and forks. No list of sites utilizing the software is maintained. |
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A significant number of sites utilize the [[MediaWiki]] software and concept, popularized by [[Wikipedia]]. |
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Specialized foreign language forks using the Wikipedia concept include [[Enciclopedia Libre]] (Spanish), [[Wikiweise]] (German), [[WikiZnanie]] (Russian), [[Susning.nu]] (Swedish), and [[Baidu Baike]] (Chinese). Some of these (such as ''Enciclopedia Libre'') use [[GFDL]] or compatible licenses as used by Wikipedia, leading to exchange of material with their respective language Wikipedias. |
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In 2006, [[Larry Sanger]] founds [[Citizendium]], based upon a modified version of [[MediaWiki]]. It has expert-led top-down culture, the absence of which in Wikipedia he views as a major concern.<ref>[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/ Wikipedia founder forks Wikipedia] 18 September 2006</ref> |
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=== Publication on other media === |
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The [[German Wikipedia]] was the first to be partly published also using other media (rather than online on the internet), including releases on CD in November 2004<ref>{{cite web |
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|url= http://www.digitale-bibliothek.de/scripts/ts.dll?s=1&id=E0016306&mp=/art/1266/&sc=Wikipedia.htm |
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|title=Wikipedia, Die freie Enzyklopädie |
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|language=German |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25}}</ref> and more extended versions on CDs or DVD in April 2005 and December 2006. In December 2005, the publisher Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, a sister company of Directmedia, published a 139 page book explaining Wikipedia, its history and policies, which was accompanied by a 7.5 GB DVD containing 300,000 articles and 100,000 images from the German Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/result.xhtml?url=/newsticker/meldung/67137&words=Wikipedia%20DVD |
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|title=Neue Wikipedia-DVD im Handel und zum Download |
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|language=German |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25}}</ref> Originally, Directmedia also announced plans to print the [[German Wikipedia]] in its entirety, in 100 volumes of 800 pages each. Publication was due to begin in October 2006, and finish in 2010. In March 2006, however, this project was called off.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/71231 |
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|title=Wikipedia wird noch nicht gedruckt |
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|language=German |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25}}</ref> |
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In September 2008, [[Bertelsmann]] published a 1000 pages volume with a selection of popular German Wikipedia articles, in fact their introductions. Bertelsmann paid voluntarily 1 Euro per sold copy to [[Wikimedia Deutschland]].<ref>[http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/71231 Titelinformationen], Bertelsmann site. Last seen 2008-10-07.</ref> |
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The first CD version containing a selection of articles from the [[English Wikipedia]] was published in April 2006 by [[SchoolsWP:SOSChildren|SOS Children]] as the ''[[2006 Wikipedia CD Selection]]''.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/education-cd.htm |
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|publisher=[[SchoolsWP:SOSChildren|SOS Children]] |
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|date=06/04/2006 |
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|title=SOS Children releases 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25}}</ref> In April 2007, "Wikipedia Version 0.5", a CD containing around 2000 articles selected from the online encyclopedia was published by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] and Linterweb. The selection of articles included was based on both the quality of the online version and the importance of the topic to be included. This CD version was created as a test-case in preparation for a DVD version including far more articles.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://wikipediaondvd.com/site.php |
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|title=Wikipedia 0.5 available on a CD-ROM |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25 |
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|month=April | year=2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://tweakers.net/nieuws/47253/Wikipedia-maakt-cd-voor-internetlozen.html |
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|title=Wikipedia maakt cd voor internetlozen |
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|language=Dutch |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25 |
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|date=[[25 April]] [[2007]] |
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|publisher=[[tweakers.net]]}}</ref> The CD version can be purchased online, downloaded as a [[Disk image|DVD image file]] or [[Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Torrent Project/Version 0.5|Torrent file]], or accessed online at the project's [http://wikipediaondvd.com/nav/art/d/w.html website]. |
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A free software project has also been launched to make a static version of Wikipedia available for use on [[iPod]]s. The "Encyclopodia" project was started around March 2006 and can currently be used on 1st to 4th generation iPods.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html Encyclopodia site |
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|title=Encyclopodia – the encyclopedia on your iPod |
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|publisher=[[Sourceforge]] |
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|accessdate=2007-04-25}}</ref> |
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[[iPhone]] and [[iPod touch]] are able to edit Wikipedia pages. |
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===Lawsuits=== |
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In limited ways, the Wikimedia Foundation is protected by [[Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act]]. A similar law in France caused a lawsuit to be dismissed in October 2007.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-11-05/French lawsuit]] 5 November 2007</ref> |
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==Other notable occurrences== |
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===Early roles of Wales and Sanger=== |
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<!-- THE SECTION TITLE IS LINKED FROM ELSEWHERE INCLUDING THE JIMMY WALES AND LARRY SANGER ARTICLES --> |
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Both [[Jimmy Wales|Wales]] and [[Larry Sanger|Sanger]] played important roles in the early stages of Wikipedia. Sanger initially brought the wiki concept to Wales and suggested it be applied to Nupedia and then, after some initial skepticism, Wales agreed to try it.<ref name="Glyn Moody"/> Wales ascribed the broader idea of an encyclopedia to which non-experts could contribute, i.e. Wikipedia. Sanger wrote, "To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was ''entirely'' Jimmy's, not mine" (emphasis in original text). He also wrote, "Jimmy, of course, deserves enormous credit for investing in and guiding Wikipedia."<ref name="memoirofwiki">"[http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9 The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir - Part I]" and "[http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95 Part II]", [[Slashdot]], April 2005. Retrieved on 2007-[[March 25|03-25]].<small> "The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on. So I arrived in San Diego in early February, 2000, to get to work. One of the first things I asked Jimmy is how free a rein I had in designing the project. What were my constraints, and in what areas was I free to exercise my own creativity? He replied, as I clearly recall, that most of the decisions should be mine; and in most respects, as a manager, Jimmy was indeed very hands-off. Nevertheless, I always did consult with him about important decisions, and moreover, I wanted his advice. Now, Jimmy was quite clear that he wanted the project to be in principle open to everyone to develop, just as open source software is (to an extent). Beyond this, however, I believe I was given a pretty free rein. So I spent the first month or so thinking very broadly about different possibilities." —Larry Sanger.</small></ref> Wales stated in October 2001 that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software."<ref name="wikipedia-l-000671"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Jimmy |
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|last=Wales |
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|url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |
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|title=LinkBacks? |
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|date=October 30, 2001 |
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|format=Email |
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|work=wikipedia-l archives |
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|publisher=[[Bomis]] |
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|date=[[October 30]], [[2001]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}</ref> Sanger coined the [[portmanteau]] "Wikipedia" as the project name.<ref name="memoirofwiki"/> In review, Larry Sanger conceived of a wiki-based encyclopedia as a strategic solution to Nupedia's inefficiency problems.<ref name="co-founders"/> In terms of project roles, Sanger spearheaded and pursued the project as its leader in its first year, and did most of the early work in formulating policies (including "Ignore all rules"<ref name="Ignore_all_rules">{{cite news |
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|first= |
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|last= |
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|title=Rules To Consider |
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|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010416035716/www.wikipedia.com/wiki/RulesToConsider |
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|work=Ignore all rules |
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|publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |
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|date= |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}</ref> and "Neutral point of view"<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=Know It All |
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|url=http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |
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|work=Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? |
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|publisher=[[The New Yorker]] |
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|date=[[July 24]], [[2006]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}</ref>) and building up the community.<ref name="co-founders"/> Upon departure in March 2002, Sanger emphasized the main issue was purely the cessation of Bomis' funding for his role, which was not viable part-time, and his changing personal priorities,<ref name="resignation"/> however by 2004 the two had drifted apart and Sanger became more critical. Two weeks after the launch of Citizendium, Sanger heavily criticized Wikipedia, describing the latter as "broken beyond repair."<ref name="Wikipedia 'broken beyond repair' says co-founder">{{cite news |
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|first=Iain |
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|last=Thomson |
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|title=Wikipedia 'broken beyond repair' says co-founder |
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|url=http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2187709/wikipedia-broken-beyond-repair |
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|publisher=[[Information World Review]] |
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|date=[[April 13]], [[2007]] |
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|accessdate=2007-04-15}}</ref> |
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Wales claims to be the founder of Wikipedia,<ref name="Dan_Mitchell"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Dan |
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|last=Mitchell |
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|title=Insider Editing at Wikipedia |
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|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/technology/24online.ready.html?ex=1293080400&en=431aff478b00239e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |
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|publisher=[[The New York Times]] |
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|date=[[December 24]], [[2005]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quotes=}}</ref> however, as explained by Brian Bergstein of the Associated Press, "Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder."<ref name="co-founders"/> There is evidence that Sanger was called co-founder, along with Wales, as early as 2001, and he is referred to as such in early Wikipedia press releases and Wikipedia articles, and in a September 2001 ''The New York Times'' article for which both were interviewed.<ref name="sanger-NYTimes">{{cite news |
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|author=Peter Meyers |
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|title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You |
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|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fComputer%20Software |
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|publisher=[[The New York Times]] |
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|date=2001-09-20 |
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|accessdate=2007-04-18 |
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|quote=<small>It's kind of surprising that you could just open up a site and let people work," said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's co-founder and the chief executive of Bomis, a San Diego search engine company that donates the computer resources for the project. "There's kind of this real social pressure to not argue about things." Instead, he said, "there's a general consensus among all of the really busy volunteers about what an encyclopedia article needs to be like.</small>}}</ref> Wales later disputed this, stating, "He used to work for me [...] I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title."<ref name="James Niccolai">James Niccolai, [http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7177 Wikipedia taking on the vandals in Germany], [[PC Advisor]], [[26 September]] [[2006]].</ref> There is no evidence from before January 2004 of Wales disputing Sanger's status as co-founder.<ref>Bishop, Todd. (January 26, 2004) [[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]. ''[http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/158020_msftnotebook26.html Microsoft Notebook: Wiki pioneer planted the seed and watched it grow.]'' Section: Business; Page D1.</ref> |
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Today, Wales emphasizes this employer-employee relation and the fact that he was therefore the ultimate authority, to assert that this makes him the "sole founder," and Sanger cites earlier versions of Wikipedia pages (2004, 2006) and press releases (2002 - 2004), to demonstrate that media coverage articles from the time of his involvement routinely represent them as co-founders.<ref name="co-founders">{{cite news |
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|first=Brian |
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|last=Bergstein |
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|title=Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia |
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|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17798723/ |
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|work=[[msnbc.com]] |
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|publisher=[[Associated Press]] |
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|date=[[March 25]], [[2007]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-28 |
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|quote=<small>The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy Ph.D. who counts himself as a co-founder of Wikipedia, the site he now hopes to usurp. The claim doesn't seem particularly controversial - Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder. Yet the other founder, Jimmy Wales, isn't happy about it.</small>}}<small> — Brian Bergstein.</small></ref><ref name="sanger-NYTimes"/><ref name="Sanger-Technology Review"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Judy |
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|last=Heim |
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|url=http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/12586/ |
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|title=Free the Encyclopedias! |
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|publisher=[[Technology Review]] |
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|date=[[September 4]], [[2001]] |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25}}</ref><ref name="SangerLinks"> |
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{{cite news |
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|first=Larry |
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|last=Sanger |
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|url=http://www.larrysanger.org/roleinwp.html |
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|title=My role in Wikipedia (links) |
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|work=larrysanger.org |
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|publisher=Larry Sanger |
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|accessdate=2007-03-25 |
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|quote=}}</ref> |
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===Blocking of Wikipedia=== |
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Wikipedia has been blocked on some occasions by national authorities. To date these have related to the [[People's Republic of China]], [[Iran]], [[Tunisia]], [[Uzbekistan]] and [[Syria]]. |
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===== Mainland China (multiple occasions)===== |
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{{main|Blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China}} |
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The [[People's Republic of China]] and [[internet service provider]]s in Mainland China have adopted a [[Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China|practice of blocking]] contentious Web sites in [[mainland China]], and Wikimedia sites have been blocked multiple times in its history, sometimes all articles, and sometimes selectively by topic, region, language version, or ISP. Notable blocks include: |
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# June 2004: Access to the [[Chinese Wikipedia]] from [[Beijing]] blocked on the fifteenth anniversary of the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989]]. Possibly related to this, on [[May 31]] an article from the IDG News Service was published, discussing the Chinese Wikipedia's treatment of the protests.<ref>[http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116323,00.asp Chinese Build Free Net Encyclopedia]</ref> |
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# September 2004: A second and less serious outage. Access to Wikipedia was erratic or unavailable to some users in mainland China — this block was not comprehensive and some users in mainland China were never affected. The exact reason for the block is unknown, but it may have been linked with the closing down of [[YTHT BBS]], a popular [[Peking University]]-based BBS that was shut down a few weeks earlier for hosting overtly radical political discussions.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} |
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# October 2005 to around mid October 2006: For the first few days the English Wikipedia seems to have been unblocked in most provinces in China, while users were still unable to access the Chinese version in certain provinces, varying by ISP. By November, both versions seemed to be accessible in all provinces and by all ISPs. The end of the block coincided with the Chinese Wikipedia's 100,000th article milestone.<ref>[http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2006/10/16/chart-wikipedia-access-in-china/ Chart: Wikipedia access in China]</ref><ref>[http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2006/11/10/chinese-wikipedia-now-fully-unblocked/ Chinese Wikipedia now fully unblocked?]</ref><ref>[http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/blog/fluorescentparadise/0,39059288,61965876,00.htm Friend in high place unblocks Wikipedia, Fortune Magazine]</ref> |
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The first block had an effect on the vitality of Chinese Wikipedia, which [http://wiki.riteme.site/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediaZH.htm suffered sharp dips in various indicators] such as the number of new users, the number of new articles, and the number of edits. In some cases, it took anywhere from six to twelve months in order to recover to the levels of May 2004. |
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On July 31, 2008, the [[BBC]] reported that the Chinese Wikipedia had been unblocked that day in China; it had still been blocked the previous day. This came within the context of foreign journalists arriving in [[Beijing]] to report on the upcoming [[2008 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]], and websites such as the Chinese edition of the BBC were being unblocked following talks between the [[International Olympic Committee]] and the Games' Chinese organisers.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7535280.stm "Beijing unblocks BBC Chinese site"], BBC, July 31, 2008</ref> |
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===== Iran ===== |
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[[Image:Fa wikipedia blocked.png|thumb|200px|The main page of the [[Persian Wikipedia]] accessed in Iran. The text reads: "Dear subscriber, Access to this website is not possible"]] |
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Access to the [[Persian Wikipedia]] was blocked for a few days by some ISPs in [[Iran]]. Keyword-based censorship of URLs however continually affects Wikipedia and many other websites. |
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{{see|Internet censorship in Iran}} |
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===== Tunisia ===== |
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Wikimedia website was blocked for a few days in [[Tunisia]] ([[November 23]] - [[November 27]], [[2006]]). |
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===== Uzbekistan ===== |
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Access to Uzbek Wikipedia was blocked in Uzbekistan on [[January 10]], [[2008]]<ref>[http://uforum.uz/showthread.php?p=79020 Oʻzbekcha wikipedia yana yopildimi?]<sup>([[Uzbek language|Uzbek]])</sup></ref>; the block was lifted [[5 March]], [[2008]]. This was the second time Wikipedia had been blocked in Uzbekistan; the first case was in 2007. |
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====Syria==== |
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Access to [[Arabic Wikipedia]] has been blocked since [[30 April]] [[2008]] and has not been lifted yet. (Other languages are accessible). |
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<div style="clear:both;"></div> |
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==Wikipedia history in images== |
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{| |
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| colspan="2" align="center" style="font-size:125%" | '''Traffic, size and growth'''<br />(See also: [[Wikipedia:Statistics]]) |
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|- valign="top" |
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| [[Image:Size of wikipedia graph sep 2002.png|right|thumb|300px|Size of Wikipedia, until September 2002.]] |
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[[Image:Wikipedia growth rate sep 2002.png|right|thumb|300px|Wikipedia growth rate, until September 2002.]] |
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[[Image:Wikipedia daily traffic sep 2002.png|right|thumb|300px|Wikipedia traffic rate, August/September 2002.]] |
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| [[Image:Wikipedia growth.png|thumb|350px|Growth of the eight largest Wikipedias, July 2001 to November 2007.]] |
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[[Image:Wikipedia Article Creation.png|thumb|300px | Growth of Wikipedia through September 2007]] |
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|- |
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|} |
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{| class="wikitable" |
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|+ English article count milestones |
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! Date !! number |
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|- |
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! April 2003 || 125,000<ref>From [http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm Detailed tables and charts of Wikipedia statistics]</ref> |
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|- |
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! April 2004|| 250,000 |
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|- |
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! March 17, 2005|| 500,000<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-03-21/Half-million_articles Wikipedia reaches milestone with half-million English articles] 21 March 2005</ref> |
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|- |
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! March 1, 2006|| 1,000,000<ref>[http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2006-03-06/Millionth_article English Wikipedia hits one million articles] 6 March 2006</ref> |
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|- |
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! September 10, 2007|| 2,000,000<ref>Michael Arrington, [http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/12/wikipedia-2-million-article-milestone/ "Wikipedia: 2 Million Article Milestone"], ''TechCrunch.com'', September 12, 2007, retrieved January 4, 2008</ref> |
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|- |
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|} |
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== See also == |
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* [[History of wikis]] |
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==References== |
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{{Cleanup-section|Novemeber 2007|date=November 2007}} |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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==External links == |
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===Wikipedia records and archives=== |
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:''Wikipedia's project files contain a large quantity of reference and archive material. Useful resources on Wikipedia history within Wikipedia are: |
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;Historical summaries |
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* {{selfref|1=[[:Category:Wikipedia years]] - historical events by year<br />[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles]]<br />[[:meta:History of Wikipedia|History of Wikipedia]] - from the [http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wikipedia:Meta Wikipedia:Meta]<br />[[Wikipedia:Historic debates]]<br />[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia records]]<br />[[meta:Wikimedia News]] - news and milestones index from all Wikipedias<br />[[Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots]]}} |
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;Size and statistics |
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* {{selfref|1=[http://stats.wikimedia.org stats.wikimedia.org] - the Mediawiki Foundation's main interface for all project statistics, including the various and combined Wikipedia's.[[Wikipedia:Milestones]]<br />[[Wikipedia:Statistics]]<br />[[Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia]]}} |
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;Discussion and debate archives |
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* {{selfref|1=[[Wikipedia:Announcements]][[Wikipedia:Mailing lists]]}} |
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* {{srlink|Wikipedia:Announcement archive}} |
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;Other |
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* {{selfref|1=[[Wikipedia:CamelCase and Wikipedia]]<br />[http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org Nostalgia Wikipedia] - a snapshot of Wikipedia from [[December 20]], [[2001]], running the current version of MediaWiki for security reasons but using a skin that looks like the software of the time.<br />[http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=User:Larry_Sanger/Origins_of_Wikipedia&oldid=39843351 Larry Sanger about the origins of Wikipedia]<br />[[Wikipedia:Volunteer Fire Department]] - handling of major editorial influx. Disbanded when no longer needed (2004)<br />[[Wikipedia:Magnus Manske Day]] - mediawiki software goes live into production}} |
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* {{selfref|1="[[Truth in Numbers: The Wikipedia Story]]", a 2007 [[Documentary film|documentary]].}} |
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===Third party=== |
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* [http://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http%3A//www.wikipedia.com/ Early Wikipedia snapshot]--[[30 March]] [[2001]] |
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* [http://web.archive.org/web/20010303221706/www.wikipedia.com/wiki/HomePage Even older Wikipedia snapshot]- [[28 February]] [[2001]] |
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* [http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource] — Free Software Foundation endorsement of Nupedia (later updated to include Wikipedia) 1999. |
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* [[Larry Sanger]], [http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&from=rss The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir] and [http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95 Part II] [[Slashdot]] ([[18 April]]-[[19 April]] [[2005]]) |
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* Giles, Jim, [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/pf/438900a_pf.html Internet encyclopaedias go head to head], [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']] comparison between Wikipedia and Britannica, [[14 December]] [[2005]] |
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* [http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf Fatally Flawed: Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal ''Nature''], [[Encyclopedia Britannica]] Inc., March 2006 |
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* [http://www.nature.com/nature/britannica/index.html ''Nature's'' responses to Encyclopaedia Britannica], ''Nature'', [[23 March]] [[2006]] |
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{{Wikipediahistory}} |
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[[Category:History of Wikipedia| ]] |
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[[Category:Internet censorship|Wikipedia, blocking of]] |
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[[ar:تاريخ ويكيبيديا]] |
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[[be-x-old:Гісторыя Вікіпэдыі]] |
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[[da:Den danske Wikipedias historie]] |
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[[es:Historia de Wikipedia]] |
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[[fr:Histoire de Wikipédia]] |
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[[hr:Povijest Wikipedije]] |
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[[it:Storia di Wikipedia]] |
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[[hu:A Wikipédia története]] |
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[[ms:Sejarah Wikipedia]] |
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[[nl:Geschiedenis van Wikipedia]] |
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[[pt:História da Wikipédia]] |
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[[ru:История Википедии]] |
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[[sv:Wikipedias historia]] |
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[[te:వికీపీడియా చరిత్ర]] |
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Revision as of 14:53, 19 November 2008
Who gives a flying FUCK about the history of wikipedia? I fucking hate your bulshit "speedy deletion" and your other crap.
You guys are antisemetic bastards and you guys fucking suck.