<p><strong>Wikipedia</strong> (<a title="IPA chart for English" href="/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English">IPA</a>: <span class="IPA" title="Pronunciation in IPA">/ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/</span>, <span class="IPA" title="Pronunciation in IPA">/ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/</span>, or <span class="IPA" title="Pronunciation in IPA">/ˌwaɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/</span> (<span class="unicode audiolink"><a class="internal" title="En-us-Wikipedia.ogg" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/En-us-Wikipedia.ogg">Audio (U.S.)</a></span>&nbsp;<span class="metadata audiolinkinfo"><small>(<a title="Wikipedia:Media help" href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_help">help</a>&middot;<a title="Image:En-us-Wikipedia.ogg" href="/wiki/Image:En-us-Wikipedia.ogg">info</a>)</small></span>) is a <a title="Multilingualism" href="/wiki/Multilingualism">multilingual</a>, <a title="World Wide Web" href="/wiki/World_Wide_Web">web</a>-based, <a title="Free content" href="/wiki/Free_content">free content</a> <a title="Encyclopedia" href="/wiki/Encyclopedia">encyclopedia</a> project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by <a title="Volunteer" href="/wiki/Volunteer">volunteers</a>; the vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Wikipedia's name is a <a title="Portmanteau" href="Portmanteau">portmanteau</a> of the words <em><a title="Wiki" href="/wiki/Wiki">wiki</a></em> (a type of collaborative website) and <em><a title="Encyclopedia" href="/wiki/Encyclopedia">encyclopedia</a></em>. Its main <a title="Server (computing)" href="/wiki/Server_%28computing%29">servers</a> are in <a title="Tampa, Florida" href="/wiki/Tampa%2C_Florida">Tampa, Florida</a>, with additional servers in <a title="Amsterdam" href="/wiki/Amsterdam">Amsterdam</a> and <a title="Seoul" href="/wiki/Seoul">Seoul</a>.</p><p>Wikipedia's <a title="English Wikipedia" href="/wiki/English_Wikipedia">English edition</a> was launched on <a title="January 15" href="/wiki/January_15">January 15</a>, <a title="2001" href="/wiki/2001">2001</a>, as a complement to <a title="Nupedia" href="/wiki/Nupedia">Nupedia</a>, an expert-written and now defunct encyclopedia. The project is currently operated by the <a title="Wikimedia Foundation" href="/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a>, a <a title="Non-profit organization" href="/wiki/Non-profit_organization">non-profit organization</a> created by <a title="Jimmy Wales" href="/wiki/Jimmy_Wales">Jimmy Wales</a>, the co-founder of Wikipedia.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-foundercontroversy_1"><a title="" href="#_note-foundercontroversy">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-Dan_Mitchell_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Dan_Mitchell">[3]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-David_Mehegan_0"><a title="" href="#_note-David_Mehegan">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-Brian_Bergstein_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Brian_Bergstein">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-The_Hive_0"><a title="" href="#_note-The_Hive">[6]</a></sup> Wikipedia has approximately 7.2 million articles in 251 languages,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ListOfWikipedias_1"><a title="" href="#_note-ListOfWikipedias">[1]</a></sup> 1.7 million of which are in the English edition. It has steadily risen in popularity since its inception,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-AlexaStats_0"><a title="" href="#_note-AlexaStats">[7]</a></sup> and currently ranks among the top fifteen most-visited websites worldwide.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-0"><a title="" href="#_note-0">[8]</a></sup></p><p>Due to its open nature, critics have questioned Wikipedia's reliability and accuracy.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Who_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Who">[9]</a></sup> The site has also been criticized for its susceptibility to <a title="Vandalism" href="/wiki/Vandalism">vandalism</a>,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-DeathByWikipedia_0"><a title="" href="#_note-DeathByWikipedia">[10]</a></sup> uneven quality, <a title="Systemic bias" href="/wiki/Systemic_bias">systemic bias</a> and inconsistencies,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-SangerElitism_0"><a title="" href="#_note-SangerElitism">[11]</a></sup> and for favoring <a title="Consensus" href="/wiki/Consensus">consensus</a> over <a title="Credential" href="/wiki/Credential">credentials</a> in its editorial process.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-AcademiaAndWikipedia_0"><a title="" href="#_note-AcademiaAndWikipedia">[12]</a></sup> Wikipedia's content policies<sup class="reference" id="_ref-PoliciesAndGuidelines_0"><a title="" href="#_note-PoliciesAndGuidelines">[13]</a></sup> and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-1"><a title="" href="#_note-1">[14]</a></sup> Two scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived<sup class="reference" id="_ref-MIT_IBM_study_0"><a title="" href="#_note-MIT_IBM_study">[15]</a></sup> and that Wikipedia is generally as accurate as other encyclopedias.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Rosenzweig_2006_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Rosenzweig_2006">[16]</a></sup></p>

<p>During December 2005, about 27,000 users made at least five edits to Wikipedia; of these, 17,000 worked on the English edition.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-2"><a title="" href="#_note-2">[17]</a></sup> Maintenance tasks are performed by a group of volunteers; these include developers, who work on the <a title="MediaWiki" href="/wiki/MediaWiki">MediaWiki</a> software, and other trusted users with various permission levels including &quot;steward&quot;, &quot;bureaucrat&quot; and &quot;administrator&quot;.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-3"><a title="" href="#_note-3">[18]</a></sup> Administrators are the largest group of specially privileged users, and have the ability to delete (remove) pages, lock articles from being changed, and prevent users from editing.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-4"><a title="" href="#_note-4">[19]</a></sup></p><p>Wikipedia is funded through the <a title="Wikimedia Foundation" href="/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a>. Its 4th Quarter 2005 costs were $321,000 <a title="United States dollar" href="/wiki/United_States_dollar">USD</a>, with hardware making up almost 60% of the budget.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-5"><a title="" href="#_note-5">[20]</a></sup> The Wikimedia Foundation currently relies primarily on private donations, and holds regular fundraisers;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-6"><a title="" href="#_note-6">[21]</a></sup> the January 2007 fundraiser raised just over $1 million.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-7"><a title="" href="#_note-7">[22]</a></sup></p>

<div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 252px"><a class="internal" title="Wikipedia receives between 10,000 and 30,000 page requests per second, depending on time of day. More than 100 servers have been set up to handle the traffic." href="/wiki/Image:Floridaserversfront1.jpg"><img class="thumbimage" height="188" alt="Wikipedia receives between 10,000 and 30,000 page requests per second, depending on time of day. More than 100 servers have been set up to handle the traffic." width="250" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Floridaserversfront1.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Floridaserversfront1.jpg/250px-Floridaserversfront1.jpg" /></a>

<div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="/wiki/Image:Floridaserversfront1.jpg"><img height="11" alt="" width="15" src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" /></a></div>Wikipedia receives between 10,000 and 30,000 page requests per second, depending on time of day.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-8"><a title="" href="#_note-8">[23]</a></sup> More than 100 servers have been set up to handle the traffic.</div>

<p>The operation of Wikipedia depends on <a title="MediaWiki" href="/wiki/MediaWiki">MediaWiki</a>, a custom-made, <a title="Open source" href="/wiki/Open_source">open source</a> <a title="Wiki software" href="/wiki/Wiki_software">wiki software</a> platform written in <a title="PHP" href="/wiki/PHP">PHP</a> and built upon the <a title="MySQL" href="/wiki/MySQL">MySQL</a> database. The software incorporates modern programming features, such as a <a title="Macro language" href="/wiki/Macro_language">macro language</a>, <a title="Variables" href="/wiki/Variables">variables</a>, a <a title="Transclusion" href="/wiki/Transclusion">transclusion</a> system for <a title="Template" href="/wiki/Template">templates</a>, and <a title="URL redirection" href="/wiki/URL_redirection">URL redirection</a>. MediaWiki is licensed under the <a title="GNU General Public License" href="/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License">GNU General Public License</a> and used by all Wikimedia projects, as well as many other wiki projects. Originally, Wikipedia ran on <a title="UseModWiki" href="/wiki/UseModWiki">UseModWiki</a> written in <a title="Perl" href="/wiki/Perl">Perl</a> by Clifford Adams (Phase I), which initially required <a title="CamelCase" href="/wiki/CamelCase">CamelCase</a> for article hyperlinks; the present double brackets were incorporated later. Starting in January 2002 (Phase II), Wikipedia began running on a <a title="PhpWiki" href="/wiki/PhpWiki">PHP wiki</a> engine with a MySQL database; this software was custom-made for Wikipedia by <a title="Magnus Manske" href="/wiki/Magnus_Manske">Magnus Manske</a>. The Phase II software was repeatedly modified to accommodate the <a title="Exponential growth" href="/wiki/Exponential_growth">exponentially increasing</a> demand. In July 2002 (Phase III), Wikipedia shifted to the third-generation software, MediaWiki, originally written by Lee Daniel Crocker.</p>

<div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 202px"><a class="internal" title="Overview of system architecture, May 2006. Source: layout diagrams Server layout diagrams on Meta-Wiki." href="/wiki/Image:Wikimedia-servers-2006-05-09.svg"><img class="thumbimage" height="141" alt="Overview of system architecture, May 2006. Source: layout diagrams Server layout diagrams on Meta-Wiki." width="200" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Wikimedia-servers-2006-05-09.svg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Wikimedia-servers-2006-05-09.svg/200px-Wikimedia-servers-2006-05-09.svg.png" /></a>

<div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="/wiki/Image:Wikimedia-servers-2006-05-09.svg"><img height="11" alt="" width="15" src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" /></a></div>Overview of system architecture, May 2006. Source: <a class="external text" title="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Server" rel="nofollow" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Server">layout diagrams Server layout diagrams on Meta-Wiki</a>.</div>

<p>Wikipedia runs on dedicated <a title="Computer cluster" href="/wiki/Computer_cluster">clusters</a> of <a title="Linux" href="/wiki/Linux">Linux</a> servers in <a title="Florida" href="/wiki/Florida">Florida</a> and in four other locations.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-9"><a title="" href="#_note-9">[24]</a></sup> Wikipedia employed a single server until 2004, when the server setup was expanded into a distributed <a title="Multitier architecture" href="/wiki/Multitier_architecture">multitier architecture</a>. In January 2005, the project ran on 39 <a title="Dedicated hosting service" href="/wiki/Dedicated_hosting_service">dedicated servers</a> located in Florida. This configuration included a single master <a title="Database server" href="/wiki/Database_server">database server</a> running <a title="MySQL" href="/wiki/MySQL">MySQL</a>, multiple slave database servers, 21 <a title="Web server" href="/wiki/Web_server">web servers</a> running the <a title="Apache HTTP Server" href="/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server">Apache HTTP Server</a>, and seven <a title="Squid cache" href="/wiki/Squid_cache">Squid cache</a> servers. By September 2005, its <a title="Computer cluster" href="/wiki/Computer_cluster">server cluster</a> had grown to around 100 servers in four locations around the world.</p><p>Page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of <a title="Squid cache" href="/wiki/Squid_cache">Squid caching</a> servers. Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the <a title="Perlbal" href="/wiki/Perlbal">Perlbal</a> software, which in turn pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page-rendering from the database. The web servers deliver pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the language editions of Wikipedia. To increase speed further, rendered pages for anonymous users are cached in a filesystem until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. To further accelerate response times, Wikimedia is building a global network of caching servers, beginning with three caching servers in France. Two larger clusters in the Netherlands and Korea now handle much of Wikipedia's traffic load.</p>

<dl><dd><span class="boilerplate seealso"><em>See also: <a title="List of Wikipedias" href="/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias">List of Wikipedias</a></em></span> </dd></dl>

<div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 302px"><a class="internal" title="Wikipedia in Hebrew." href="/wiki/Image:He-Wikipedia.png"><img class="thumbimage" height="167" alt="Wikipedia in Hebrew." width="300" longdesc="/wiki/Image:He-Wikipedia.png" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/He-Wikipedia.png/300px-He-Wikipedia.png" /></a>

<div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="/wiki/Image:He-Wikipedia.png"><img height="11" alt="" width="15" src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" /></a></div>Wikipedia in <a title="Hebrew language" href="/wiki/Hebrew_language">Hebrew</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-10"><a title="" href="#_note-10">[25]</a></sup></div>

<p>Wikipedia has been described as &quot;an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language&quot;.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-11"><a title="" href="#_note-11">[26]</a></sup> There are presently 251 language editions of Wikipedia; of these, the top 14 have over 100,000 articles and the top 132 have over 1,000 articles.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ListOfWikipedias_2"><a title="" href="#_note-ListOfWikipedias">[1]</a></sup></p><p>Since Wikipedia is web-based, therefore world-wide, contributors of a same language edition may use different dialects or may come from different countries (this is the case for the <a title="English Wikipedia" href="/wiki/English_Wikipedia">English edition</a>). These differences may lead to some conflicts about spelling<sup class="reference" id="_ref-12"><a title="" href="#_note-12">[27]</a></sup> or points of view<sup class="reference" id="_ref-13"><a title="" href="#_note-13">[28]</a></sup>. According to <a title="Alexa Internet" href="/wiki/Alexa_Internet">Alexa Internet's</a> <a title="Audience" href="/wiki/Audience">audience measurement</a> service, the English <a title="Subdomain" href="/wiki/Subdomain">subdomain</a> (en.wikipedia.org) receives approximately 55% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining 45% split among the other languages.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-AlexaStats_1"><a title="" href="#_note-AlexaStats">[7]</a></sup></p><p>Though the various language editions are held to global policies such as &quot;neutral point of view,&quot; they diverge on some points of policy and practice. It is most notably the case for the use of non-free images.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-14"><a title="" href="#_note-14">[29]</a></sup></p>

<p>Though each language editions are more or less independent, some efforts are made to supervise them all. They are coordinated in part by <a class="external text" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meta-Wiki" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meta-Wiki">Meta-Wiki</a>, the Wikimedia Foundation's wiki devoted to maintaining all of its projects (Wikipedia and others). For instance, Meta-Wiki provide important statistics on all language editions of Wikipedia and maintain a <a class="external text" title="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_have" rel="nofollow" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_have">list of articles every Wikipedia should have</a>. This list concerns basic content like science, history, geography, etc. As for the rest, it is not rare articles for strongly related to a particular language do not have their counterparts in another edition. For example, articles about small townships of the United States might only be available in English.</p><p>Multilingual editors of sufficient fluency are encouraged to translate articles manually; automated translation of articles is explicitly disallowed.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-15"><a title="" href="#_note-15">[30]</a></sup> Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in most editions.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-16"><a title="" href="#_note-16">[31]</a></sup> Articles available in more than one language may offer &quot;<a title="InterWiki" href="/wiki/InterWiki">InterWiki</a>&quot; links in their left margins, which link to the counterpart articles in other editions. Images and other non-verbal media are shared among the various language editions through the <a title="Wikimedia Commons" href="/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons">Wikimedia Commons</a> repository. Beyond translations, some multingual efforts are also realised thanks to the <a class="external text" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_coordination" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_coordination">multilingual coordination</a>.</p>

<div class="noprint"><em>Main article: <a title="Reliability of Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia">Reliability of Wikipedia</a></em></div>

<p>Wikipedia appeals to the authority of peer-reviewed publications rather than the personal authority of experts.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-WP_RS_0"><a title="" href="#_note-WP_RS">[32]</a></sup> Wikipedia does not require that its contributors give their legal names<sup class="reference" id="_ref-17"><a title="" href="#_note-17">[33]</a></sup> or provide other information to establish their identity.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-18"><a title="" href="#_note-18">[34]</a></sup> Although some contributors are authorities in their field, Wikipedia requires that even their contributions be supported by published sources.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-WP_RS_1"><a title="" href="#_note-WP_RS">[32]</a></sup></p><p>Wikipedia tries to address the problem of <a title="Systemic bias" href="/wiki/Systemic_bias">systemic bias</a>, and to deal with zealous editors who seek to influence the presentation of an article in a biased way, by insisting on a neutral point of view.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-NPOV_0"><a title="" href="#_note-NPOV">[35]</a></sup> The English-language Wikipedia has introduced a scale against which the quality of articles is judged;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-19"><a title="" href="#_note-19">[36]</a></sup> other editions have also adopted this. Roughly 1200 articles have passed a rigorous set of criteria to reach the highest rank, &quot;featured article&quot; status; such articles are intended to provide a thorough, well-written coverage of their topic, and be supported by many references to peer-reviewed publications.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-20"><a title="" href="#_note-20">[37]</a></sup></p>

<p>Some studies suggest that Wikipedia provides a good starting point for research, but sometimes suffers from significant omissions and inaccuracies.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-21"><a title="" href="#_note-21">[38]</a></sup> On the other hand, an investigation by <em><a title="Nature (journal)" href="/wiki/Nature_%28journal%29">Nature</a></em> comparing Wikipedia to the <em>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</em> suggested a near similar level of accuracy in terms of its <a title="Natural science" href="/wiki/Natural_science">natural science</a> articles.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-22"><a title="" href="#_note-22">[39]</a></sup> <a title="Encyclopædia Britannica" href="/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica">Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</a> Inc. disagreed and described this study as &quot;fatally flawed&quot;,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-23"><a title="" href="#_note-23">[40]</a></sup> to which <em>Nature</em> later responded, stating that its study was perfectly neutral.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-24"><a title="" href="#_note-24">[41]</a></sup> Other studies have concluded that Wikipedia's coverage of history is significantly broader and deeper than that of <a title="Encarta" href="/wiki/Encarta">Encarta</a>, while being just as accurate,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Rosenzweig_2006_1"><a title="" href="#_note-Rosenzweig_2006">[16]</a></sup> and that obvious vandalism is usually reverted quickly.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-MIT_IBM_study_1"><a title="" href="#_note-MIT_IBM_study">[15]</a></sup></p><p>In a study of Wikipedia as a community, economics PhD student Andrea Ciffolilli argued that the low <a title="Transaction cost" href="/wiki/Transaction_cost">transaction costs</a> of participating in <a title="Wiki" href="/wiki/Wiki">wiki</a> software create a catalyst for collaborative development, and that a &quot;creative construction&quot; approach encourages participation.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-25"><a title="" href="#_note-25">[42]</a></sup></p><p>In February 2007, an article in <a title="The Harvard Crimson" href="/wiki/The_Harvard_Crimson">The Harvard Crimson</a> newspaper reported that some of the professors at <a title="Harvard University" href="/wiki/Harvard_University">Harvard University</a> do include Wikipedia in their syllabi, but that there is a split in their perception of using Wikipedia.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-26"><a title="" href="#_note-26">[43]</a></sup></p>

<div class="noprint"><em>Main article: <a title="Criticism of Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia">Criticism of Wikipedia</a></em></div>

<p>Wikipedia has been accused of exhibiting <a title="Systemic bias" href="/wiki/Systemic_bias">systemic bias</a> and inconsistency;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Who_1"><a title="" href="#_note-Who">[9]</a></sup> critics argue that Wikipedia's open nature, and favouring <a title="Consensus" href="/wiki/Consensus">consensus</a> over <a title="Credential" href="/wiki/Credential">credentials</a> in its editorial credentials in its editorial process, makes it unauthoritative, and that a lack of proper sources for much of the information makes it unreliable.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-27">[44]<a title="" href="#_note-27">[44]</a></sup> Some /sup> Some commentators suggest that Wikipedia is usually reliable, but that it is not always clear how much.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-AcademiaAndWikipedia_1">[12]<a title="" href="#_note-AcademiaAndWikipedia">[12]</a></sup/sup> The project's preference for <a title="Consensus" href="/wiki/Consensus">consensus</a> over <a title="Credential" href="/wiki/Credential">credentials</a> has been consensus over credentials has been labelled &quot;anti-elitism&quot;.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-SangerElitism_1"><a title="" href="#_note-SangerElitism">[11]</a></sup> Editors of traditional <a title="Reference work" href="/wiki/Reference_work">reference works</a> such as the <em>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</em> have questioned the project's utility and status as an encyclopedia.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-McHenry_2004_0"><a title="" href="#_note-McHenry_2004">[45]</a></sup> Many <a title="University" href="/wiki/University">university</a> <a title="Lecturer" href="/wiki/Lecturer">lecturers</a> discourage students from citing any encyclopedia in <a title="Academia" href="/wiki/Academia">academic work</a>, preferring <a title="Primary source" href="/wiki/Primary_source">primary sources</a>;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-WideWorldOfWikipedia_0"><a title="" href="#_note-WideWorldOfWikipedia">[46]</a></sup> some specifically prohibit Wikipedia citations.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-28"><a title="" href="#_note-28">[47]</a></sup> Co-founder <a title="Jimmy Wales" href="/wiki/Jimmy_Wales">Jimmy Wales</a> stresses that encyclopedias of any type are not usually appropriate as primary sources, and should not be relied upon as authoritative.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-AWorkInProgress_0"><a title="" href="#_note-AWorkInProgress">[48]</a></sup> Technology writer <a title="Bill Thompson (technology writer)" href="/wiki/Bill_Thompson_%28technology_writer%29">Bill Thompson</a> commented that the debate was possibly &quot;symptomatic of much learning about information which is happening in society today.&quot;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-29"><a title="" href="#_note-29">[49]</a></sup></p><p>Concerns have also been raised regarding the lack of <a title="Accountability" href="/wiki/Accountability">accountability</a> that results from users' anonymity,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-WikipediaWatch_0"><a title="" href="#_note-WikipediaWatch">[50]</a></sup> and that it is vulnerable to <a title="Vandalism" href="/wiki/Vandalism">vandalism</a> and Internet <a title="Troll (internet)" href="/wiki/Troll_%28internet%29">trolls</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-30"><a title="" href="#_note-30">[51]</a></sup> For example, <a title="John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy" href="/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy">false information was introduced</a> into the biography of <a title="John Seigenthaler, Sr." href="/wiki/John_Seigenthaler%2C_Sr.">John Seigenthaler, Sr.</a> and remained undetected for four months.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-31"><a title="" href="#_note-31">[52]</a></sup></p><p>Wikipedia's community has been described as &quot;<a title="Cult" href="/wiki/Cult">cult</a>-like&quot;,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-32"><a title="" href="#_note-32">[53]</a></sup> although not always with entirely negative connotations,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-33"><a title="" href="#_note-33">[54]</a></sup> and criticised for failing to accommodate inexperienced users.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-34"><a title="" href="#_note-34">[55]</a></sup> The addition of political <a title="Spin (public relations)" href="/wiki/Spin_%28public_relations%29">spin</a> to articles by organizations including the <a title="U.S. House of Representatives" href="/wiki/U.S._House_of_Representatives">U.S. House of Representatives</a> and special interest groups<sup class="reference" id="_ref-DeathByWikipedia_1"><a title="" href="#_note-DeathByWikipedia">[10]</a></sup> has been noted,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-35"><a title="" href="#_note-35">[56]</a></sup> and organizations such as <a title="Microsoft" href="/wiki/Microsoft">Microsoft</a> have offered financial incentives to work on certain articles.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-36"><a title="" href="#_note-36">[57]</a></sup> Wikipedia has been parodied by its critics, notably by <a title="Stephen Colbert" href="/wiki/Stephen_Colbert">Stephen Colbert</a> in <em><a title="The Colbert Report" href="/wiki/The_Colbert_Report">The Colbert Report</a></em>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-37"><a title="" href="#_note-37">[58]</a></sup></p><p>In 2007, the Wikipedia article on then-Montana senator <a title="Conrad Burns" href="/wiki/Conrad_Burns">Conrad Burns</a> was edited by his own staff, causing <a title="Political scandal" href="/wiki/Political_scandal">political scandal</a> among his constituents.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-38"><a title="" href="#_note-38">[59]</a></sup></p><p>Wikipedia's content policies<sup class="reference" id="_ref-PoliciesAndGuidelines_1"><a title="" href="#_note-PoliciesAndGuidelines">[13]</a></sup> and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-39"><a title="" href="#_note-39">[60]</a></sup> Several scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-MIT_IBM_study_2"><a title="" href="#_note-MIT_IBM_study">[15]</a></sup> and that Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as other online encyclopedias.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Rosenzweig_2006_2"><a title="" href="#_note-Rosenzweig_2006">[16]</a></sup></p><p>Due to Wikipedia's openness, it is a prime target for <a title="Troll (Internet)" href="/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29">trolls</a> who, with intent, add misleading, sometimes biased information to articles or delete or reword <a title="Objectivity (journalism)" href="/wiki/Objectivity_%28journalism%29">neutral in tone</a> information from articles, occasionally, carry on a seemingly never ending conversation in article discussion rooms, and draw undue attention to themselves.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-Torsten_Kleinz_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Torsten_Kleinz">[61]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-Left_in_Control_of_Wikipedia_0"><a title="" href="#_note-Left_in_Control_of_Wikipedia">[62]</a></sup></p>

<p>Wikipedia won two major awards in May 2004.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-40"><a title="" href="#_note-40">[63]</a></sup> The first was a Golden Nica for Digital Communities of the annual <a title="Prix Ars Electronica" href="/wiki/Prix_Ars_Electronica">Prix Ars Electronica</a> contest; this came with a &euro;10,000 (&pound;6,588; $12,700) grant and an invitation to present at the PAE Cyberarts Festival in <a title="Austria" href="/wiki/Austria">Austria</a> later that year. The second was a Judges' <a title="Webby Awards" href="/wiki/Webby_Awards">Webby Award</a> for the &quot;community&quot; category.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-41"><a title="" href="#_note-41">[64]</a></sup> Wikipedia was also nominated for a &quot;Best Practices&quot; Webby. In September 2004, the <a title="Japanese Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Japanese_Wikipedia">Japanese Wikipedia</a> was awarded a Web Creation Award from the Japan Advertisers Association. This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Web in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.</p><p>In a 2006 <em>Multiscope</em> research study, the <a title="Dutch Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Dutch_Wikipedia">Dutch Wikipedia</a> was rated the third best <a title="Dutch language" href="/wiki/Dutch_language">Dutch language</a> site, after <a title="Google" href="/wiki/Google">Google</a> and <a title="Gmail" href="/wiki/Gmail">Gmail</a>, with a score of 8.1.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-42"><a title="" href="#_note-42">[65]</a></sup> On 26 January 2007, Wikipedia was also awarded the fourth highest brand ranking by the readers of <a class="external text" title="http://www.brandchannel.com" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.brandchannel.com/">brandchannel.com</a>, receiving 15% of the votes in answer to the question &quot;Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?&quot;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-43"><a title="" href="#_note-43">[66]</a></sup> Founder Jimmy Wales was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by <em><a title="TIME Magazine" href="/wiki/TIME_Magazine">TIME Magazine</a></em> in 2006.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-44"><a title="" href="#_note-44">[67]</a></sup> In 2006, the <a title="Russian Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Russian_Wikipedia">Russian Wikipedia</a> won the &quot;Science and education&quot; category of the &quot;<a title="Runet Prize" href="/wiki/Runet_Prize">Runet Prize</a>&quot; (Russian: <em><a class="extiw" title="ru:Премия_Рунета" href="http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%A0%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0">Премия Рунета</a></em>) award, supervised<sup class="reference" id="_ref-45"><a title="" href="#_note-45">[68]</a></sup> by the <a title="Politics of Russia" href="/wiki/Politics_of_Russia">Russian government</a> agency <a title="FAPMC" href="/wiki/FAPMC">FAPMC</a>.</p>

<div class="noprint"><em>Main article: <a title="Wikipedia in popular culture" href="/wiki/Wikipedia_in_popular_culture">Wikipedia in popular culture</a></em></div>

<p>Wikipedia's content has been mirrored and forked by hundreds of sites including <a title="Database dump" href="/wiki/Database_dump">database dumps</a>. Its content has also been used in academic studies, books, conferences and court cases.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-46"><a title="" href="#_note-46">[69]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-47"><a title="" href="#_note-47">[70]</a></sup> The <a title="Parliament of Canada" href="/wiki/Parliament_of_Canada">Canadian Parliament</a> website refers to Wikipedia's article on <a title="Same-sex marriage" href="/wiki/Same-sex_marriage">same-sex marriage</a> in the &quot;related links&quot; section of its &quot;further reading&quot; list for <a title="Civil Marriage Act" href="/wiki/Civil_Marriage_Act">Civil Marriage Act</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-48"><a title="" href="#_note-48">[71]</a></sup> The encyclopedia's assertions are increasingly used as a source by organizations such as the U.S. Federal Courts and the World <a title="Intellectual property" href="/wiki/Intellectual_property">Intellectual Property</a> Office<sup class="reference" id="_ref-WP_court_source_0"><a title="" href="#_note-WP_court_source">[72]</a></sup> &mdash; though mainly for <em>supporting information</em> rather than information decisive to a case.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-49"><a title="" href="#_note-49">[73]</a></sup> Wikipedia has also been used as a source in <a title="Journalism" href="/wiki/Journalism">journalism</a>,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-50"><a title="" href="#_note-50">[74]</a></sup> sometimes without attribution; several reporters have been dismissed for plagiarizing from Wikipedia.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-51"><a title="" href="#_note-51">[75]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-52"><a title="" href="#_note-52">[76]</a></sup></p><p>With increased usage and awareness, there have been an increasing number of references to Wikipedia in popular culture. Many parody Wikipedia's openness, with characters vandalizing or modifying the online encyclopedia project's articles. <a title="Uncyclopedia" href="/wiki/Uncyclopedia">Uncyclopedia</a> is the largest such website; its Main Page claims that it is the &quot;content-free encyclopedia that <a title="Anyone can edit" href="/wiki/Anyone_can_edit">anyone can edit</a>,&quot;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-53"><a title="" href="#_note-53">[77]</a></sup> parodying the English Wikipedia's welcome message on its <span class="plainlinks"><a class="external text" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main+Page" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main+Page">Main Page</a></span>.</p><p>In the episode &quot;Wikiality&quot; of <a title="The Colbert Report" href="/wiki/The_Colbert_Report">The Colbert Report</a>, host <a title="Stephen Colbert" href="/wiki/Stephen_Colbert">Stephen Colbert</a> has instigated his viewers to vandalize articles in humorous ways, once doing so on the Wikipedia article on <a title="Elephant" href="/wiki/Elephant">elephants</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-54"><a title="" href="#_note-54">[78]</a></sup> <a title="&quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic" href="/wiki/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic">&quot;Weird Al&quot; Yankovic</a>'s character in his video <a title="White &amp; Nerdy" href="/wiki/White_%26_Nerdy">'White &amp; Nerdy'</a> is seen vandalising the entry for the Atlantic <a title="Record label" href="/wiki/Record_label">record label</a> with the exclamation &quot;You suck!,&quot; after they rescinded permission for a parody.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-55"><a title="" href="#_note-55">[79]</a></sup></p><p>In a recent episode of <em><a title="American Dad" href="/wiki/American_Dad">American Dad</a></em> (entitled <a title="Black Mystery Month" href="/wiki/Black_Mystery_Month">Black Mystery Month</a>), protagonists <a title="Stan Smith" href="/wiki/Stan_Smith">Stan Smith</a> and <a title="Steve Smith" href="/wiki/Steve_Smith">Steve Smith</a> fail to reveal to the world that <a title="George Washington Carver" href="/wiki/George_Washington_Carver">George Washington Carver</a> wasn't the person who invented <a title="Peanut butter" href="/wiki/Peanut_butter">peanut butter</a>, then create a Wikipedia page entitled &quot;The Truth About Peanut Butter&quot; to inform the world, citing that it is the one place you can put crazy information out with no evidence and still have millions of people believe it to be true.</p><p>In &quot;<a title="The Negotiation (The Office episode)" href="/wiki/The_Negotiation_%28The_Office_episode%29">The Negotiation</a>&quot; episode of <em><a title="The Office (US TV series)" href="/wiki/The_Office_%28US_TV_series%29">The Office</a></em>, <a title="Michael Scott (The Office)" href="/wiki/Michael_Scott_%28The_Office%29">Michael</a> prints out a <a title="Negotiation (process)" href="/wiki/Negotiation_%28process%29#Tactics">list of negotiation tactics</a> and praises Wikipedia, calling it &quot;the best thing ever.&quot; However, his comment that, &quot;anyone anywhere in the world can edit it, so you know you're getting the best information possible,&quot; can be seen as sarcasm on the part of the show's writers.</p>

<p>Wikipedia has spawned several sister projects. The first, &quot;<em>In Memoriam: September 11 Wiki</em>&quot;,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-56"><a title="" href="#_note-56">[80]</a></sup> created in October 2002,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-57"><a title="" href="#_note-57">[81]</a></sup> detailed the <a title="September 11, 2001 attacks" href="/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_attacks">September 11, 2001 attacks</a>; this project was closed in October 2006.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-58"><a title="" href="#_note-58">[82]</a></sup> <a title="Wiktionary" href="/wiki/Wiktionary">Wiktionary</a>, a dictionary project, was launched in December 2002;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-59"><a title="" href="#_note-59">[83]</a></sup> <a title="Wikiquote" href="/wiki/Wikiquote">Wikiquote</a>, a collection of quotations, a week after Wikimedia launched, and <a title="Wikibooks" href="/wiki/Wikibooks">Wikibooks</a>, a collection of collaboratively written free books, the next month. Wikimedia has since started a number of other projects.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-OurProjects_0"><a title="" href="#_note-OurProjects">[84]</a></sup></p><p>A similar non-wiki project, the <a title="GNUpedia" href="/wiki/GNUpedia">GNUpedia</a> project, co-existed with Nupedia early in its history; however, it has been retired and its creator, <a title="Free software" href="/wiki/Free_software">free-software</a> figure <a title="Richard Stallman" href="/wiki/Richard_Stallman">Richard Stallman</a>, has lent his support to Wikipedia.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-60"><a title="" href="#_note-60">[85]</a></sup></p><p>Other websites centered around collaborative <a title="Knowledge base" href="/wiki/Knowledge_base">knowledge base</a> development have drawn inspiration from or inspired Wikipedia. Some, such as <a title="Susning.nu" href="/wiki/Susning.nu">Susning.nu</a>, <em><a title="Enciclopedia Libre" href="/wiki/Enciclopedia_Libre">Enciclopedia Libre</a></em>, and <a title="WikiZnanie" href="/wiki/WikiZnanie">WikiZnanie</a> likewise employ no formal review process, whereas others use more traditional <a title="Peer review" href="/wiki/Peer_review">peer review</a>, such as the expert-written <em><a title="Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy" href="/wiki/Stanford_Encyclopedia_of_Philosophy">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</a></em>, <a title="H2G2" href="/wiki/H2G2">h2g2</a> and <a title="Everything2" href="/wiki/Everything2">Everything2</a>.</p><p>Another wiki project, the <a title="Conservapedia" href="/wiki/Conservapedia">Conservapedia</a>, is based on the Wikipedia software platform (<a title="Mediawiki" href="/wiki/Mediawiki">Mediawiki</a>), and it draws from the basic principles of the Wikipedia, but it is intended to address what is perceived and denounced as Wikipedia's liberal bias.</p>

<p>According to a statement made by Jimmy Wales, who is the current <em>de-facto</em> leader of Wikipedia,<sup class="reference" id="_ref-defactoleader_0"><a title="" href="#_note-defactoleader">[86]</a></sup> &quot;We welcome a diversity of efforts,&quot; he said when he was referring to the <a title="Citizendium" href="/wiki/Citizendium">Citizendium</a> project in an interview. &quot;If Larry's project is able to produce good work, we will benefit from it by copying it back into Wikipedia.&quot;<sup class="reference" id="_ref-JayLyman_0"><a title="" href="#_note-JayLyman">[87]</a></sup></p>

<div class="floatleft"><span><a class="image" title="" href="/wiki/Image:Metawiki.png"><img height="56" alt="" width="50" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Metawiki.png" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Metawiki.png/50px-Metawiki.png" /></a></span></div><div style="MARGIN-LEFT: 60px"><a title="Wikipedia:Meta" href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Meta">Meta</a> has a page about this at:<div style="MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><em><strong><a class="extiw" title="meta:List_of_Wikipedias" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias">List of Wikipedias</a></strong></em></div>

<li><a title="Congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia" href="/wiki/Congressional_staffer_edits_to_Wikipedia">Congressional staffer edits to Wikipedia</a> </li> <li><a title="List of encyclopedias" href="/wiki/List_of_encyclopedias">List of encyclopedias</a> </li> <li><a title="List of Wikipedias" href="/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias">List of Wikipedias</a> </li> <li><a title="List of wikis" href="/wiki/List_of_wikis">List of wikis</a> </li> <li><a title="Open content" href="/wiki/Open_content">Open content</a> </li> <li><a title="User-generated content" href="/wiki/User-generated_content">User-generated content</a> </li> <li><a title="Wikipedia community" href="/wiki/Wikipedia_community">Wikipedia community</a> </li>