10 Things You Did Not Know About Wikipedia

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An essay from Wikipedia:

10 Things You Did Not Know About Wikipedia is a list of insights about Wikipedia specifically targeted at people who have limited foreknowledge about the project, such as journalists, new editors, and new readers. These explanations will not surprise experienced Wikipedians, but hopefully will help the rest of the world to shape an informed opinion about our work. Let's go:


  1. We're not for sale.
    If you're waiting for Wikipedia to be bought by your friendly neighborhood Internet giant, don't hold your breath. Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida. We're supported by donations and grants, and our mission is to bring free knowledge to the entire planet.
    More information: http://wikimediafoundation.org/
  2. Our work belongs to everyone.
    Wikipedia has taken a clue from GNU/Linux and Mozilla Firefox and done away with the restrictions of traditional copyright law. Instead, we have adopted what is known as a "free content license": All text and images authored by our users are and will always remain free for anyone to copy, modify, and redistribute. We only insist that you credit the contributors, and that you do not impose new restrictions on the work or any improvements you make to it.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights
  3. We speak Banyumasan...
    ... and about 250 other languages. Granted, only about 60 of those Wikipedia language editions currently have more than 10,000 articles -- but that's not because we're not trying. The Wikimedia Foundation is supported by a growing network of independent chapter organizations, already in seven countries, which help us to raise awareness on the local level. In many countries, including the United States, Wikipedia is among the ten most popular websites.
    More information: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias and http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=wikipedia.org
  4. You cannot actually change anything in Wikipedia.
    What you can do is make a copy of an article, and implicitly choose that copy to be the one shown to all readers by default. No existing copy is ever touched again, which allows us to backtrack as needed and to revert unwanted changes. It also allows you to refer to Wikipedia articles using something called a "permalink" in the bottom left corner -- a link to a copy of the article at the time you read it that will never change, for better or for worse.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
  5. We are a bunch of quality-obsessed policy wonks.
    Wikipedia has a complex set of policies and quality control processes. Editors can patrol changes as they happen, monitor specific topics they know about, follow a user's track of contributions, tag articles with problems for other editors to work on, and discuss the merits of each article with other users. Problem pages are nominated for deletion, and the best ones are awarded "featured article" status. "WikiProjects" focus on improvements to particular topic areas. We care about getting things right, and we never stop thinking about new ways to do so.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal
  6. We don't want you to trust us.
    It's in the nature of an ever-changing work like Wikipedia that, while some articles are of the highest scholarly quality, others are admittedly complete rubbish. We try to keep the ratio of the greatest to the worst as high as possible, of course, and to find helpful ways to tell you what state an article is currently in. Even at its best, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a primary source, with all the limitations this entails. We ask you to not condemn Wikipedia, but to use it with an informed understanding of what it represents.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer
  7. We're not alone.
    Wikipedia is part of a growing movement for Free Knowledge that is beginning to permeate science and education. The Wikimedia Foundation directly operates eight sister projects to the encyclopedia: Wiktionary (a dictionary and thesaurus), Wikisource (a library of source documents), Wikimedia Commons (a media repository of more than one million images, videos, and sound files), Wikibooks (a collection of textbooks and manuals), Wikiversity (an interactive learning resource), Wikinews (an experiment in citizen journalism), and Wikispecies (a directory of all forms of life). Like Wikipedia itself, all these projects are freely licensed and open to contributions.
    More information: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects
  8. We are only collectors.
    Articles in Wikipedia are not signed, and contributors are unpaid volunteers. Whether you claim to be a tenured professor, use your real name or prefer to remain without an identity, your edits and arguments will be judged on their merits. We require that sources are cited for all significant claims, and we do not permit editors to publicise their personal conclusions when writing articles. Wikipedians must follow a neutral point of view; they must only collect relevant opinions which can be traced to reliable sources.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars
  9. We're not a dictatorship.
    The Wikimedia Foundation is controlled by its Board of Directors, the majority of whom are elected by the community. The Board and Wikimedia Foundation staff do not take a role in editorial issues, and projects are self-governing and consensus-driven. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales occasionally acts as a final arbiter on the English Wikipedia, but his influence is based on respect, not power; it takes effect only where the community does not challenge it. Wikipedia is transparent and self-critical; controversies are debated openly and even documented within Wikipedia itself when they cross a threshold of significance.
    More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia
  10. We're in it for the long haul.
    We want Wikipedia to be around a hundred years from now, if it does not turn into something even more significant. Everything about Wikipedia is engineered towards that end: our content licensing, our organization and governance, our international focus, our fundraising strategy, our use of open source software, and our never-ending effort to achieve our vision. We want you to imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment -- and we need your help.
    More information: http://wikimediafoundation.org/


References

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