THE free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia celebrated its tenth birthday at the weekend. Launched by Jimmy Wales in San Francisco in 2001, Wikipedia has given the general public a new way to share and collect information, even if it still has its doubters as a valid and creditable source of facts.
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| CELEBRATION: Wikipedia is ten not out |
Currently, Wikipedia is available in eight different languages, including German, Italian and Spanish. There is no doubt that its presence on our internet has changed the face of the World Wide Web, alongside the likes of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The site now carries 17million articles in English, adding just over 1,000 new entries a day.
Often derided for allowing almost anyone to edit its pages, Wales has always claimed that this alone proves that its facts are completely true. Many seem to agree with this argument, and with Wikipedia now the fifth most browsed site on the Internet, it’s hard not to disagree. Wikipedia has also taken some flak in the past for the failing of academic studies from some students. Traditional homework does seem to be a thing of the past, but in an interview with Jon Snow last Wednesday for Channel 4 News, Wales defended the allegation of homework shortcomings; “My argument is that teachers also have access to Wikipedia, and once they find out that a student has cut and pasted work, they will get an F.” “My view is that Wikipedia should be as high quality as we can make it and that necessarily involves an open discussion/debate of people picking over detail as great as possible.”
In the interview, Wales also confirmed that Wikipedia will always remain user-friendly and user-based, although they might tighten their policies when it comes to editing biographies of famous people. Wikipedia intents to keep it status as a non-profit organisation so will not use advertising to promote its site.
Congratulations Wikipedia, I predict this Internet phenomena, no matter the criticism it draws will go from strength to strength.
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