Wikipedia facts for kids
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Screenshot
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Wikipedia portal showing the different languages sorted by article count
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Type of site
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Online encyclopedia |
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| Available in | 329 languages |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| Created by | Jimmy Wales Larry Sanger |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Users | >Expression error: Unexpected < operator. active users and >Expression error: Unexpected < operator. registered users 1,067 administrators (English) |
| Launched | January 15, 2001 |
| Current status | Active |
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Content license
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CC Attribution / Share-Alike 3.0 Most text is also dual-licensed under GFDL; media licensing varies |
| Written in | LAMP platform |
| OCLC number | 52075003 |
Wikipedia is a huge online encyclopedia that anyone can use for free. It's available in 329 different languages! You can freely use, share, and even change its content without paying. It's one of the biggest wiki projects in the world.
Wikipedia is owned by an American organization called the Wikimedia Foundation. This group is based in San Francisco, California. People can donate money to the Wikimedia Foundation to help support Wikipedia and its other projects. Wikipedia is an "open content" website. This means anyone can copy its information and make changes, as long as they follow the rules for copying or editing.
The name "Wikipedia" is a mix of two words: wiki (which means "quick" in Hawaiian) and encyclopedia.
Wikipedia started on January 10, 2001. It was first part of another online encyclopedia called Nupedia. Then, on January 15, 2001, Wikipedia became its own separate website. It uses special software called MediaWiki, just like other projects from the Wikimedia Foundation.
Anyone who wants to can change pages on Wikipedia or even create new ones. Wikipedia has a standard way that all its pages are set up.
As of September 2011, Wikipedia had about 18 million pages in around 300 languages. The English Wikipedia is the largest version of Wikipedia.
Contents
How Wikipedia Started
Wikipedia began as a related project for Nupedia. Nupedia was a free English-language online encyclopedia. Its articles were written and owned by a company called Bomis, Inc. The main people at Bomis were Jimmy Wales, who was in charge, and Larry Sanger, who was the editor of Nupedia.
Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales are the people who started Wikipedia. Wales helped set the goals for the project. Sanger came up with the idea of using a wiki to reach those goals. On January 10, 2001, Larry Sanger suggested creating a wiki to help Nupedia. Wikipedia officially launched on January 15, 2001. It started as an English-language version at www.wikipedia.com.
From the beginning, Wikipedia had a rule about a "neutral point-of-view." This means articles should be fair and balanced, showing different sides of a topic without taking one side. At first, there weren't many other rules, and Wikipedia worked separately from Nupedia.
Wikipedia quickly gained new writers and editors. By the end of 2001, it had grown to about 20,000 articles and was available in 18 languages. By the end of 2003, it had 46 languages, and by the end of 2004, it had 161 languages. Nupedia and Wikipedia both existed until Nupedia stopped in 2003. After that, its articles were added to Wikipedia.
The English Wikipedia reached 2 million articles on September 9, 2007. This made it the largest encyclopedia ever, even bigger than the Yongle Encyclopedia from 1407. The English Wikipedia reached 3 million articles in August 2009.
In October 2014, the Wikipedia Monument was revealed in Poland. This monument honors all the people who have helped write and edit Wikipedia.
According to TechCrunch, the English Wikipedia had more than 6 million articles by January 23, 2020. On January 13, 2021, the English Wikipedia reached one billion edits! The billionth edit was made by a user named Steven Pruitt.
By November 2021, Wikipedia was the thirteenth most visited website in the world.
Celebrating Milestones
On January 15, 2011, Wikipedia celebrated its 10th anniversary. It used a special logo on the English Wikipedia for that day to mark 10 years since it started.
In January 2021, many news outlets talked about Wikipedia's 20th anniversary.
How to Use Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free website where anyone can start or change a page. It's a global site available in many languages. When you search for information online, Wikipedia pages often appear as the first results. To use Wikipedia well, it helps to understand how its pages are set up.
Here are some common sections you might find on Wikipedia's main page or in its articles:
- Did you know: Interesting facts from new articles.
- In the news: Important news from around the world.
- On this day: Historical events and anniversaries.
- Current events: News that is happening right now. This can be found on main pages, in articles, or on Wikinews.
Other Related Pages
See also
In Spanish: Wikipedia para niños
