E-Mail:

Facts About Wikipedia

Thursday, September 20th, 2007 by knight17 at 10:17am
3 Responses (Add)

There should be an image here!

It is estimated that 7% of Web surfers read Wikipedia articles in every browsing session. But do you know the following facts about Wikipedia?

  1. About 8.2 million articles have been contributed to Wikipedia since 2001, a total of more than 1.4 billion words
  2. The English-language version of Wikipedia has about two million entries — about 15 times as many as the largest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the standard to which it aspires
  3. Specialist sites based on the “wiki” model include Wikible (the Bible) and Wookiepeedia (on Star Wars)
  4. Last month it emerged that many embarrassing Wikipedia entries had been edited by organisations mentioned in them. The Chinese Government erased information about China blocking Wikipedia inside its borders. The CIA tweaked entries on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon
  5. I am sure you know this already. The term “wiki” is derived from the wiki wiki or “quick” buses found in Hawaii

Tags
Categories

3 Comments

shadowmyth

September 20th, 2007
at 3:38pm

I love Wikipedia, it is the second option in my Firefox search bar. It is important though to remember, that information in Wikipedia needs to be backed up, and is subject to the opinions of those writing the entries. When I have more time, I hope to begin contributing, and pay back some of what it has given me. A truly wonderful resource.

shausha

September 21st, 2007
at 12:33am

It never ceases to amaze me that what is considered an unreliable source gets so many hits. Until wikipedia can show they’ve got it locked down and that entries are checked or clearly marked if not, then it will remain a place not to use when doing research. One thing I find it good for is definitions.

What Do You Think?