A free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 17 million articles (over 3.5 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site.
That’s how Wikipedia describes itself, although it has been called many other things:
- A breeding ground for incorrect information on an infinite number of topics.
- The savior of the African Elephant population.
- The place where useless facts go to die.
- The online encyclopedia that no one seems to trust, but everyone uses.
Today Wikipedia turns 10 years old.
It’s hard to imagine what the world was like before Wikipedia.
Remember when finding facts use to require referring to experts or finding a reliable source?
Now we can just type in a term on our search engine of choice, and odds are good that one of your first hits will be a Wikipedia page.
Who needs reliable sources when you have experts like “random guy” from “who knows where.” The only qualifications he needs are a laptop and internet access.
And that is what makes Wikipedia great, you never know what you’re going to get.
Happy 10th anniversary Wikipedia!
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