Wikipedia is a huge source of all kinds of information available for free on the Internet. The resource is available in many languages of the world, including Russian. As of September 2014, Wikipedia has over 33.1 million articles in 287 languages, which have been created by over 48 million users.
The history of the creation and development of Wikipedia
Each user of the project has access to editing any article or post. Wikipedia contains a variety of useful information - from the greatest sporting events to the history of ancient civilizations and significant world events.
Officially, Wikipedia's history begins with its launch in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. However, the technical and conceptual aspects of Wikipedia were laid much earlier. So, the earliest definition for a public Internet encyclopedia belongs to Rick Gates and dates back to 1993. But the very concept of a free online encyclopedia, available for free to everyone, was proposed by Richard Stallman in December 2000.
It is important to note that Stallman's concepts necessarily included the idea of not having any control over the editing of information contained in Wikipedia pages. Each user has the right to edit and supplement informational articles. However, every change is registered in the system, which makes it possible to delete knowingly placed false or incorrect information.
A fairly convenient search is implemented in the system. It is enough to enter the desired fact or, for example, the name of a geographic object in a small window, and the user receives a list of articles where the specified word is mentioned. Wikipedia covers most areas of human life, helping to learn about the world without leaving the place in front of the monitor.
Achievements of the Internet resource
Already on February 12, 2001, the project reached its 1000th article, and on September 7 of the same year, there were 10,000 articles. During the first year of its existence, Wikipedia was replenished by 20,000 articles, the increase was about 1500 articles per month. In January 2002, 90% of all Wikipedia articles were in English only, but after two years, less than 50% of articles were in English. Internationalization has continued to increase every year. As of 2014, 85% of all Wikipedia articles are contained in non-English versions of the draft.
Wikipedia is a completely free resource, the site does not have any ads, banners and other commercial content. You can help in the development of the project only by voluntary donations in a special section.
According to research, Wikipedia is the sixth most popular resource on the Internet. In addition, more than 85 million unique visitors monthly visit the project from the USA alone.
