GenocideAlive
04-07-2006, 7:06 PM
From Wikipedia's splash page explaining itself:
a multilingual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism) Web (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)-based free-content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content) encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia). It exists as a wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki), and thus is written collaboratively by volunteers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer), allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser) and an Internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet) connection. The project began on January 15 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_15), 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001), as a complement to the expert-written (and now defunct) Nupedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nupedia), and is now operated by the non-profit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization) Wikimedia Foundation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia). Wikipedia has more than 3,700,000 articles in many languages, including more than 1,000,000 in the English-language version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia). Since its inception, Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity,[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#_note-0) and has spawned several sister projects. Editors are required to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_point_of_view)" under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivity_%28journalism%29) truth. Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales) has called it "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#_note-1)
However, there has been controversy over its reliability and accuracy. Common points of criticism are vandalism, inconsistency, uneven quality, unsubstantiated opinions, systemic bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_bias), and preference of consensus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus) or popularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity) to credentials (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credentials). In addition, some critics have suggested that Wikipedia cannot justifiably be called an "encyclopedia", a term which (it is claimed) implies a high degree of reliability and authority that Wikipedia, due to its open editorial policies, may not be able to maintain.
a multilingual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism) Web (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)-based free-content (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content) encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia). It exists as a wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki), and thus is written collaboratively by volunteers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer), allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser) and an Internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet) connection. The project began on January 15 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_15), 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001), as a complement to the expert-written (and now defunct) Nupedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nupedia), and is now operated by the non-profit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization) Wikimedia Foundation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia). Wikipedia has more than 3,700,000 articles in many languages, including more than 1,000,000 in the English-language version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia). Since its inception, Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity,[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#_note-0) and has spawned several sister projects. Editors are required to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_point_of_view)" under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivity_%28journalism%29) truth. Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales) has called it "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#_note-1)
However, there has been controversy over its reliability and accuracy. Common points of criticism are vandalism, inconsistency, uneven quality, unsubstantiated opinions, systemic bias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_bias), and preference of consensus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus) or popularity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity) to credentials (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credentials). In addition, some critics have suggested that Wikipedia cannot justifiably be called an "encyclopedia", a term which (it is claimed) implies a high degree of reliability and authority that Wikipedia, due to its open editorial policies, may not be able to maintain.