Wikipedia is a Web-based, multi-language, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers and sponsored by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It has editions in about 180 languages (about 100 of which are active) and contains entries on traditional encyclopedic topics and on almanac, gazetteer, and current events topics. Its purpose is to create and distribute a free, reliable encyclopedia in as many languages as possible —indeed, the largest encyclopedia in history, in terms of both breadth and depth. According to Hitwise, an online measurement company, Wikipedia is the most popular reference site on the web.
Wikipedia contains about 2.3 million articles. More than 700,000 of these are in English, more than 250,000 in German, more than 150,000 in French and more than 100,000 in Japanese, Swedish and Italian. It began as a complement to the expert-written Nupedia on January 15, 2001. Having steadily risen in popularity, it has spawned several sister projects, such as Wiktionary, Wikibooks, and Wikinews. It is edited by volunteers in wiki fashion, meaning articles are subject to change by nearly anyone. Wikipedia's volunteers attempt to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view" under which views presented by notable persons or literature are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth. Due to its open nature, vandalism and inaccuracy are constant problems in Wikipedia. The status of Wikipedia as reference work has been controversial. It has been praised for its free distribution, free editing and wide range of topics, and criticized for alleged systemic biases, preference of consensus to credentials, deficiencies in some topics, and lack of accountability and authority when compared with traditional encyclopedias. Its articles have been regularly cited by the mass media and academia and are available under the GNU Free Documentation License. Its German language edition has been distributed on compact discs, and many of its other editions are mirrored or have been forked by websites.
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Educational content and audio offered by courtesy of Wikipedia, under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
Speaker: Steinsky
Speaker website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ste...
Painting: Detail of Raphael's Sistine Madonna
Photo by: Carulmare
Photo license: CC BY 2.0
Photo url: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8545333...
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