Enciclopedia Libre
Encyclopedia
Enciclopedia Libre Universal en Español is a Spanish language
wiki
encyclopedia
, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
. It uses the MediaWiki
software. It started as a fork
of the Spanish Wikipedia
.
who decided to start an independent project. Led by Edgar Enyedy, they left Wikipedia on February 26, 2002, and created the new website, provided by the University of Seville
for free, with the freely licensed articles of the Spanish-language Wikipedia.
As later this situation improved, there was less necessity of forking and the project started to slow down.
editor Daniel Mayer (who goes by the username Maveric149) and others was made to reunite the projects, but the participants of Enciclopedia Libre voted against reunification before Wikipedia could offer a reunification proposal. The users of Enciclopedia Libre did, however, leave open the possibility for a future merger and expressed an interest in maintaining lines of communication.
Several talks have been made to make a merger. There also have been changes on Wikipedia and Enciclopedia Libre that may contribute to a merger:
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...
. It uses the MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
software. It started as a fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of the Spanish Wikipedia
Spanish Wikipedia
The Spanish Wikipedia is a Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia. It currently has articles. Started in May 2001, it reached 100,000 articles on March 8, 2006. Currently, it is the 6th largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, having surpassed Polish...
.
History
The Enciclopedia Libre was founded by contributors to the Spanish-language WikipediaSpanish Wikipedia
The Spanish Wikipedia is a Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia. It currently has articles. Started in May 2001, it reached 100,000 articles on March 8, 2006. Currently, it is the 6th largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, having surpassed Polish...
who decided to start an independent project. Led by Edgar Enyedy, they left Wikipedia on February 26, 2002, and created the new website, provided by the University of Seville
University of Seville
The Universidad de Sevilla or University of Seville, in English, is a top-ranked European university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of Colegio Santa María de Jesús in 1505, the University of Seville, with a student body of over 50,000, is one of the top-ranked universities in the country...
for free, with the freely licensed articles of the Spanish-language Wikipedia.
Reasons for the split
The reasons for the split are explained on Enciclopedia Libre. Key issues included concerns about censorship and the possibility of advertising on Wikipedia. From the interview with Edgar Enyedy, the main reasons for splitting at that time were:- Perceived expectation that Wikipedia would soon start hosting advertisements.
- Non-english Wikipedias were running older, less featured versions of MediaWikiMediaWikiMediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
. When national groups offered help in software development and maintenance, access to the servers was denied. - The downloadable database dumps of Wikipedia content were highly outdated.
- Wikipedia was hosted on .com rather than .org domain.
As later this situation improved, there was less necessity of forking and the project started to slow down.
Possibility of a merger
In October 2002, an effort led by WikipediaWikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
editor Daniel Mayer (who goes by the username Maveric149) and others was made to reunite the projects, but the participants of Enciclopedia Libre voted against reunification before Wikipedia could offer a reunification proposal. The users of Enciclopedia Libre did, however, leave open the possibility for a future merger and expressed an interest in maintaining lines of communication.
Several talks have been made to make a merger. There also have been changes on Wikipedia and Enciclopedia Libre that may contribute to a merger:
- Creation of a non-profit Wikipedia organization, known as Wikimedia FoundationWikimedia FoundationWikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
; - Multilingual portal
- Installation of MediaWikiMediaWikiMediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
software on Enciclopedia Libre
Statistics
While Enciclopedia Libre initially grew much more rapidly than the Spanish Wikipedia, the Spanish Wikipedia overtook it in 2004. Since then, the Spanish Wikipedia has grown at a much greater rate. As of October 2011, the Spanish Wikipedia hosts approximately eighteen times as many articles as Enciclopedia Libre.| Date | Approximate number of entries in Enciclopedia Libre | Approximate number of entries in Spanish Wikipedia Spanish Wikipedia The Spanish Wikipedia is a Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia. It currently has articles. Started in May 2001, it reached 100,000 articles on March 8, 2006. Currently, it is the 6th largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, having surpassed Polish... |
|---|---|---|
| 11 March 2002 | 3,036 | 1,300 |
| 2 April 2002 | 5,972 | 1,300 |
| 1 May 2002 | 7,540 | 1,400 |
| 27 May 2002 | 7,837 | 1,500 |
| 13 June 2002 | 8,125 | 1,500 |
| 13 July 2002 | 8,519 | |
| 4 August 2002 | 8,658 | 1,500 |
| 31 August 2002 | 8,996 | 1,500 |
| 3 October 2002 | 9,362 | 1,600 |
| 26 October 2002 | 10,258 | 1,900 |
| 17 June 2003 | 14,250 | 3,700 |
| 8 July 2003 | 14,428 | |
| 2 August 2003 | 14,662 | 4,600 |
| 6 September 2003 | 15,116 | 5,900 |
| 2 November 2003 | 15,572 | 8,900 |
| 6 December 2003 | 16,039 | 11,000 |
| 20 March 2004 | 19,688 | 19,000 |
| 6 November 2004 | 25,038 | 33,573 |
| 25 September 2005 | 28,709 | 66,984 |
| 27 February 2006 | 30,455 | 97,568 |
| 9 April 2006 | 30,776 | 108,012 |
| 3 July 2006 | 31,980 | 130,939 |
| 1 October 2006 | 33,367 | 157,061 |
| 3 January 2007 | 34,342 | 186,022 |
| 1 April 2007 | 34,551 | 218,690 |
| 1 July 2007 | 35,703 | 248,775 |
| 2 October 2007 | 36,860 | 283,630 |
| 1 January 2008 | 38,012 | 315,611 |
| 2 April 2008 | 39,478 | 348,217 |
| 4 July 2008 | 40,424 | 376,664 |
| 3 October 2008 | 41,096 | 403,280 |
| 1 January 2009 | 41,852 | 430,159 |
| 1 April 2009 | 42,366 | 458,301 |
| 1 July 2009 | 42,533 | 488,905 |
| 1 October 2009 | 43,035 | 516,333 |
| 1 January 2010 | 44,156 | 546,487 |
| 1 April 2010 | 44,592 | 581,486 |
| 1 July 2010 | 45,170 | 615,232 |
| 1 October 2010 | 45,947 | 653,596 |
| 1 January 2011 | 46,374 | 692,451 |
| 2 April 2011 | 46,775 | 745,694 |
| 3 July 2011 | 47,150 | 785,900 |
| 2 October 2011 | 47,315 | 832,243 |
| Today | statistics | [ statistics] |
| Date | Approximate number of entries in Enciclopedia Libre | Approximate number of entries in Spanish Wikipedia Spanish Wikipedia The Spanish Wikipedia is a Spanish-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia. It currently has articles. Started in May 2001, it reached 100,000 articles on March 8, 2006. Currently, it is the 6th largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, having surpassed Polish... |
See also
Other wiki and wiki-like encyclopedias:- Susning.nuSusning.nuSusning.nu was a Swedish language wiki, started in October 2001 by Lars Aronsson . In its first three years , Susning.nu ran as an open wiki that anyone could edit...
- Hudong
- Baidu BaikeBaidu BaikeBaidu Encyclopedia is a Chinese language collaborative Web-based encyclopedia provided by the Chinese search engine Baidu. Like Baidu itself, the encyclopedia is heavily self-censored in line with government regulations....
- List of online encyclopedias