English Wikipedia
Encyclopedia
The English Wikipedia is the English-language
edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia
. Founded on 15 January 2001 and reaching three million articles by August 2009, it was the first edition of Wikipedia and remains the largest, with almost three times as many articles as the next largest, the German Wikipedia
. As of , nearly % of articles in all Wikipedias belong to the English language edition. This share has gradually declined from more than 50% in 2003, due to the growth of Wikipedias in other languages. There are currently articles on the site (live count).
The Simple English Wikipedia
is a variation, with most of the articles using a simplified level of English sentences and vocabulary.
The English Wikipedia was the first Wikipedia edition and has remained the largest. It has pioneered many ideas as conventions, policies or features which were later adopted by some of the other-language Wikipedia editions. These ideas include "featured articles",
the neutral-point-of-view policy,
navigation templates,
the sorting of short "stub" articles into sub-categories, dispute resolution
mechanisms such as mediation and arbitration,
and weekly collaborations.
In turn, the English Wikipedia has adopted features from the German Wikipedia
, and from smaller editions. These features include verified revisions from the German Wikipedia (dewiki), and town population-lookup templates from the Dutch Wikipedia (nlwiki).
Although the English Wikipedia stores images and audio files, as well as text files, many of the images have been moved to Wikimedia Commons
with the same name, as passed-through files. However, the English Wikipedia also has fair-use images and audio/video files (with copyright restrictions), most of which are not allowed on Commons.
Many of the most active participants in the Wikimedia Foundation
, and the developers of the MediaWiki
software that powers Wikipedia, are English Wikipedia users.
The English Wikipedia reached 4,000,000 registered user accounts on 1 April 2007, just a little over a year since it had crossed a threshold of 1,000,000 registered user accounts in late February 2006.
About 250,000 new accounts are created every month, and these numbers are growing. About 300,000 editors have edited Wikipedia more than 10 times. Approximately the same number, 300,000 editors, edit Wikipedia every month; of these, about 50,000 perform more than 5 edits, and 5,000 perform more than 100 edits. By 24 November 2011, a total of 500 million edits had been performed on the English Wikipedia.
A 2008 survey provided some basic information on the demographics and motivations of Wikipedia editors.
As the largest Wikipedia edition, and because English is such a widely-used language, the English Wikipedia draws many users and editors whose native language is not English. Such users seek information from the English Wikipedia rather than the Wikipedia of their native language because the English Wikipedia tends to contain more information. Successful collaborations have developed between non-native English speakers who add content to English Wikipedia and native English speakers who act as copyeditors for them.
on 4 December 2003 as an extension of the decision-making power he had formerly held as owner of the site.
When initially founded, the Committee consisted of 12 arbitrators divided into three groups of four members each. Since then, the Committee has gradually expanded to its membership to 18 arbitrators.
Like other aspects of the English Wikipedia, Wikipedia's sister projects have emulated the Arbitration Committee with their own similar versions. In 2007, an Arbitration Committee was founded on the German Wikipedia
called the Schiedsrichter.
and British English
. Many suggestions have been proposed by editors, ranging from standardizing upon a single form of English to forking the English Wikipedia project. A style guideline states, "the English Wikipedia has no general preference for a major national variety of the language" and "an article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation uses the appropriate variety of English for that nation". An article should use spelling and grammar variants consistently; for example, color and colour are not to be used in the same article, since they represent American and British English, respectively. The guide also states that an article must remain in the same national variant in which it was first created, or which first became discernible in the article's history.
There has been a similar issue in the Chinese language Wikipedia concerning regional differences in how the language is written, as well as in the Portuguese Wikipedia
between European Portuguese
and Brazilian Portuguese
.
Incidents of cyberbullying on Wikipedia have been reported in the mainstream press. The Glen A. Wilson High School
was subject of such a threat in 2008, and a 14-year-old boy was arrested for making a threat against Niles West High School
on Wikipedia in 2006.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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,...
. Founded on 15 January 2001 and reaching three million articles by August 2009, it was the first edition of Wikipedia and remains the largest, with almost three times as many articles as the next largest, the German Wikipedia
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and mostly publicly editable online encyclopedia.Founded in March 2001, it is the second-oldest and, with over articles, the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, behind the English Wikipedia...
. As of , nearly % of articles in all Wikipedias belong to the English language edition. This share has gradually declined from more than 50% in 2003, due to the growth of Wikipedias in other languages. There are currently articles on the site (live count).
The Simple English Wikipedia
Simple English Wikipedia
The Simple English Wikipedia is an English edition of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, primarily written in Basic English and Special English. Founded in 2003, the site has the stated aim of providing an encyclopedia for "people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with...
is a variation, with most of the articles using a simplified level of English sentences and vocabulary.
Pioneering edition
the neutral-point-of-view policy,
navigation templates,
the sorting of short "stub" articles into sub-categories, dispute resolution
Dispute resolution
Dispute resolution is the process of resolving disputes between parties.-Methods:Methods of dispute resolution include:* lawsuits * arbitration* collaborative law* mediation* conciliation* many types of negotiation* facilitation...
mechanisms such as mediation and arbitration,
and weekly collaborations.
In turn, the English Wikipedia has adopted features from the German Wikipedia
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and mostly publicly editable online encyclopedia.Founded in March 2001, it is the second-oldest and, with over articles, the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, behind the English Wikipedia...
, and from smaller editions. These features include verified revisions from the German Wikipedia (dewiki), and town population-lookup templates from the Dutch Wikipedia (nlwiki).
Although the English Wikipedia stores images and audio files, as well as text files, many of the images have been moved to Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
with the same name, as passed-through files. However, the English Wikipedia also has fair-use images and audio/video files (with copyright restrictions), most of which are not allowed on Commons.
Many of the most active participants in the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia 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...
, and the developers of 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 that powers Wikipedia, are English Wikipedia users.
Users and editors
| Number of users | Number of articles | Number of files | Number of administrators |
|---|---|---|---|
The English Wikipedia reached 4,000,000 registered user accounts on 1 April 2007, just a little over a year since it had crossed a threshold of 1,000,000 registered user accounts in late February 2006.
About 250,000 new accounts are created every month, and these numbers are growing. About 300,000 editors have edited Wikipedia more than 10 times. Approximately the same number, 300,000 editors, edit Wikipedia every month; of these, about 50,000 perform more than 5 edits, and 5,000 perform more than 100 edits. By 24 November 2011, a total of 500 million edits had been performed on the English Wikipedia.
A 2008 survey provided some basic information on the demographics and motivations of Wikipedia editors.
As the largest Wikipedia edition, and because English is such a widely-used language, the English Wikipedia draws many users and editors whose native language is not English. Such users seek information from the English Wikipedia rather than the Wikipedia of their native language because the English Wikipedia tends to contain more information. Successful collaborations have developed between non-native English speakers who add content to English Wikipedia and native English speakers who act as copyeditors for them.
Arbitration Committee
The English Wikipedia has an Arbitration Committee (also known as ArbCom) that consists of a panel of editors that imposes binding rulings with regard to disputes between other editors of the online encyclopedia. The Committee was created by Jimmy WalesJimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
on 4 December 2003 as an extension of the decision-making power he had formerly held as owner of the site.
When initially founded, the Committee consisted of 12 arbitrators divided into three groups of four members each. Since then, the Committee has gradually expanded to its membership to 18 arbitrators.
Like other aspects of the English Wikipedia, Wikipedia's sister projects have emulated the Arbitration Committee with their own similar versions. In 2007, an Arbitration Committee was founded on the German Wikipedia
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and mostly publicly editable online encyclopedia.Founded in March 2001, it is the second-oldest and, with over articles, the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, behind the English Wikipedia...
called the Schiedsrichter.
Controversies
Among the controversies in the English Wikipedia is a debate over which national variety of the English language is to be preferred, with the most commonly advocated candidates being American EnglishAmerican English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
and British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
. Many suggestions have been proposed by editors, ranging from standardizing upon a single form of English to forking the English Wikipedia project. A style guideline states, "the English Wikipedia has no general preference for a major national variety of the language" and "an article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation uses the appropriate variety of English for that nation". An article should use spelling and grammar variants consistently; for example, color and colour are not to be used in the same article, since they represent American and British English, respectively. The guide also states that an article must remain in the same national variant in which it was first created, or which first became discernible in the article's history.
There has been a similar issue in the Chinese language Wikipedia concerning regional differences in how the language is written, as well as in the Portuguese Wikipedia
Portuguese Wikipedia
The Portuguese Wikipedia is a Portuguese language edition of Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia. It was the fifth edition of Wikipedia, started in June 2001. It is currently the tenth largest Wikipedia by article count, containing articles.From late 2004, the edition grew rapidly...
between European Portuguese
European Portuguese
European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese spoken in continental Portugal, as well as the Azores and Madeira islands...
and Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
.
Incidents of cyberbullying on Wikipedia have been reported in the mainstream press. The Glen A. Wilson High School
Glen A. Wilson High School
Glen A. Wilson High School is a public high school located in Hacienda Heights, California. It is one of two high schools located in the city, and one of four in the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District....
was subject of such a threat in 2008, and a 14-year-old boy was arrested for making a threat against Niles West High School
Niles West High School
Niles West High School, or NWHS, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in the United States. It is part of Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles North High School. Its school teams were originally the Indians, but...
on Wikipedia in 2006.
See also
- Reliability of WikipediaReliability of WikipediaThe reliability of Wikipedia , compared to other encyclopedias and more specialized sources, is assessed in many ways, including statistically, through comparative review, analysis of the historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in the editing process unique to Wikipedia.Several...
- Community of WikipediaCommunity of WikipediaThe community of Wikipedia is a loosely-knit network of volunteers, sometimes known as "Wikipedians", who make contributions to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia...
- History of WikipediaHistory of WikipediaThe earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia was made by Rick Gates in 1993, but the concept of an open source web-based online encyclopedia was proposed by Richard Stallman around 1999. Wikipedia was formally launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, using the concept...
- Simple English WikipediaSimple English WikipediaThe Simple English Wikipedia is an English edition of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, primarily written in Basic English and Special English. Founded in 2003, the site has the stated aim of providing an encyclopedia for "people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with...
- Motivations of Wikipedia ContributorsMotivations of Wikipedia contributorsWikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. The encyclopedia is maintained by volunteers who willingly edit and create articles with no monetary recompense...
External links
- English Wikipedia
- English Wikipedia mobile
- English Wikipedia on Meta-Wiki
- Wikipedia.org multilingual portal
- Wikimedia Foundation