Unlike a traditional encyclopedia, not a single article in the Wikipedia Internet encyclopedia receives an expert opinion. Therefore, the Wikipedia project does not guarantee the truth of all its content, since a certain time will elapse between the moments when any incorrect information is added to the article and the moment when it is removed from the article by a more competent Wikipedia member.
Definition
Wikipedia is a public universal multilingual Internet encyclopedia built on the principles of Wiki. Its name is made up of the English words wiki (the word is borrowed from the Hawaiian language and means "quickly") and encyclopedia (encyclopedia). Basically, Wikipedia is a website whose content and structure can be changed by users themselves using the tools provided by the same site.
Regular book encyclopedias are updated once a year or less, while articles on Wikipedia can be edited many times within 1 hour.
The progenitor of Wikipedia is Nupedia, which implemented the principles of freedom of information. Nupedia is an English online project and the pages were authored by academics and various scholars. To accelerate the development of the project, the founders of Nupedia - editor-in-chief Laurence Sanger and CFO Jimmy Wales - launched the Wikipedia website in January 2001.
The new site, implemented on the technology of wiki pages, allowed any user of the World Wide Web to take part in the writing and editing of information. In the month of May, there were already Catalan, Esperanto, Hebrew and Japanese language sections of Wikipedia. Later, the Hungarian and Arabic sections appeared. The main advantage of Wikipedia is the ability to provide information in the native language, which preserves its value in the moment of cultural belonging.
In particular, the reader can either get information or supplement it on any topic and on any word that has several meanings. For example, the Wikipedia page on the word "professional" invites users to help the project by correcting, supplementing and clarifying information about the pronunciation, semantics and etymology of the word.
Essence of Wikipedia
Currently, Wikipedia already has 276 language sections and 30 million articles. The site itself is in fifth place in terms of traffic. It is the largest reference book on the Internet and the most complete encyclopedia in the history of mankind.
As of April 12, 2014, Wikipedia (Russian version) has 1,104,764 articles on a wide variety of topics.
Wikipedia is the main object of media attention as a source of the latest news due to the fact that the information on the pages of the site is constantly updated. A sister project, Wikinews, has been created for news reports.
Wikipedia reflects information that is established and already recognized. In other words, it is not a platform for posting someone's own research, ideas, inventions, theories or assessments. The topic is considered encyclopedic, i.e. significant if it already has significant authoritative coverage. These can be serious scientific journals or media outlets that are independent of the subject of the topic.
Hierarchy
Members of the Wikipedia project form a community of Wikipedia members, which has a hierarchical structure. Members with a good community reputation have the opportunity to run for some level of volunteer leadership. There are autoconfirmed, patrolling, renaming and summarizing members. The largest group of privileged users are administrators, who can delete or block pages in the event of vandalism. The rights are expanded with the assignment of the status of a bureaucrat, auditor, auditor and arbitrator. The highest level is the clerk who regulates the work of the arbitration committee.
