Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: Wikipedia, billed to be the world's largest online information platform, whose millions of open source articles are powered by an army of "volunteer editors", turned 25 on Thursday, as it launched a year-long campaign to mark its silver jubilee.
The online resource, which has benefitted scholars, researchers and general readers alike, was launched on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales.
"Wikipedia 25 -- 25 years of the free encyclopedia", reads the website with a special logo and a tagline.
A banner message on top of the landing page of the website read: "Wikipedia began as an impossible dream. Today, we celebrate 25 years of humanity at its best." As the platform completed 25 years, the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, launched a campaign and several other projects to mark the occasion.
"Today, the Wikimedia Foundation released for the first time a video 'docuseries,' sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the lives and stories of Wikipedia volunteer editors around the world," the foundation said in a statement.
All of the knowledge on Wikipedia is created and maintained by a "global community of nearly 2,50,000 volunteer editors who write, edit, and fact check information according to rigorous standards on neutrality and reliability," it said.
'Editors' are defined by one edit or more every month; only editors with a username are counted, the foundation said.
The series features eight of these volunteers and spotlights their unique purpose and passions for contributing to the online encyclopedia.
They include a American who has spent two decades documenting hurricanes and storms, an Indian medical doctor who shared critical COVID-19 information during the global pandemic, an elderly librarian in Tokyo, making knowledge available in Japanese, and more. "Their stories underscore that, even and especially in the age of AI, knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans." The Foundation also launched today a '25 Years of Wikipedia' time capsule, allowing Wikipedia admirers worldwide to delve into the past, present, and future of this treasured global resource.
Users can listen to founder Wales share in his own words, memories from Wikipedia's origin story, including when he himself installed the site's very first servers.
The capsule also explores Wikipedia's role during major global events, such as when its servers almost collapsed in 2009 from site visits following dance legend Michael Jackson's death. It showcases some of the most "weird and wonderful parts of Wikipedia", like an article on a prescient octopus named Paul, the statement said.
The foundation shared that "Wikipedia is viewed nearly 15 billion times every month" and it contains "over 65 million articles across more than 300 languages".
Also, "Wikipedia is edited 324 times per minute," it added.
"Wikipedia, the world's largest online information resource, turns 25 today, marking a quarter century of making trustworthy, human-powered knowledge accessible worldwide," the statement said.
There are many ways that people around the world can get involved in the year-long 'Wikipedia 25' celebrations, it said.
"In 2001, Wikipedia started as a dream to share knowledge with everyone, everywhere. No one, including me, knew if it would succeed," said Wales, Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia Foundation trustee.
"Against all odds, Wikipedia has grown to become the backbone of knowledge on the internet today. Wikipedia demonstrates 25 years of humanity at its best, proving that when people come together in the spirit of building trust and collaboration, they can make the impossible possible." Through the 'Wikipedia 25' campaign, the foundation "invites everyone to discover Wikipedia's journey over the last 25 years", celebrate the volunteers who make the site possible, and be part of the platform's future.
"Wikipedia is a digital wonder of the world, unlike anything else. It has overcome countless challenges and changes in its time, thanks to the people behind it and their unwavering commitment to sharing free, reliable knowledge with the world," Maryana Iskander, Chief Executive Officer, Wikimedia Foundation, was quoted as saying in the statement.