Wikipedia

**Wikipedia** is an online encyclopedia that is edited by volunteers using Wiki software.

## History

The English language Wikipedia was founded on 15th January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. It was originally intended to support Nupedia, an online encyclopedia written by experts, which was also ran by Wales and Sanger. Later in 2001, French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian versions of Wikpedia were launched. Bomis, a web company co-founder by Wales, initially supported Wikipedia's servers. Less than a month after it was launched, Wikipedia had its first 1000 articles. Sanger left Wikipedia in 2002. In 2003, Bomis's revenues declined and Wikipedia became a not-for-profit. In the same year, Nupedia's content was integrated into Wikipedia. In 2004, Wikipedia reached 1 million articles in total. Wikipedia became the most viewed website in 2005. In 2006, the millionth English language article was written. In 2007, a high-profile editor known as Essjay- whose real name was Ryan Jordan- was found to have falsely claimed to have two PhDs; a claim which he often used as leverage in content disputes. Wales was initially supportive of Jordan, but later changed his position. In 2009, an academic paper was published which showed that the number of active editors on Wikipedia had been falling since 2006. Wikipedia initially denied that editor numbers were falling. In 2012, an article in The Atlantic showed that the number of administrators on Wikipedia was in decline. After Wikipedia reached 4 million articles in 2012, an article in the Atlantic argued that Wikipedia was reaching completion, which they claimed explained the decline in the number of editors. In 2013, MIT Technology Review reported that the number of editors on Wikipedia had fallen by a third since 2007.

## Management structure

Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are 10 members of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation.

## Controversy and criticism

### Atmosphere on site

The MIT Technology Review has argued that Wikipedia is unwelcoming to new editors, which is driving the decline in editors.

### Systemic bias

In 2008, only 13% of Wikipedia's editors are female. By 2018, this had declined to 9%. In 2016, The Guardian argued that Wikipedia's coverage of actresses notable for featuring in pornographic films was much stronger than its coverage of women authors. Editors from Africa are also greatly underrepresented.

### Political bias

An article published by the American Economic Association, which examined the prevelence of certain words in Wikipedia articles, found that Wikipedia had a left-wing bias. Many other media outlets also argue that Wikipedia has a left-wing bias. The website Breibart claims that Wikipedia has a left-wing bias, giving examples such as downplaying violence in the left-wing organisation Antifa. The politically-conservative encylopedia website Conservapedia also claims that Wikipedia has a left-wing bias, and features a lenghtly list of articles which they claim exibit bias.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_Wikipedia
2. ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/09/the-hive/305118/
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://time.com/4178708/wikipedia-moments-15th-anniversary-history-timeline/
6. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felipe\_Ortega2/publication/200772797\_Quantitative\_analysis\_of\_the\_wikipedia\_community\_of\_users/links/02e7e5242e2a4008fb000000/Quantitative-analysis-of-the-wikipedia-community-of-users.pdf
7. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8382477.stm
8. ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/3-charts-that-show-how-wikipedia-is-running-out-of-admins/259829/
9. ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/surmounting-the-insurmountable-wikipedia-is-nearing-completion-in-a-sense/264111/
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/520446/the-decline-of-wikipedia/
11. ↑ https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/board/
12. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html?\_r=0
13. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender\_bias\_on\_Wikipedia
14. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/07/guardian-view-wikipedia-evolving-truth
15. ↑ https://memeburn.com/2018/06/wikipedia-wikimania-africa-numbers/
16. ↑ https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.102.3.343
17. ↑ https://hbr.org/2014/12/wikipedia-is-more-biased-than-britannica-but-dont-blame-the-crowd
18. ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/02/01/five-of-the-best-examples-of-left-wing-bias-on-wikipedia-in-2017/
19. ↑ https://www.conservapedia.com/Examples\_of\_Bias\_in\_Wikipedia