Sunday, March 30th 2008

Wikipedia Reaches Ten Million Articles

Earlier this week the Wikimedia Foundation reached a significant new milestone: on Thursday, March 27, at 00:07 UTC the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The ten millionth article, a short biography of 16th century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, was created in the Hungarian Wikipedia by user Pataki Márta.

Wikipedia now boasts articles in more than 250 languages, with the English Wikipedia having the largest number, followed in descending order by the German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish Wikipedias. The project is also experiencing rapid growth in many young Wikipedias, including Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, remarked on the occasion of this milestone, "It's incredible to think that we've grown from one Wikipedia in English to over 250 language Wikipedias. Ten million articles is something we could never have imagined happening so fast when we embarked on Wikipedia in 2001. This is a testament to the incredible dedication of our volunteers around the world."

In December 2007, the German magazine Stern announced in an independent study of 50 articles that the German Wikipedia was more accurate, complete and up-to-date than the longstanding print encyclopedia Brockhaus. In April 2007, a study conducted by the Hewlett Packard Information Dynamics Laboratory found that the best articles on the English Wikipedia are those that have been edited the most frequently, by the largest number of people. It concluded that the correlation between article quality and the number of edits validates Wikipedia as a successful collaborative effort.

Similar studies around the world continue to point to the increasing accuracy and quality of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that is written, edited and maintained by a global community of thousands of volunteers.
Source: Wikipedia
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9 Comments on Wikipedia Reaches Ten Million Articles

#1
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Of with 14 are authored by me, yay!
Posted on Reply
#2
Cold Storm
Battosai
Oh, yeah bta!? IF you could PM me with that I'd love to read them! I love wikipedia. Once you find out something, you can let the whole world know! One of the best web based informational services EVER!
Posted on Reply
#4
1c3d0g
Wikipedia is great...I learned a lot about everything there. :)
Posted on Reply
#5
Disparia
Yeah, I usually hit Wikipedia for information instead of manufacturer's own websites.

Intel chipset information - intel.com is the last place I want to go ;) :D
Posted on Reply
#6
OnBoard
Yeah it's great hear/see a song by a band you have no knowledge, wiki them and be enlightened :) Must be my #2 after google.
Posted on Reply
#7
FilipM
Wikipedia has a contribution of 1 article from my side. :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#8
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Sweet, congrats wikipedia. Where was this when I was in high school and college :roll:
Posted on Reply
#9
acousticlemur
WarEagleAUSweet, congrats wikipedia. Where was this when I was in high school and college :roll:
haha yeah no shit!!! would have been hella handy!:toast:
Posted on Reply
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