Wikipedia is 20 years old! With more than 55 million entries in over 300 languages, it is the largest encyclopedia ever written and is among the most visited web sites in the world.
The online initiative, whose content is created and maintained by a community of volunteer editors, came into being on 15 January 2001. To celebrate this milestone, Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, posted on Twitter: “The only long-term path to peace, prosperity and freedom is knowledge.” He then went on to ask users to continue their financial support of the project, which is to cultivate a more caring and better-educated world.
Wikipedia’s funding continues to rely on the economic contributions of Internet users. Its managers are preparing a new code of ethics that should come into force in the coming months.