Wikipedia

The Free Encyclopedia that is more than the sum of it's Knols

Wikipedia! The Free Encyclopedia that is more than the sum of it's Knols. Wikipedia is the largest and most popular on-line encylopedia of knowledge written and maintained by the user community itself. This Knol contains background information on Wikipedia and links to the Wikipedia website.

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation.
The quoted infomation below is credited to the original referenced source, which is the website www.Wikipedia.com.  This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wikipedia:About".  
 
"Wikipedia (pronounced /ˌwiːkiˈpiːdiə/ or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/) is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project.  Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. As of today (July 24th, 2008), there are 2,471,364 articles in English; every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
 

"Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover existing knowledge; this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles. Most of the articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Substandard or disputed information is subject to removal. Users need not worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.

"Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed (see Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within seconds, minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias."
 
I have found Wikipedia to be a very reliable and useful source of information.  I have even provided content and article corrections myself.  Beyond that, it is interesting to browse the material even if you are not looking for anything in particular.  The "random article" option is a fun way to learn some things you never would have looked for (and some things you never wanted to know!). 
 
Thought you might like to know what a real online volunteer-collaborator encyclopedia looked like.
 
Comments are welcome, if they fix the search feature and anyone can ever find this article (LOL).

Comments


Narayana Rao K.V.S.S.

There are many capable people in the world to create Knowledge bases

Knol is a platform for creating knowledge bases.

There are many more people in this world apart from those participating in wikipedia with knowledge, writing and managerial skills.

Knol created a platform for them and many of the knollers will excel in their endeavor, even if some them give up in the middle.

Write messages to fellow knol authors

Knol Authors and Visitors - Bulletin Board December 2008

http://knol.google.com/k/sajid-khan/knol-authors-and-visitors-bulletin/2whdi0jnjfq1x/316



Centurion knollers list
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao-kvss/centurion-knollers-knol-authors/2utb2lsm2k7a/545

Last edited Dec 2, 2008 8:54 PM
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ericshawn1

Wikipedia: un-authoritative, libelous, erroneous. Why it will implode.

Wikipedia is a collaborative online "openly editable" encyclopedia in which not just some, but virtually 100% of its entries contain multiple fallacies. Wikipedia articles, subject to the whim of anyone who can convince the remaining collective of their "expertise," are notoriously filled with erroneous, un-authoritative, and often libelous content.

Wikipedia, the whole of it, is to be discounted by anyone seeking real information. They are instead directed to a real encyclopedia written by scholars, such as at Bartleby.com or Encarta.com.

Wikipedia will implode all on its own as long as we ignore it. It persists upon donations. Do not donate to Wikipedia. DO however continue to create ridiculous and erroneous entries on Wikipedia. Eventually, the organization will not be able to maintain staff to police its gargantuan database of drivel.

Nov 9, 2008 11:33 AM
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Anonymous

The Free Encyclopedia that is more than the sum of it's Knols

"It's" is a contraction, usually for "it is." In this context, as a possessive, "its" is the correct form.

Last edited Jul 30, 2008 6:17 AM
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David Blomstrom

What a crappy article...

Pardon the attitude, but sheez... You cover Wikipedia with just seven paragraphs in an article apparently designed primarily to display your attitude (i.e. insult Knol)? And is it really necessary to link words like "link" and "volunteers"?

Wikipedia is an awesome resource and phenomenon. Mine is a love-hate relationship; I use Wikipedia very frequently, and I've found so much cool stuff there, yet it can be incredibly amateurish (similar to your article), and its political content is a joke.

I predict at least one more Wikipedia knol will appear within the week - and it will easily be better than this one.

Last edited Jul 29, 2008 2:03 PM
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Julian

Your knol was categorized

After a simple categorization of the New Knols knol, I put your knol in a category. Take a look if you agree with the categorization. If not, just change it, add new categories and, first of all, add your new knols!

http://knol.google.com/k/julian/new-knols/3kmjoa0hcpphn/5#

Thanks!

Julian


Last edited Jul 29, 2008 4:48 AM
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Nihiltres

Better than most, but still not acceptable by the rules

While at least, among all the people (illegally) copying Wikipedia articles to Knol, you've indicated the source and the GFDL license to some extent, this article is still in violation of Knol's Terms of Service, as you agreed to grant Google a special license to display the content in any way they want, which you can't do without the explicit permission of everyone who's ever edited the Wikipedia article. I'd suggest that you remove it or at very least rewrite it completely to avoid this problem.

Last edited Jul 29, 2008 3:08 PM
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Graham Downs

We need a decent Wikipedia knol

Well, I think since Wikipedia has an article on knol, we need a knol on Wikipedia. :)

Perhaps try taking the Wikipedia article from Wikipedia and refactoring it in its entirety as a knol? I did that with my first knol on Ashley Callie (Basically a direct copy of my Ashley Callie Wikipedia article). Pity I still can't find it - as you say, indexing is rather slow. ;)

Last edited Jul 30, 2008 8:02 PM
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