A reporter’s laptop shows the Wikipedia blacked out opening page in Brussels January 18, 2012. REUTERS/YVES HERMAN/FILES
Wikipedia celebrates its 20th anniversary on Friday and the collaborative, volunteer-produced internet encyclopedia aims to spend the next 20 years further expanding free access to information.
Founded on January 15, 2001 by the American-British entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia is now the seventh-most popular website in the world, with its more than 55 million articles being consulted 15 billion times every month.
The website started in English but within two months had already launched in German and Swedish. It is now available in 309 languages.
But Wales doesn’t intend to stop there, with the languages of the developing world in the website’s sights.
“That’s really important that the next billion people, two billion people who come online are going to want to participate in Wikipedia, to grow their own storehouse of knowledge, and they’re going…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
