Wikipedia:What is Wikipedia

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Q. What is a Wiki?

A. See what is a wiki and what is a Wiki for.

Q. When did the Wikipedia start?

A. January 15, 2001. An earlier version of the wiki (including original versions of some of these pages) was briefly hosted on Nupedia.com (first posted January 10). The idea of a Nupedia-sponsored wiki originated out of a conversation Larry Sanger had with Ben Kovitz on the evening of January 2.

Q. Who owns Wikipedia?

A. Well, that's an interesting question. The owner of the server, the domain name and the layout of the pages is Bomis, Inc. The articles are released under the GNU Free Documentation License, so the articles are open content. So it is a bit misleading to say that the owner of Wikipedia articles is Bomis; Bomis doesn't own them in any traditional sense of ownership. (Bomis CEO and President Jimbo Wales might want to elaborate this reply.)

Q. Why is wikipedia.org redirected to wikipedia.com and not the other way around?

A. I'm afraid it's for precisely the reason you fear: the people who are organizing this view it partly, from their point of view, as a business. They hope to recoup their costs, at the very least (certain Wikipedia members are actually paid to help!)--by placing unobtrusive ads, someday in the possibly-distant future. It would, thus, be dishonest of them to use .org. Of course, if you don't like this, it will be possible to export all the contents of Wikipedia for use elsewhere, since the contents of Wikipedia are covered by the GNU Free Documentation License.

Q. What is Nupedia?

A. See how does Wikipedia relate to Nupedia.

Q. Can I add Nupedia articles to Wikipedia?

A. Sure. Please do add Nupedia articles to Wikipedia, but also add Wikipedia articles to Nupedia!

Q. How can I help publicise Wikipedia?

A. Good question. See publicize Wikipedia.

Q. Is it "the Wikipedia," or just plain "Wikipedia"?

A. Excellent question. We don't know, and most of us probably don't care. Some of us say "the Wikipedia" and some of us say "Wikipedia" (and some of us say both).

If there were only one Wikipedia (which, as it happens, there is no longer; see international Wikipedia), then "Wikipedia" would be a (unique) proper name, in which case saying "the Wikipedia" would be rather strange-sounding, like "the Britannica." On the other hand, we might be using "Wikipedia" as a type term, like "encyclopedia," so if someone says, "I contributed an article to the Wikipedia the other day," it's like saying, "I contributed an article to the encyclopedia the other day." But in that case, we're using "Wikipedia" as a type term, and so it should be lower case: "wikipedia," right? Perhaps it would be best to refer to http://www.wikipedia.com/ as "the English Wikipedia" or "the English-language Wikipedia," since it is now only one of several Wikipedias (or is that wikipedias?). Clearly, we are in need of the services of a professional linguist.

Q. There are lots of Wiki clones, with different features. Which is Wikipedia using?

A. Good question. We were originally using UseModWiki by Clifford Adams, but have switched to our own wiki software. (Does anyone know why exactly...?)

Q. I have a million objections to the very concept of Wikipedia. How can you expect me (or anyone) to take it seriously?

A. Please see Wikipedia/Our Replies to Our Critics.

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