Wikipedia is a free public multilingual universal Internet encyclopedia implemented on the principles of Wiki (wiki). It is created by volunteers from all over the world in 277 world languages and contains more than 30 million articles. Launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, Wikipedia is now the largest and most popular reference on the Internet. In terms of the volume of information and thematic coverage, Wikipedia is considered the most complete encyclopedia ever created in the history of mankind.
Its main feature is that any Internet user can create and edit its articles, even without registration. All changes made by such users to any article immediately become visible to all site visitors. This is the reason for its phenomenal success, but at the same time its Achilles heel, since the reliability of the information on it is called into question by many experts.
How is the information contained in the articles of this online encyclopedia verified? How does Wikipedia protect itself from an influx of spam, endless advertisements, and irrelevant links? As one of the administrators of the Russian Wikipedia tells us, the information is checked in three stages:
1 – patrol
2 – checking for links to confirming authoritative sources
3 – evaluation of the article by other participants
Another interesting topic for discussion is the question of what does Wikipedia earn from? The official version says that Wikipedia is a non-profit organization and does not profit from its activities, but exists solely on private donations and grants allocated by the state and is controlled by the Wikimedia Charitable Foundation. Is it so? Why are Wikipedia articles always in the first place in the Google search engine? As always, questions about finances remain behind the scenes. It is possible to learn more and understand how Wikipedia works with the documentary film Truth in Numbers: The Story of Wikipedia.
