Matt HampshireGene Goering

Avery HinesJosh Green

Jimmy Wales started Wikipedia in 2001. He was a onetime options trader in Chicago. Mr. Wales did not like the slow pace of

copy-editing that was only available at the time.

Wikipedia was the first free encyclopedia that allowed multiple people to edit the same web page with its new software.

“Wiki” is Hawaiian for fast.

Wikipedia is extremely popular with the public

Wikipedia.org is the 5th most popular web site in the world.

It has roughly 325 million monthly visitors. Wikipedia is known as “the free

encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Wikipedia web visitors increased 20% in the

12 months ending in September.

The Wikipedia Foundation employs a staff of 34 in San Francisco to run the sites computers, guide its planning and serve as a public face.

Wiki reported expenses of $5.6 million in its last fiscal year.

They are funded primarily through donations.

They launched a campaign to raise $7.5 million from users.

Millions of online volunteers who write, edit and monitor are quitting.

In the first 3 months of 2009 Wikipedia suffered a net loss of 49,000 editors compared to a net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year ago.

Many topics already have been written about. The plethora of rules Wikipedia has adopted to

bring order to its unruly universe. Crowd sourcing is independent contributions

from multiple web users. This is promoted as a new and better way for large numbers of individuals to collaborate on tasks.

As Wiki gets older it’s becoming less free willed and is becoming like organizations it set out to replace.

Many new comers who try to edit are being told that they are breaking a rule, and finding their edits deleted.

Executives at Wikipedia acknowledge the declines, but believe they can continue to build a useful encyclopedia with a smaller pool of contributors.

Mr. Wales also acknowledges this decline and says that it still isn’t clear what the “right” number of volunteers should be.

Mr. Wales says that his top priority is to improve the accuracy of Wikipedia’s articles.

He is pushing a new feature that would require top editors to approve all edits before they are displayed on the site.

This idea is to prevent vandalism.

Vandals spray virtual graffiti throughout the site such as:◦ Political views presented as facts.◦ Jokes about their friends.◦ Inserting marketing messages into articles.

Wikipedia came up with a new anti-vandalism feature, including “semi-protection,” which prevents newcomers from editing certain articles.

Nina Paley, a New York cartoonist, had no luck when putting her comic strips on Wikipedia.

She deciphered the software and posted her strips and the next day they were deleted.

A Wiki editor decided that Nina's comics didn’t meet educational criteria. Another editor questioned the copyright permission for the photo of herself.

Samuel Klein intervened and restored her comics.

The Wikipedia Foundation says its seeking to increase participation, but that growing the overall number of participants isn’t its main focus.

Wikipedia believes they will continue to be able to offer and expand the useful encyclopedia by focusing less on the total number of articles and more on the quality.