What is Wikipedia, anyway?Is it like the World Book, by any chance? -EG?

Answer 1

its pretty much an encyclopedia, but its compiled by guys like you and me.

lets say you're really into the Chicago Bulls, for instance. you can look it up, and see that there are things that you feel are important that arent listed there. so, you sign in and add that stuff to the definition. the problem with that is theres not any real way to confirm everything that goes into it. most of it tends to be right, but you'll see a lot of misprints in certain things.

i'd use it as an ok basis for some things, but if you're doing a report or something for school, i'd go with something more reputable.

Answer 2

Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a blend of the words wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by almost anyone with access to the website. Wikipedia's main servers are in Tampa, Florida, with additional servers in Amsterdam and Seoul.

Wikipedia was launched as an English language project on January 15, 2001 as a complement to the expert-written and now defunct Nupedia, and is now operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It was created by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales; Sanger resigned from both Nupedia and Wikipedia on March 1, 2002. Wales has described Wikipedia as "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."[1]

Currently Wikipedia has more than 5 million articles in many languages, including more than 1.4 million in the English-language version. There are 250 language editions of Wikipedia, and 17 of them have more than 50,000 articles each. The German-language edition has been distributed on DVD-ROM, and there have been proposals for an English DVD or print edition. Since inception, Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity,[2] and has spawned several sister projects. According to Alexa, Wikipedia ranks among the top 20 most visited sites, and many of its pages have been mirrored or forked by other sites, such as Answers.com.

There has been controversy over Wikipedia's reliability and accuracy, with the site receiving criticism for its susceptibility to vandalism, uneven quality and inconsistency, systemic bias, and preference for consensus or popularity over credentials. Information is sometimes unconfirmed and questionable, lacking proper sources that, in the eyes of most Wikipedians, is necessary for an article to be considered 'high quality'. However, a 2005 comparison performed by the science journal Nature of sections of Wikipedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica found that the two were close in terms of the accuracy of their articles on the natural sciences. This study was challenged by Encyclopædia Britannica, who described it as "fatally flawed."[3]

Answer 3

Yes, like an on-line Encyclo pedia. Apparently, experts from around the world submit articles on any subject. Some are rejected, and new ones often replace old ones. So it's like an encyclopedia that won't expire. And it's all free.

Let's say that you look ME up. Yes, type uitti. HA, you find my famous cousin, but not me.

THANKS, and good luck

Answer 4

It's a collaborative encyclopedia.

Answer 5

don't pay too much attention to it. anyone can add content to it which makes the validity of it suspect at best. don't use it as a reference.