Wikipedia: An Overview

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, was founded on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and as some would say, it has been all uphill from there. From humble beginnings as a small online encyclopedia with a tiny group of devoted users, Wikipedia has since blossomed into the world's largest online encyclopedia with over 1.8 million articles in the English language alone. In keeping with the founder's vision of providing free access to the sum of human knowledge to every single person on the planet, Wikipedia also boasts a full 253 languages, with a varying number of articles.
What is the secret of Wikipedia's success? Wikipedia is a wiki, a site that anyone can edit. Making use of the power of open collaboration or the wisdom of crowds, Wikipedia defies traditional encyclopedia wisdom, or what some would call the very essence of encyclopedia-ness. After all, encyclopedias are traditionally written by groups of experts, whereas Wikipedia is written by millions of users, some experts, most amateurs. Yet in doing so, Wikipedia has become the largest encyclopedia on the Internet, so it obviously isn't a problem in this regard. With respect to quality, it is also generally excellent.