Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Actively updated
in over 100 languages, including constructed languages such as Esperanto, the English language
Wikipedia contains over one and a half million articles.There are more than 75,000 active contributors
working on some 9,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages. Anyone is welcome to add information,
cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and
to an appropriate standard. For example, if you add information to an article, be sure to include
your references, as unreferenced facts are subject to removal.
Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs
from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more
comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation,
unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and
avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed (see Researching with Wikipedia
for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated,
with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within seconds, minutes or hours,
rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.
The lack of language barriers, and the fact that anybody with an Internet connection and a web browser
can edit its contents, has Wikipedia termed as a "sum of public human knowledge." However, as in all fields
of knowledge, there is much dispute over the accuracy of some information contained in Wikipedia.
The encyclopedia therefore has resources dedicated the resolving such issues, and usually strives
to publish all sides of any disputes.
Wikipedia using and creating is based on GNU Free Documentation Licence. Copying, redistributing
and modifying of Wikipedia's content follow the rules of GNU.
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