Wikipedia celebrates its 10th birthday


15 Jan 2011

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is celebrating its 10th birthday today.

The site went live on 15 January 2001, allowing people to create and maintain an online encyclopedia. It currently has more than 3.5m articles in English on the site.

It operates as a not-for-profit organisation, relying on private donations from its users to stay online.

The site continues to be one of the most-visited sites on the internet. Many of its critics feels its model encourages inaccuracy and hoaxes, however.

Jimmy Wales, CEO of Wikipedia, plans to encourage this growth and, when speaking to the BBC, said he wanted to grow its user base from 400m to 1bn by 2015.

Wales also said he wishes to simplify the interface in order to encourage this growth.

The site will mark the occasion by holding numerous events around the globe, such as an Editathon in London, where users edit the site at the British Library.

There are events in Ireland, too. In Sligo, people are being encouraged to capture quintessential images of the country and the culture in a photo scavenger hunt. A work shop will be held on the 22nd to show people how to contribute.