Wikipedia is one of the most important website on the Internet today
But you might be surprised to learn
that it began as a side project
of another online encyclopedia.
That was called Nupedia
to be a traditional encyclopedia written by experts,
free and online.
But only one person had final publishing authority
and it wasn't quit taking off.
As a founder of Nupedia,
I've led the group to established a farm team of source
for futur Nupedia articles.
We used a new software platform to make collaboration easy.
The wiki.
Wikipedia.
It appeared to be the perfect way
to write mini-pages very quickly.
Soon enough, Nupedia couldn't keep up
and Wikipedia took a center stage.
We are creating not just a free content encyclopedia,
but a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Other language edition appeared quickly,
over 270 at last count.
And it was soon followed by sisters projects
like Wikisource, Wikinews and Wiktionary.
In 2003, I created the Wikimedia Foundation
to ensure that Wikipedia can keep up with its own grow.
Wikipedia get almost 400 Million visitors
every month.
And the list of sites visited the more often is very short
and very famous.
Wkipedia celebrates its tenth anniversary on january 2011
And it needs ten years
as become one of the most popular website in the world.
I still lead the community, and the Wikimedia Foundation
helps us to make Wikipedia what it is today.
Who does edit Wikipedia ?
Over time as many as 1,2 Million people
have contributed to Wikipedia.
As of 2010 there are more than 11 Million
According to one survey
we have about twice the proportion of PhDs
compared to the general public.
On the english Wikipedia, almost 50% have no religion.
And 14,6 % claim to believe in Pastafarianism.
It would be fare to say
that most wikipedians are not average.
One reason, maybe
is that editing a single page is easy