Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia launched on January 15, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, written and maintained by a large volunteer community through open collaboration using wiki software that lets any reader propose or make an edit. It grew from a side project into the largest and most read reference work in history, with editions in more than 300 languages and more than sixty million articles combined by the early 2020s. Its model, in which content is written and revised collectively rather than commissioned from credentialed experts and approved by a small editorial staff, marked a fundamental break from the closed editorial model of earlier encyclopedias and became a defining example of the collaborative, user generated media forms that emerged with the World Wide Web.