Category: Projects/Initiatives

For centuries, much of our recorded history has been written by men. Even in Sweden, which is considered a leader in gender equity, less than ten percent of the people mentioned in the main article about Swedish history on the Swedish language Wikipedia, “Sveriges historia”, are women. With Wikimania, the annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and….

The panther chameleon is native to northern and eastern Madagascar, and has also been introduced to Réunion and Mauritius. According to its entry on Wikipedia, “Like most species of chameleons, the panther chameleon is very territorial. It spends the majority of its life in isolation, apart from mating sessions. When two males come into contact,….

Children playing around a wrecked airplane. A toddler plays peek-a-boo. Teens play barefoot street soccer. Welcome to the wonder of Wiki Loves Africa, an annual themed photo contest which aims to re-balance the lack of visual representation and content that Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons hold about the continent. Over the last five years, Wiki Loves….

This eharo mask was made by an unknown person in what is today Papua New Guinea. It was acquired by the Museum of Toulouse in 1882. According to its caption on Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository that holds much of the images, videos, and sounds used in Wikipedia articles, “the eharo masks were worn….

This rock grotto is three kilometers south of the village of Olenevka, located on Crimea’s Tarkhankut Peninsula. The photographer uploaded it as part of Wiki Loves Earth 2017, a photo contest which aims to document the world’s natural heritage for future generations. Over 130,000 images were uploaded during the contest, a total which was winnowed….

The Smithsonian—one of the leading museums and research centers in the United States—has added over 200 images of women involved in the battle for women’s suffrage in the country to Wikimedia Commons, one of the world’s largest collections of freely licensed media. The donation helps advance the Smithsonian’s strategic plan, which calls for reaching one….

The original Beetle, constructed by the German automaker Volkswagen, was in production from 1938 until 2003. Convertible Beetles were usually nicer than their roofed counterparts. According to Wikipedia, the Beetle convertible was “generally more lavishly equipped than the sedan with dual rear ashtrays, twin map pockets, a visor vanity mirror on the passenger side, rear….

Have you ever tried zooming in on an image on your computer? Did you notice how the quality steadily got worse and worse? This is an unfortunate feature of “raster graphics,” the file formats that use a rectangular grid of pixels to make up an image, and present a particular problem for people making maps,….

The Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse is located in Hjørring, Jutland, Denmark, on the North Sea. Construction on it began in 1899; it was lit for the first time in 1900 and its light was extinguished for the final time in 1968. Today, the lighthouse is threatened by heavy coastal erosion in the area, which are bringing….

Imagine a world where you grew up in a world where the greatest literary works in history never existed. For many of the world’s language speakers, this can be their functional reality. Titles like these have either never been translated, or were translated decades ago and now hide in ancient paper-bound texts on dusty library….