The infinite potential of human collaboration

On November 2, 2000, a space capsule carrying three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). It was appropriately named “Expedition 1,” and it was the beginning of 20 years of humans continuously living and working onboard the ISS. Just two months after the landing of Expedition 1, another seemingly impossible human endeavor launched….

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Pandemics and politics: 2020 through the lens of Wikipedia

This is my sixth annual post sharing the list of Wikipedia’s most popular articles of the year, and each year I’ve had to come up with different ways of saying “people really love the latest pop culture.” Then 2020 happened — and, as with most things this year, the list was very different. Instead of….

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Vote sign for US elections

What Wikipedia saw during election week in the U.S., and what we’re doing next

Election Day in the United States was a critical moment for the country, with impacts that will extend well beyond one election cycle. For many Americans, it was an anxiety-inducing event. While voters waited — and waited — for the results to come in, Wikipedia editors across the globe stood ready. As one of the….

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Ceiling of Cincinnati Union Terminal featuring a US flag

How Wikipedia Is Preparing For The 2020 U.S. Election

If the internet is the most important battleground in next week’s U.S. presidential election, then Wikipedia is the Web’s neutral zone. Last month, U.S. federal agencies issued a public service announcementwith a warning that bad actors could use the internet to spread disinformation in an effort to discredit the legitimacy of the voting process. As….

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The World Health Organization and Wikimedia Foundation expand access to trusted information about COVID-19 on Wikipedia

Geneva, Switzerland, 22 October 2020 — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that administers Wikipedia, announced today a collaboration to expand the public’s access to the latest and most reliable information about COVID-19. The collaboration will make trusted, public health information available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license at a….

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İki buçuk yıldan uzun zamanın ardından Türkiye’den Wikipedia’ya erişim açıldı

Bugün, Wikipedia’nın 19. doğum gününde, Wikimedia Vakfı Türkiye’den Wikipedia’ya erişimin yeniden açılmakta olduğuna ilişkin haberler aldı.* Bu son gelişme, Anayasa Mahkemesi’nin Türkiye yetkililerinin iki buçuk yıldan uzun süren engelini 26 Aralık 2019 kararı ile anayasaya aykırı bulmasının ardından gerçekleşti. Bugün erken saatlerde Anayasa Mahkemesi kararın tam metnini kamuya açık olarak paylaştı, hemen ardından Wikipedia’ya erişimin….

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Welcome back, Turkey!

Access to Wikipedia restored in Turkey after more than two and a half years

Today, on Wikipedia’s 19th birthday, the Wikimedia Foundation has received reports that access to Wikipedia in Turkey is actively being restored.* This latest development follows a 26 December 2019 ruling by the Constitutional Court of Turkey that the more than two and a half year block imposed by the Turkish government was unconstitutional. Earlier today,….

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Arrows on road

Setting the record straight—WT:Social is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation

As of late, we have received several questions about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia’s affiliation with WT:Social. The recently launched WT:Social is related to WikiTribune, a venture independently initiated by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation are separate and independent from WT:Social. We have no connection to the social networking site. The….

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Welcome to Wikipedia! Here’s what we’re doing to help you stick around

Someone signing up to edit a Wikipedia page for the first time may feel a bit like a visitor to a new planet—excited, to be sure, but wildly overwhelmed. Many new editors must wonder: Just how many millions of articles are in this vast online resource? And which of those millions of articles need that….

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Thanks for the thanks! Examining the efficacy of Wikipedia’s thanks feature

Much like Asgard, Wikipedia is not a place but a people. Specifically, an extensive community of volunteers from around the world who donate their time each day to building, curating, and watching over the largest collection of knowledge ever assembled. Unlike Asgard, the people who contribute to Wikipedia often only rarely meet outside of the….

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