Maisie Lloyd
I'm passionate about recording the world, but most of all driven by creativity and collaborative environments. My experience revolves around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia of information which was founded in 2001, with the aim of supplementing content on Nupedia. Nupedia pre-dated Wikipedia and was also an encyclopaedia which was available from 2000-2003. Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organisation hosts Wikipedia.
How does Wikipedia work?
The site works on an open-source basis, allowing any individual to contribute and edit a Wikipedia page. This open-source basis has often come under scrutiny as non-factual information has been known to be displayed.
The software used to create Wikipedia is Wiki, a content management system which makes it super simple to create, edit and publish content onto Wikipedia.
Wikipedia pages can be edited by any spectator by simply locating the ‘Edit’ button in the top right-hand corner of the web page. To edit, click the edit button and begin to type out your adjustment. To publish the content, you’ll need to press ‘Publish changes.’
Alternatively, readers can create a note on the article’s talk page in order for someone else to make the amendment to the content. Equally, any vandalism should be reported to the Wikipedia email address.
The pros and cons of using Wikipedia as a resource
Pros
- The website is really easy to use, navigating across pages is made super simple, often with content being hyperlinked throughout. This makes it a particularly great building block for beginning research.
- Wikipedia is a free resource, with the option to be able to donate. Its accessibility makes it an ideal tool for gathering basic information.
Cons
- The downside to Wikipedia with it being open-source is that the information isn’t backed by scholars. This means that often non-factual content or vandalism is present in content.
- Whilst it is frequently updated, there is no structure or process to how or who updates a page. This lack of protocol for updating content means that some content on the website will be irrelevant, or outdated.
Facts about Wikipedia
Wikipedia has established itself as a valuable research tool, with a steady influx of over 4.2 billion visitors per month in 2024. Companies such as SemRush claimed Wikipedia was the fourth most visited website of 204, whilst Similarweb stated it was seventh.
Though the data on Wikipiedia’s founding year is spotty, by 2005 it was the most favoured research site. 2005 was also a big year for Wikipedia, as it hosted the first-ever Wikimania conference, which celebrates any free knowledge projects organised by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikipedia has content in over 300 languages and over 6.9 million articles in January 2025 alone making it the world’s biggest encyclopaedia.
