Press releases/2005


 * Wikimedia Foundation launches year-end fundraiser: 12/16/2005: The Wikimedia Foundation (http://wikimediafoundation.org) today announced a three-week fundraising campaign to help support the future operation and expansion of its free, multilingual wiki-based projects. The fundraiser runs from December 16, 2005 through January 6, 2006, and Wikimedia will accept donations in dozens of currencies from individuals and organizations around the globe.


 * Nature compares Wikipedia and Britannica: 12/15/2005: The Wikimedia Foundation, an international non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, announced today the results of an independent investigation by Nature magazine of its free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the fastest-growing encyclopedia worldwide, built on the premise that anyone in the world can add or edit entries.


 * Wikipedia tightens editorial control: 12/06/2005: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced today the establishment of stricter editorial practices in the English edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. On December 5, Wales experimentally removed the ability of unregistered users to create new articles in Wikipedia. Unregistered users will still be able to fix spelling mistakes and add to existing articles but are required to register a user account before creating new pages. Wales said: "This will reduce the work load on the volunteer editors controlling contributions to the project."


 * Kennisnet supports Wikimedia Projects: 05/26/2005: The popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the best-known project of the Wikimedia Foundation, will receive technical support from Kennisnet, thus helping the Foundation to achieve its goal of improving the capacity and responsiveness of Wikipedia. The agreement was reached to promote the shared values and educational objectives of Kennisnet and the Wikimedia Foundation.


 * Wikimedia announces Yahoo support: 04/07/2005: The Wikimedia Foundation and Yahoo! announced today that they have reached an agreement by which Yahoo will provide hosting capacity to Wikimedia. Yahoo will dedicate a significant number of servers in one of its Asian facilities for hosting Wikimedia's free content websites. Jimmy Wales, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, says that this generous donation will be of particular benefit to the vibrant and growing community of Wikipedia users in that part of the world.


 * German Wikipedia available on DVD: 04/06/2005: Spurred by the success of its CD distribution of the German Wikipedia in autumn 2004, the publishing house Directmedia Publishing, with the support of the Wikipedia community, has published an updated DVD version now. It contains a snapshot of the German-language Wikipedia from March 3, 2005, with over 200.000 articles. The DVD runs under Windows, Linux and Macintosh, and contains images of the encyclopedia for PDAs and modern cellular phones.


 * English Wikipedia reaches 500,000 articles: 3/18/2005: The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the 500,000th article in the English-language Wikipedia, its project to create a free, multilingual, online encyclopedia. The article was about "Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union." Wikipedia is a comprehensive online reference that has won acclaim and awards for its detailed coverage of current events and popular culture, its usability, and its community of contributors. It receives millions of visits each day.