News

Category: Projects/Initiatives

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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Bodil Biørn

Norway and Armenia come together to bring Bodil Biørn’s historic photographs online

Over 180 memories of Armenian history are now available to everyone in the world, free of charge, thanks to a collaborative project between Wikimedia Norge (Norway), Wikimedia Armenia—both independent Wikimedia affiliate organizations—and the National Archives of Norway. All of the photographs were taken by Norwegian missionary and nurse Bodil Biørn (1871–1960), who proselytized within modern-day….

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Your weekly photo from the world’s free media repository: 13 September

Boats moored in Zoebigker Harbor on Lake Cospuden, located near Markkleeberg, Saxony, Germany. This photo comes to us from Wikimedia Commons, the freely licensed media repository whose holdings are extensively used on Wikimedia’s many projects, including Wikipedia. You can use the photo for just about any purpose as long as you credit the author (Ansgar….

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Malicious attack on Wikipedia—What we know, and what we’re doing

Today, Wikipedia was hit with a malicious attack that has taken it offline in several countries for intermittent periods. The attack is ongoing and our Site Reliability Engineering team is working hard to stop it and restore access to the site. As one of the world’s most popular sites, Wikipedia sometimes attracts “bad faith” actors.….

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Your weekly photo from the world’s free media repository: 6 September

Wikipedia tells us that “the Umeda Sky Building is the nineteenth-tallest building in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, and one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center.” This photo comes to us….

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Your weekly photo from the world’s free media repository: 30 August

The ruins of Salamis, the ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, have been the subject of archaeological excavations since the late nineteenth century. Here, the columns of the city’s public baths or gymnasium stand in repose. This photo comes to us from Wikimedia Commons, the freely licensed media repository whose holdings are….

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Idil Keysan illustrates Wikipedia, “the brain of the world,” in a set of gifs

Idil Keysan is a Turkish artist and illustrator known for her playful and relatable animated work on Giphy, the GIF-hosting platform. Idil’s keen understanding of what’s trending and how audiences interact with gifs have helped her work get over two billion views on the website. Her fun, charming, brightly colored illustrations are inspired by “famous….

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Your weekly photo from the world’s free media repository: 23 August

Jack Delano was an American photographer best known for his work with the US government’s photography program within the Farm Security Administration. The image above was captured in December 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, and it shows Chicago and Northwestern Railroad steam locomotives at rest in a Chicago roundhouse before their….

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Farhad Fatkullin, 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, looks back on his successes and forward to what’s next

One year ago, Farhad Fatkullin was at home gifting his time to simultaneously translating the speeches being given at Wikimania, the annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia, the Wikimedia projects, and the volunteers who contribute to them. Up on stage for the closing ceremony was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia who at each year gives….

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