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Revision as of 18:08, 15 December 2006 by Yann (talk | contribs) (* [http://fr.wikisource.org French Wikisource])

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All major projects of the Wikimedia Foundation are collaboratively developed by its users using the MediaWiki software. The content is free under the GNU Free Documentation License, meaning that it may be freely used, freely edited, freely copied and freely redistributed subject to the restrictions of that license. See also our link to all projects.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia logo
Wikipedia logo

Wikipedia is a project to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world. Virtually anyone is free to contribute.

The project started in January 2001 in one language, English, and currently has over 5,000,000 articles in over 150 languages. The largest Wikipedia is in the English language, with well over 1,500,000 articles; then come the German and French editions. 115 other languages have at least 1,000 articles. New language editions are proposed and launched every month.

Since the start of the project, over 200,000 registered users have made at least ten edits on some project. It is unknown how many users have registered on multiple projects at once. The total number of accounts created on the English Wikipedia alone exceeds 1,750,000.

Some Wikipedias release or plan to release regular snapshots. The German Wikipedia is released twice a year as a DVD, in collaboration with Directmedia Publishing.

Wikipedia is also known for its community. In 2004 Wikipedia won the Webby Award for "Community" and the Prix Ars Electronica's Golden Nica for "Digital Communities".

Wiktionary

Wiktionary logo
Wiktionary logo

Wiktionary is a project to create free content dictionaries and thesauri in every language. The project started in December 2002, and is now available in over 50 languages with over 200,000 entries in all. The largest language edition is English, followed by Polish, Bulgarian and Dutch.

Recently, Wiktionary has collaborated with the Wikimedia Commons. Many sound files have been uploaded to Commons, to provide Wiktionary and other projects with examples of pronounciation.

Wikiquote

Wikiquote logo
Wikiquote logo

Wikiquote is a repository of quotations taken from famous people, books, speeches, films or any intellectually interesting materials. Proverbs, mnemonics or slogans are also included in Wikiquote.

The project started in July 2003; As of June 2006, it includes over 45,000 pages in over 30 languages. The largest Wikiquote is in English with over 7,500 pages. The German, Polish, Italian and Russian, each over 3000 articles.

Wikibooks

Wikibooks logo
Wikibooks logo

Wikibooks aims to build a collection of free e-book resources, including textbooks, language courses, manuals, and annotated public domain books. It aims to help both (self-)instruction of students, and teachers in high-schools and universities. The project started in July 2003 and has over 22,000 modules from 1000 developing books, across 45 languages.

Wikisource

Wikisource logo
Wikisource logo

Wikisource is a multilingual project, started in November 2003, to build a collection of primary source texts that could be distributed as free and open content. It serves Wikimedia's other projects as a useful archive of classics, laws, and other free texts. At the beginning, source texts in all languages (except Hebrew) were all on one site. However, Wikisource now has several editions in many individual languages.

Wikispecies

Wikispecies logo
Wikispecies logo

Wikispecies is an open, wiki-based project to provide a central, more extensive species database for taxonomy. Wikispecies is aimed specifically at the needs of scientific users, and as of March 2006, has over 30,000 entries.

Wikimedia Commons

Commons logo
Commons logo

Wikimedia Commons was launched in September 2004 to provide a central repository for free video, images, music, spoken texts, and other free media that can be easily reused by all Wikimedia projects. In December 2006, it has reached 1,000,000 multimedia files.

Wikimedia Commons received an honorary mention for Digital Community at the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica awards in May 2005.

Wikinews

Wikinews logo
Wikinews logo

The Wikinews project is currently in the beta stage. It was launched in December 2004 with the mission to report the news on a wide variety of subjects. As of February 2006, Wikinews is active in seventeen languages, and has produced more than 6000 news articles.

Contributors from around the world write news articles collaboratively. Reports are ranged from original reports to summaries of news from external sources. All of them are required to be written from a neutral point of view.

Currently Wikinews has two aims: providing a free content alternative to commercial news sites and making sure that articles are fact-checked and reviewed thoroughly.

Related projects

MediaWiki

MediaWiki Logo
MediaWiki Logo

MediaWiki is a wiki engine released under the GPL. The MediaWiki software is used by all Wikimedia projects and many other sites.

In 2005 MediaWiki won the prize at les Trophées du Libre in the category special php prize.

See MediaWiki, its Wikipedia article, or its website for more information.

Meta

Meta logo
Meta logo

"Meta" is a central wiki for coordination and development of all Wikimedia projects. The Meta site includes the help guide to MediaWiki, as well as project proposals, project discussions, policies, development issues, and administration of all of Wikimedia's wikis.