Wikipedia reaches two million milestone

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 13 September 2007 04:50

Your IT - Home IT

The two millionth English-language article has been added to Wikipedia. Curiously, it is about a Spanish TV show.

The article, which deals with "El Hormiguero", was contributed by 'Zzxc'.

"In just six years, Wikipedia has grown from a mere idea, to being the largest encyclopedia in the world. This success is thanks to the thousands of volunteers worldwide who have shaped Wikipedia into what it is today - a gift of knowledge to the world, and to future generations," said Florence Devouard, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.

The idea behind Wikipedia is that it is a community effort - anyone is technically free to write or edit entries, although individuals and organisations are not supposed to edit their own entries. While this is apparently intended to discourage undesirable behaviours such as the removal of unfavourable information, it can have the effect of eliminating the best source of information about that person or organisation.

For example, the Wikipedia entry for IT services company Dimension Data is a one-line stub: "Dimension Data (LSE: DDT) is a South African company specializing in information technology services."

The company would like to see a greatly expanded entry, iTWire has learned, but it is sticking to the 'no self editing' principle, which means anyone seeking information about Dimension Data will need to look elsewhere. Full entries for various other IT services companies do exist.