On January 15, 2001 Wikipedia was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. At the time, only in English, but not much later followed by other languages, including Dutch version on June 19, 2001.
Wikipedia was at the launch of an odd man out. Not only was (and is) the digital reference book totally free to use, the content is also editing by anyone.
Though that particular side in the early days of the Internet encyclopedia skepticism seems content from Wikipedia not inferior to traditional encyclopedias. Already in 2005 in the scientific journal was Nature published a study which concluded that Wikipedia is about as reliable as the famous Encyclopedia Britannica .
The editing by anybody Internet encyclopedia has now become the main reference work on the Internet. According to Alexa, which conducts research into the popularity of websites, the website is the seventh most popular site in the world.
Wikipedians
The driving force behind the site are the volunteers which is free and for nothing write and track the pages of Wikipedia. Wikipediaan Edo de Roo wrote over a decade ago, his first article.
“When it was a lot smaller and not so well known. It was during the period that it is very grew and many people retaliatory . You came Wikipedia spreading across Google. I started occasionally what to add, I occasionally got something against it was wrong and that I fit in. “
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Roo has written articles about tennis parameters and rivers. For example, he has articles added all the tributaries of the Elbe. “I’m currently job seeker, but by this hobby do I actually never bored. Knowledge sharing is just fun.”
Decrease
But the number of active Wikipedians “that the reference keeps declining, even in the Netherlands. Nine years ago, the number of active Dutch writers around 1500. According to the latest published figures (November 2015) the number of active Dutch volunteers is now at 1201 Dutch. Worldwide there are approximately 80,000 active Wikipedians
Chart: Number of active wikipedians
“The highlight was around 2007, 2008,” says Sandra Rientjes, director of Wikimedia Netherlands, the organization behind Wikipedia. “At that time Wikipedia was really established : it was no flash in the pan.” There was also still much work to do, so the volunteers many important items could create more.
Meanwhile, the main articles are well written, tells Wikipediaan ‘Natuur12 “who will not mention his real name be. On Wikipedia he deals mainly with biology-related issues. “The depletion of general topics such as all countries of the world, Mount Everest, etc., put to me slow down the influx of new users.”
“Wikipedia still has the reputation of being a nerd site.”
Geoffrey De Belie
White men
Whatever does not cooperate is the lack of women that is committed for the site, set Rientjes. They are mostly white men who are actively engaged in keeping Wikipedia; the proportion of female Wikipedians coming years no further than 10 to 15 percent.
The problem is not so everywhere. In Armenia, for example, employs approximately as many women as men for Wikipedia. In the Netherlands, the percentage of active female Wikipedia volunteers at 11 percent
Graph: Number of items per language
That’s according Wikipediaan Geoffrey De Belie including through the image. “Wikipedia still has the reputation of being a nerd site.” Though, according to him long ago is no longer so, that idea sees to it that people who are not familiar with Wikipedia will join less likely in the active group.
Sports and Politics
This lack of diversity is detrimental to the content, says Rientjes. “It has a negative effect on the breadth of topics covered Wikipedia is generally better in the typically male subjects,. Science, sports and politics subjects such as social sciences and pedagogy make it worse.”.
Wikipedia aware of this problem and tries also to do something about it. There is a number of years ago created a ‘gender gap’ Working Group, which deals with the issue. There is a cooperation with Atria, the Institute for Women’s History and has been on International Women’s Day a meeting organized by the editors of Sideways
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” The tone of do not always fit equally well in women. “Edo de Roo
The lack women also has its influence on the mood of the volunteers, says De Roo user. “The tone of work does not always good for the women. Sometimes it gets a little politics, and women there go another way with it.”
The same concerns itself will be controlled, according to him for the Flemish editors. As most Wikipedians Dutch have often become typical Flemish subjects overshadowed because they are not known to the majority.
Pico Bello
Despite the shrinking numbers of volunteers does the Dutch version of the site is doing remarkably well, with 1.85 million articles. Despite the relatively small language area the Dutch Wikipedia is the fourth largest version, respectively, after the UK (5.05 million), Sweden (2.57 million) and Germany (1.9 million) versions.
Keeping track of which nearly two million articles is a big challenge, user explains Natuur12: “All help is welcome as anyone that Wikipedia uses ten minutes of his time would spend on editing Wikipedia, we had more than enough manpower. to keep everything pico bello “
Read more background stories Nuwe Kendrick
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