The name Wikipedia came from wiki, meaning a type of collaborative website, and encyclopedia. This service was created in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, and has since grown into the biggest reference website on the Internet. Lets put that into figures for you… over 6,000,000 articles in more than 250 different languages and is curently 1 of the 12 most visited websites in the Whole World!

Wiki is generally written by volunteers from all aropund the world, but it also enables its readers to add to or edit the articles already there as long as they stay within the editing policies. It is so easy to use, simply click on the, edit this page, link and make the changes. Because of this not all of the information is always reliable, however it is only as accurate as any other online encyclopedia. Not only can you add and edit information but you can create your own articles with their own licensings.

The main advantage of an online encyclopedia is that, instead of waiting months or years for an updated printed edition to be published, you can have newrecent information within hours or even minutes. Wiki is also a non-profit organization, completely free for its users.

www.wikipedia.org