Wikipedia, or the safe haven of students, and the desperation of teachers, who find research done in the image similar to the online encyclopedia. But Wikipedia is also useful, fast and secure information that reaches even where there are no libraries, the completely free notional funnel. Wikipedia is now an institution, and what a life it would be without it. The portal turns 20 and its founder, Jimmy Wales, is justifiably proud of it.

The 50-year-old citizen of Huntsville, Alabama, promises that he will soon launch a site to trace the history of Wikipedia, from January 15, 2001 until today:

 “It will be a way to remember how we tried to break down the walls of ignorance and create a great community. of defenders of knowledge », he explains.

The encyclopedia written in 289 languages. Probably the most used encyclopedia in the world is one of the best examples of a democratic and transnational web. Its voices are written in 289 languages, including the languages ​​of African, Asian and Latin American minorities. The languages ​​most spoken by Wikipedia, those that have more than a million articles each, may surprise you.

 In the first place there is English (about 5,056,000 articles), and so far, no surprises. However, it is followed by Swedish, then German, Dutch and Cebuano, a language spoken in the Philippines. Then there is French, Russian and – here’s another unusual presence – waray-waray, the language spoken in northern Samar. In ninth place is Italian (2,247,000 pages), ahead of Spanish, Polish and Vietnamese. The pages written over the years have been 38,068,469, including 2,408.

Wikipedia life

The success of Wikipedia is undisputed and its merit as well. But who makes it possible? It would seem incredible, but they are people who work for free and who also have fun. That is, they enjoy the pleasure of collaborating on something collective and collectively useful – just to clarify the concept of “free”. In Europe, the Wikimedia Assembly, also known as Wikipedia in Europe, has existed for ten years and is responsible for editing and checking the pages written in our language.

Especially check. There are particular figures, the patrollers , who watch over the vandals, those rude people on the net who try to get into Wikipedia to smear it with hoaxes, pages full of swear words and other not very pleasant things. Furthermore, Wikipedia are self-financing, because the funds donated to the Wikimedia Foundation go directly to San Francisco.

They take care to ask for the necessary permissions when they publish a photo of a monument or a work of art, they discuss a lot among themselves and do not hesitate to define themselves as a well-structured community. To ensure maximum neutrality and reliability they have a Wikiquette , that is a virtual bar where they debate, and even a kind of newspaper, the Wikipedia.

I work as a patroller. Marco Chimello, for example, is an architect from Vicenza who works as a Wikimedia in his spare time.

He does it for fun, he says, because “Wiki helps you use your time for others too and that makes you feel good.” He not only writes about architecture, but also about science fiction, which is his passion.

Another point in favor of Wikipedia: it does not force you to always take your work home, but allows you to dedicate yourself to what you like best. Chimello is also a patroller and could tell some good ones. In 2004 he had found entire pages that told of how Napoleon had won at Waterloo.

Clearly a fantasy-story operation. However, there are also those who are thinner and change the date of birth of a character by two days; in this case, noticing the error is obviously more difficult. The work of the Wikipedia is really tiring. And don’t say Wikipedia is unreliable.

How to become a notable Wikipedian and create a page.

To become a part of Wikipedia

Francesco Bini is among the top ten contributors to the version and among the first in the world for the Wiki Commons – the images made available on the network; in short, it is an authority in the wiki world. He gave some useful advice for those wishing to try their hand at creating a Wikipedia page. Becoming a part of Wikipedia, in fact, is less difficult than it seems:

«The secret is to copy the form from a similar page that already exists, and adapt the contents to what we want to write. The code used may seem abstruse, but it was designed to be as simple as possible, ”says Bini

And he adds: “With the advice of more experienced users in less than an hour you can already publish something correctly: Wikipedia is a team effort, where the comparison with others is always aimed at improving”.

How to write a flawless Wikipedia page.

• Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so it’s best to avoid news that is too recent or uninteresting.
• Work on topics that you are really passionate about. Have fun, you are granted.
• Search for or create a “red link” from an existing article. It is an indicator of missing entries, so it is the starting point for making new pages.
• Consult reliable sources before writing anything. Don’t write by heart. Any information given must be checked.
• Always cite your sources.
• Never copy. Point.
• However, take a cue from the already existing Wikipedia pages, as regards form and code.
• Be neutral, concise and grammatically correct.
• Use paragraphs, perhaps interspersed with graphics and images – consult the Commons, there are 23 million.

Sign up for your own bulletin board. You will thus be able to receive messages from other users, collect and make suggestions.

At this point, the game is done. You just have to think about the next page to write.