Baidu Baike (Chinese: 百度百科; pinyin: bǎidù bǎikē; translation: Baidu Encyclopedia) is a Chinese language collaborative Web-based encyclopedia provided by the Chinese search engine Baidu. It is a wiki-like project that is modeled after the Chinese Wikipedia. It initially prospered in the wake of the most recent blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China on October 19 2005. The test version was released on April 20, 2006, and within three weeks, the encyclopedia had grown to more than 90,000 articles, surpassing that of Chinese Wikipedia. By November 2006, Baidu Baike held more articles than any edition of Wikipedia with the exception of English Wikipedia, rivaling those of German Wikipedia. At that time, its growth rate was approximately 50,000 articles per month.
Functions of the website
editThe site is an open Internet encyclopedia espousing equality, collaboration, and sharing.[1] The encyclopedia, with two other services provided by Baidu ("zhidao" and "post") would form a trinity to complement the search engine.
The articles are written and edited by registered users and reviewed by behind-the-scenes administrators before release. There is no formal way to contact the administrators. Registered users' contributions are rewarded in a credit point system. Although the earlier test version was named "Baidu WIKI", official media releases and pages on the encyclopedia itself state that the system is not a wiki. The site does not use MediaWiki.
Style and interface
editThe visual style of the encyclopedia is simple. In articles, only boldface and hyperlinks are supported. Comments are listed at the bottom of each page.
Amongst its wiki-like functions, the site supports editing, commenting, and printing of articles, as well as an article history function.
Editing
editUsers can access multiple extended editing functions, including:
- An image uploading system where files less than 2 MB can be added to articles in the Encyclopedia.
- A keyword tagging system called "open category" (similar to folksonomy). One article can be tagged with at most 5 categories.
- A separate edit box for references and external links.
Principles of the encyclopedia
editArticles or comments containing the following types of content would be removed[2]:
- pornographic or violent text or images
- advertising
- personal attacks
- unethical content
- malicious, meaningless content
Copyright
editBaidu Baike's copyright policy is outlined in the 'terms of use' section of its help page. In it, Baidu Baike states that by adding content to the site, users agree to assign Baidu rights to their original contributions. It also states that users cannot violate intellectual property law, and that contributions which quote works held under the Creative Commons and/or GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) must follow the restrictions of those licenses.[3]
Differences from Wikipedia
edit- There's no evaluation of sources as reliable sources.
- Broader sense of encyclopedia, some reference materials such as lyrics are kept
- Using censorship, as opposed to consensus or open deletion discussion mechanism to avoid undesirable articles
- Not multilingual: only Chinese language environment supported.
Growth
editThe number of articles exceeded 10,000 in two days of its launch, and reached 40,000 in six.
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See also
editReferences and footnotes
editExternal links
edit- Baidu Baike (in Chinese)
- Site launches 'Chinese Wikipedia' (BBC News)
- Slashdot comments on Baidu Baike