Reading and using Wikipedia

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  • Wikipedia and other sources
  • A free encyclopedia, free to read and to use, free of copyright (except for some Fair Use material)
  • A comprehensive modern encyclopedia, with world-wide coverage, and at least some information about almost anything a person might look for in an encyclopedia; larger than print encyclopedias; extensively hyperlinked and categorized; lists; images & other media; watchlists and other software tools
  • Verifiable, with references for the information, to check for accuracy and to find more material
  • Open content: anyone can contribute – widest range of interests and knowledge; numerous contributors; Wikiprojects encourage collaboration
  • Neutral and factual: all major points of view are covered in proportion, with sources for them (Wikipedia:Neutral point of view)
  • Uncensored: with respect to sex, politics, and other difficult topics
  • Open community: self-governing, with minimal structure; everyone is a volunteer
 
English Wikipedia contributors by country (2007)
 
Size of English Wikipedia by subject (2007)
  • Wikipedia's coverage
  • What are the problems?::
  • Accuracy; updating; stability; edit wars/WP:OWNership
  • Fairness; WP:COI
  • Poorly covered areas
  • Uneven depth in even fairly well covered areas
  • Spam
  • Where is it strong:
  • Classic literature and drama
  • History and Religion
  • Africa, most of Asia, Latin America
  • Where it is too difficult for most people?:
  • Mathematics, Linguistics, ...
  • Searching
  • Wikipedia Search box
  • Google and other search engines
  • Evaluating an article
  • Sourcing (Wikipedia:Verifiability; WP:RS); External links (WP:EL)
  • Article history (sometimes an old version contains useful information that has been dropped)
  • Talk page - Wikiprojects rate their own articles; discussion of article improvement

Anatomy of an article

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  • Tabs of plenty

Model classes

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Wiki in the World

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  • Wikimedia Foundation
  • Chapters, Wikimedia NYC
  • Wikipedia Ambassador Program
  • GLAM, Wikipedia Loves Libraries, Wikipedian In Residence role

More gender resources

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