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Wikipedia:Purpose

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Wikipedia has a lofty goal: "a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge."[1]

Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by acting as a widely accessible and free encyclopedia; a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge.

Encyclopedias are designed to introduce readers to a topic, not to be the final point of reference. Wikipedia, like other encyclopedias, is a tertiary source and provides overviews of a topic by indicating reliable sources of more extensive information.

The goal of a Wikipedia article is to present a neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge in a fair and accurate manner with a straightforward, "just-the-facts style". Articles should have an encyclopedic style with a formal tone instead of essay-like, argumentative, promotional or opinionated writing.

Concept of an encyclopedia

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Wikipedia's goal

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Wikipedia's content

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Content is governed by three principal core content policiesneutral point of view, verifiability, and no original research.

See also

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  • Administration – discusses both the human administrative structure of Wikipedia, as well as its non-human components.
  • The Free Encyclopedia – describes how Wikipedia is "Free" as in Free Software and Free Culture.
  • The essence of Wikipedia – describes how Wikipedia uses collective intelligence, collaboration, and preservation to build, expand, and improve content.
  • Statement of principles – by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, as updated by the community since then.
  • What Wikipedia is not – describes how there are certain things that Wikipedia is not.
  • Offline access – describes how to access Wikipedia's free content without internet access.
  • Original Wikipedia policy – as edited by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, on 1 November 2001.

References

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  1. ^ "The Sum of All Human Knowledge". The On Being Project. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  2. ^ Diderot, Denis (1755). Encyclopédie. Vol. 5. Translated by Philip Stewart. Paris. p. 635. University of Michigan Library: Scholarly Publishing Office and DLXS. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007
  3. ^ Sanger, Larry (1 November 2001), Wikipedia Policy, Wikipedia, archived from the original on 11 December 2007
  4. ^ Roblimo (28 July 2004). "Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Responds". Slashdot. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  5. ^ "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia". Wikimedia. 8 March 2005. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Neutral point of view/draft - Meta". meta.wikimedia.org.
  7. ^ "Wikipedia: NeutralPointOfView". 16 April 2001. Archived from the original on 16 April 2001.
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External videos
video icon Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia, 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins.