Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, was launched 20 years ago in January 2001. A lot has changed in the online world since then, yet Wikipedia remains one of the most visited sites on the internet, ahead of giants Netflix and Instagram.
How did Wikipedia begin?
“Ever since I was a child, I loved encyclopedias,” Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, tells The Week Junior. As he got older, he noticed that there were lots of subjects that were not included in the encyclopedias that he read. Later, at university, he learned about the open-source movement, which was started by computer programmers to promote the free sharing of online information. Wales hired an editor, Larry Sanger, and the pair decided to use a “wiki engine” to power their site. A wiki…