Global information resource Wikipedia celebrates 25 years
On Thursday, 15 January, the world's largest online information resource turned 25. This marks a quarter century of making trustworthy, human-powered knowledge accessible worldwide for Wikipedia. It celebrated with a global, virtual birthday event, featuring surprise guests, games, and entertainment, and was livestreamed on Wikipedia's YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram channels.
On Thursday, 15 January, the world's largest online information resource turned 25 (Image supplied)
It also launched its Wikipedia 25 campaign as part of the celebration.
The campaign through the Wikimedia Foundation — the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia — invites everyone to discover Wikipedia's journey over the last 25 years, celebrate the volunteers who make the site possible, and be part of the platform's future.
"Wikipedia is a digital wonder of the world, unlike anything else. It has overcome countless challenges and changes in its time, thanks to the people behind it and their unwavering commitment to sharing free, reliable knowledge with the world," says Maryana Iskander, chief executive officer of the Wikimedia Foundation.
"With billions of monthly visits and an ever-growing number of organisations relying on Wikipedia's free, verified knowledge, this platform has become integral to the architecture of the entire internet."
Behind the scenes docuseries
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation also released for the first time a video "docuseries," sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the lives and stories of Wikipedia volunteer editors around the world.
All of the knowledge on Wikipedia is created and maintained by a global community of nearly 250,000 volunteer editors who write, edit, and fact-check information according to rigorous standards of neutrality and reliability.
The series stars eight of these volunteers and their unique purpose and passions for contributing to the online encyclopedia.
Nigeria featured
It features Nigeria’s very own Goodness IgnatiusIgnatius embodies the spirit of cultural stewardship using Wikipedia to ensure that Nigerian and Ibo traditions are told by those who live them.
She is an active contributor across multiple Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons, and a committed member of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group.
A librarian by profession, she co-founded the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub to strengthen collaboration among information professionals within the Igbo community in Nigeria.
Her story underscores that, even and especially in the age of AI, knowledge is human, and knowledge needs humans.
Time capsule
The Foundation also launched today a 25 Years of Wikipedia" time capsule, allowing Wikipedia fans worldwide to delve into the past, present, and future of this treasured global resource.
Users can listen to founder Jimmy Wales share in his own words memories from Wikipedia's origin story, including when he himself installed the site's very first servers.
The capsule also examines Wikipedia's role during major global events, such as when the site's servers almost collapsed in 2009 due to an influx of site visits following Michael Jackson's death.
It also deep dives into some of the weirdest and wonderful parts of Wikipedia, like an article on a prescient octopus named Paul.I
n looking to Wikipedia's future, a new, interactive quiz — also released today — invites people worldwide to discover which Wikipedia future best represents them.
The futures were imagined by a group of Wikipedia editors, young children, professional futurists, and artists, representing a range of visions for the Wikipedia of tomorrow.
Wikipedia has now become the backbone of knowledge on the internet. For 25 years, Wikipedia and its global volunteer community have navigated technology disruptions, regulatory hurdles, and growing mistrust across the information landscape, among other shifts.
Through it all, they have — and will continue to — adapt and evolve to ensure everyone, everywhere can continue to access and share knowledge.
In the AI era, Wikipedia and its human-created and curated knowledge have never been more valuable.
Today, Wikipedia is among the top-ten most-visited global websites, and it is the only one to be run by a nonprofit.
Its 65 million articles in over 300 languages are viewed nearly 15 billion times every month, and its knowledge power includes generative AI chatbots, search engines, voice assistants, and more.
Wikipedia is one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models.
The last 25 years
Wikipedia’s progress over the last 25 years highlights its increasing relevance as the backbone of the internet.
These are a few of the ways it has grown and evolved over the years:
- New partnerships with tech companies support Wikipedia's sustainability
Tech companies that rely on Wikipedia content must use it responsibly and help sustain Wikipedia for the future. One key way to do this is through the Wikimedia Enterprise platform.
Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Enterprise is a commercial product for large-scale reusers and distributors of content from Wikimedia projects.
Over the past year, several companies — including Ecosia, Microsoft, Mistral AI, Perplexity, Pleias, and ProRata — became new Wikimedia Enterprise partners, joining existing partners such as Amazon, Google, and Meta. They can access content from Wikimedia projects at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs, while directly supporting our nonprofit mission.
- Implementing an AI strategy that puts humans first
The Foundation's recent AI strategy directs future investments and developments in AI to support the human contributors at the core of Wikipedia, so that they can spend their valuable time on what they want to accomplish and not on how to achieve it technically.
- Strengthening our tech infrastructure
Continuous improvements have been made to Wikipedia's tech infrastructure since 2001 to make it one of the most accessible and multilingual sites in the world.
Updates to Wikipedia's desktop interface and dark mode have greatly improved user accessibility; we've opened new data centres to quicken load times, and Wikipedia apps for iOS and Android allow Wikipedia fans to access content right from their mobile devices.
- Closing knowledge gaps
Knowledge on Wikipedia today has grown to be more representative and reflective of the world through dedicated efforts in language translation and community-led initiatives to increase the spectrum of volunteer editors and content on the site. Further, Abstract Wikipedia aims to make the reliable information on Wikipedia available in all languages; the project was one of five finalists of MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change grant competition last year.
- Engaging the next generation of readers and contributorsThrough new experiments, such as online games and short content for social media, we are discovering innovative ways that Wikipedia can reach new users, respond to global trends, and meet the evolving needs of users in a changing internet landscape.
More ways to celebrate Wikipedia
There are many ways that people around the world can get involved in the yearlong Wikipedia 25 celebrations.
Other highlights include:
- People worldwide are invited to use a new feature on social media to "sign" Wikipedia's digital birthday card — helping to make it the longest birthday card ever.
- Baby Globe, a new mascot inspired by a Wikipedia volunteer's sketches, can be found in a series of playful, visual surprises on several language versions of Wikipedia when readers turn on 'Birthday mode' next month.
- A fresh, festive limited-edition collection of Wikipedia merchandise, starting with a Baby Globe plushie developed in collaboration with Makeship.
"In 2001, Wikipedia started as a dream to share knowledge with everyone, everywhere. No one, including me, knew if it would succeed," says Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia Foundation trustee.
"Against all odds, Wikipedia has grown to become the backbone of knowledge on the internet today.
“Wikipedia demonstrates 25 years of humanity at its best, proving that when people come together in the spirit of building trust and collaboration, they can make the impossible possible."