Wikipedija:O projektu

„Zamislite svijet u kojem svaka osoba na planeti ima slobodan pristup sumi cjelokupnog ljudskog znanja. To je ono na čemu mi radimo.” — Jimmy Wales

Wikipedija je višejezična mrežna enciklopedija slobodne sadržine. Svako je može uređivati u dobroj namjeri, a stotine ljudi to već rade.

Svrha Wikipedije je da koristi čitateljima pružanjem informacija o svim granama znanja. Projekt se nalazi na serverima Fondacije Wikimedia. Sastoji se od sadržine koja se može slobodno uređivati. Članci sadrže linkove koji upućuju čitatelje do potrebnih informacija.

Written collaboratively by largely anonymous volunteers, anyone with Internet access (and who is not presently blocked) can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism. Since its creation on January 15, 2001, it has grown into the world's largest reference website, attracting over a billion visitors monthly. It currently has more than 63.000.000 articles in more than 300 languages, including 459.715 articles in English with 189 active contributors in the past month.

Wikipedia's fundamental principles are summarized in its five pillars. The Wikipedia community has developed many policies and guidelines, although editors do not need to be familiar with them before contributing.

Anyone can edit Wikipedia's text, references, and images. What is written is more important than who writes it. The content must conform with Wikipedia's policies, including being verifiable by published sources. Editors' opinions, beliefs, personal experiences, unreviewed research, libelous material, and copyright violations will not remain. Wikipedia's software allows easy reversal of errors, and experienced editors watch and patrol bad edits.

Wikipedia differs from printed references in important ways. It is continually created and updated, and encyclopedic articles on new events appear within minutes rather than months or years. Because anyone can improve Wikipedia, it has become more comprehensive, clear, and balanced than any other encyclopedia. Its contributors improve the quality and quantity of the articles as well as remove misinformation, errors, and vandalism. Any reader can fix a mistake or add more information to articles (see Researching with Wikipedia).

Wikipedia has tested the wisdom of the crowd since 2001 and found that it succeeds.