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Wikipedia is a Web-based free-content encyclopedia.
It is written collaboratively by volunteers, and allows articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser.
The project began on January 15, 2001 and is now operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia has more than 2,550,000 articles, including more than 901,000 in the English-language version; and as of January 2006 it has more than 750,000 registered users. |
Wikipedia's slogan is "The Free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit", and the project is described by its founder Jimmy Wales as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language.", although it’s status as a reference work has been controversial since its open nature allows vandalism, inaccuracy, inconsistency, uneven quality, and unsubstantiated opinions.
Almost all visitors may edit Wikipedia's articles, and registered users can create new ones. Wikipedia is built on the expectation that collaboration among users will improve articles over time.
Wikipedia receives over 1000 page views per second, and around 100 servers have been set up to handle the traffic. Wikipedia uses MediaWiki software, developed primarily under Linux, with content served with Apache HTTPD server, content stored in a MySQL database, and program logic implemented in PHP.
Wikipedia's servers
There are many pages relevant to our region – from towns such as 'Whitehaven' to an extensive article on 'Sellafield', with separate pages on the 'Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing plant' the 'Nuclear fuel cycle' and the 'Windscale fire', and many others.
Almost all subjects are covered, such as guinea pigs, George W Bush, Babylon, winemaking, many films and actors, musicians, music albums and much more.
I have created a page at VisitCumbria which contains links to pages relevant to Cumbria such as haematite, steel making, anhydrite mining, wind turbines, John Ruskin, McVitie’s Biscuits, etc.
Re;ated Links :