Wikipedia - One of the Most Popular Sites on the Web

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that was started by Jimmy Wales in 2001, cannot be topped as a generally accurate quick reference. Any uncertainties about the accuracy of the information can always be crosschecked with other web resources. It is certainly comprehensive - there is an article on every conceivable topic. It is truly convenient for people who don't have instant access to an encyclopedia. Best of all, like most of the web it's free.

It is particularly useful to online writers and researchers, even though at times it may not be perfectly accurate. Additionally, there is a mechanism by which edits and corrections can be submitted. Wikipedia is reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (original spelling), another reference that had errors but was still useful and popular. For accuracy, it is better to consult Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book. Of course, those references are not easily carried like a laptop computer.

Volunteers write the online encyclopedia. In addition to three million articles in English, it has other information available in Italian, Dutch, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese, Swedish, and Russian.

Currently ranked sixth by Alexa.com, its success must be attributable to the philosophy of founder Jimmy Wales: "If there is one thing that I've learned in my career, it is to do more of what's working, and less of what's not." It follows Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, WindowsLive, and YouTube in the Alexa.com rankings.

Regardless of occasional lapses in accuracy, Wikipedia is far better than sites like YouTube that are obviously being promoted by people who wouldn't mind seeing the web turn into something like cable TV. Forty years of information revolution would be senselessly thrown away were the web to regress into the Orwellian Tube that TV is. Surely man has evolved past the Neanderthal and Orwellian Ape phases. Wikipedia is a bit more like the intellectual circles of the French Revolution, where ideas were exchanged between individuals and small groups. For the web to turn into another cable TV channel would be both laughable and tragic.

Wikipedia, written by volunteers from across the world, is an effort against that prospect. It is the antithesis of the top-down communication model of TV.