Science & Technology

Happy 10th Birthday, Wikipedia!

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On January 15, 2001, Jimmy Wales (along with then-partner Larry Sanger) launched Wikipedia with two entries:

"Hello, world."

"Humor me. Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes."

Those two little entries mark the beginning of a remarkable experiment in sharing knowledge. Wikipedia marks its 10th birthday tomorrow, and there's lots to celebrate. CNET reports:

Wikipedia is the fifth-most popular Web property in the world, attracts 410 million unique visitors a month, is used by 42 percent of American adults, according to a Pew Internet study [and includes] 17 million articles in more than 270 languages, including 3.5 million in English.

In 2007, Reason outed Jimmy Wales as a libertarian-symp who namechecks Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises while cruising around near Tampa in his Hyundai. Read all about it here.