Wikipedia:Purpose

Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by acting as an encyclopedia, a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge within its five pillars.

Wikipedia has a lofty goal: a comprehensive collection of all of the knowledge in the world.

“ Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race.—Diderot ”

Wikipedia is intended to be the largest, most comprehensive, and most widely-available encyclopedia ever written:

“ Our goal with Wikipedia is to create a free encyclopedia; indeed, the largest encyclopedia in history, both in terms of breadth and in terms of depth. We also want Wikipedia to be a reliable resource.—Larry Sanger ”

“ Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.—Jimmy Wales ”

“ Wikipedia is first and foremost 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.—Jimmy Wales ”

See also

Further information: Wikipedia:Essay directory § About Wikipedia

• Administration – discuses both the human administrative structure of Wikipedia, as well as its non-human components.
• Core content policies – a brief summary and background on Wikipedia's core content policies.
• Five pillars – describes the main fundamental principles of Wikipedia.
• The essence of Wikipedia – describes how Wikipedia is the use of collective intelligence, collaboration, and preservation to build more and better content.
• Statement of principles – by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, as updated by the community since then.
• What Wikipedia is not – describes how there are certain things that Wikipedia is not.
• Original Wikipedia policy – as edited by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, on November 1, 2001.

External links

External video

Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia, 2005 TED (conference), 20 mins.

• In a nutshell, what is Wikipedia? – The Wikimedia Foundation.
• Mission statement – The Wikimedia Foundation.
• Statement of Purpose – Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws Article II .
• Foundation Guiding Principles – The Wikimedia Foundation.
• Wikimedia founding principles – Principles generally supported by all of the Wikimedia communities.