Wikipedia - itbusinessdirect

Wikipedia Adds Page Reviews for Easier Surfing

April 23, 2018 Dianne Jacobs

Wikipedia added a useful new feature earlier this week: page previews. The Wikimedia foundation says that it’s “one of the largest changes to desktop Wikipedia made in recent years,” and provides readers with a popup window that provides a bit of additional context for the article behind the link. Reading through any Wikipedia page can turn into a rabbit hole that can take you to places you never expected. That exploration can be a fun, informative adventure, but it can also be a distraction, especially if the article you click…

Are corporations that use Wikipedia giving back?

March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 Dianne Jacobs

YouTube’s plan to combat conspiracy videos with information sourced from Wikipedia got push back from a number of different quarters — including, surprisingly, Wikimedia itself. Seems Google didn’t mention the plan to the foundation before unveiling it at SXSW earlier this month. Wikimedia executive director Katherine Maher responded with an even-keeled statement reiterating that, while the crowd-sourced encyclopedia’s information is, indeed, free to use, well, it might be nice if corporations that used it gave a little back. “Wikipedia’s content is freely licensed for reuse by anyone,” Maher wrote, “and…

The Wikipedia Free Access Zero Program Hits an Abrupt End In 2018

February 19, 2018 Dianne Jacobs

The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that free access to Wikipedia will end in 2018, which was part of the Wikipedia Zero partnership programme. The organization has discontinued Zero and has stopped forming new carrier partnerships. It will let its existing alliances end over time. Wikipedia Zero was created in 2012 to address high mobile data costs when accessing the service.Through the program, the foundation partnered with mobile operators to waive mobile data fees for their customers to freely access Wikipedia on mobile devices. “Over the course of this year, no…