How did Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation begin?

Wikipedia was founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger as a free online encyclopedia built through open collaboration. Since 2003, it has been hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization funded mainly by reader donations. The foundation also supports related collaborative wiki projects such as Wikiquote.

What we know

• Wikipedia was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. [5]
• The Wikimedia Foundation has hosted Wikipedia since 2003 as an American nonprofit organization funded mainly by reader donations. [5]
• Wikiquote is part of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation using MediaWiki software. [3]

Where to go next

• whoWho were the founders of Wikipedia?
• how it workedWhat is the MediaWiki software?
• a case in pointHow does Wikiquote operate under the Wikimedia Foundation?
• the bigger pictureWhat are the broader impacts of online open-source communities?
• what followedHow has Wikipedia's global traffic evolved over time?
• an unexpected connectionHow do origin myths relate to organizational foundings?Both cultural origin myths and the histories of organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation deal with how communities narrate their foundational beginnings.

Sources

• [1]myth of origins (Wikidata Q390248) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Origin myth · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]UBlock Origin · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0