Wikipedia does not need any introduction to World Wide Web users as it is the most popular online encyclopedia exist. It is free and easy to use. Most prominently, it is maintained by an open community where no financial matters are involved. Even you and I can be authors of Wikipedia articles contributing for the growth of Wikipedia.
If you need to read a Wikipedia article on a particular matter, then you need to access Wikipedia site through your computer’s web browser or mobile device’s web browser. For both the methods mentioned, you need to have a working internet connection. What if you do have a working internet connection in your possession when you need to access Wikipedia; especially if you are on the go and no mobile connection can be established? Here comes the solution; Wikipedia that can be stored in your mobile devices that can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
Sounds good? Yes it is. Pocket Wikipedia is a database of 14 million words including 24,000 pictures optimized for mobile devices. You can download Pocket Wikipedia on to your computer’s hard drive and then transfer it to your mobile device’s storage. The size of the installation is about 175MB and it is one of the best deals when it comes to the value and the storage cost.
There are three versions of Pocket Wikipedia; the version for Windows Mobile operating system based devices, Windows desktop operating systems and Linux operating systems. If you want to use Pocket Wikipedia in your Windows Mobile based devices, then you need to have .NET framework 2.0 redistributable (compact) version installed and the operating system should be Windows Mobile 5.0 or later.
You can carry Wikipedia in your laptop so you have most frequently accessed articles by the users on the go. The article selection has been done by Schools Wikipedia.
Have you heard tech savvy people talking about Web 2.0? What did you suddenly think after hearing it? You couldn’t believe there are versions for web, right? Yes, same as for any other software, web also has versioning. So, what’s new in web 2.0? Answer is; a lot!
End-user controlled content for websites is one of the key features in Web 2.0. My Space, Face Book and Hi5 are some of the social networking sites with Web 2.0 features already being included. But using Web 2.0 features for knowledge sharing is some thing, that we all should recognize and appreciate. Wikipedia is all about sharing and developing knowledge.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia collaboratively written by many of its readers. Wikipedia runs on a special kind of website called “Wiki” exclusively developed for Wikipedia by its developers. Most of the users who refer Wikipedia are active users who write new articles and improve existing articles frequently. Any one can freely register with Wikipedia and then, they can start adding new “knowledge” content to Wikipedia with no restrictions.
When Wikipedia articles are written, the authors will have to go through a short introduction on structuring the article and formatting it. This is a must for new article writers since Wikipedia articles should adhere to higher standards and should be genuine. Just to keep the genuineness of content, Wikipedia tracks the changes made by users with the content added or altered, user registration information and user’s IP address. This way, it is easy to track users if there is any dispute over the content added.
Not all your content will stay in Wikipedia forever. Some of your articles may be improved by other users with additional information and references. Sometimes, others can challenge your articles for facts and genuineness. When such a conflict arises, Wikipedia temporary locks the article until the debate is over in the “discussion” tab of the article. Wikipedia also has its reviewers who review the articles for their standards and facts. If you do not mention enough references for what you present in your article, there is a chance that your article or a part of the article is removed.
