昨天（8月7日）中午，国际奥委会主席罗格在北京饭店宴请北京奥运赞助企业，对他们长期以来对奥运会的鼎力支持表示感谢。北京市委副书记、市长、北京奥组委执行主席王岐山出席并致辞。
罗格在致辞中向奥林匹克全球合作伙伴，北京奥运会合作伙伴、赞助商、独家供应商和供应商等64家赞助企业表示诚挚的感谢。他说，赞助企业的支持是奥林匹克运动长期发展的重要保障，为弘扬奥林匹克精神做出了积极贡献，也为北京奥运会的筹办工作提供了必不可少的支持。通过赞助北京奥运会，合作伙伴获得了在国际舞台上展现自身形象和实力的机会，为自身发展创造了更大的空间。
王岐山在致辞中代表北京奥组委向北京奥运会赞助企业表示衷心感谢。他说，北京奥运会市场开发计划的成功实施，为举办奥运会打下了雄 厚的物质基础。尤其值得称道的是，各赞助企业在支持北京奥运会的同时，大力践行“绿色奥运、科技奥运、人文奥运”三大理念，在扩大企业影响的同时，也进一 步提升了北京奥运会的良好形象，赢得了社会的广泛赞誉。
王岐山表示，现在距2008年奥运会开幕只有一年了。奥运会的筹办工作将以此为起点，朝着有特色、高水平的目标迈进。我们将进一步加强与赞助企业的交流与合作，不断提高工作水平，为赞助企业提供优质、高效的服务，为奥林匹克运动的发展做出新的贡献。
副市长、北京奥组委执行副主席刘敬民，国际奥委会市场开发委员会主席海博格，国际奥委会委员、北京奥运会协调委员会主席维尔布鲁 根，国际奥委会执委、国家体育总局副局长、北京奥组委执行副主席于再清和来自64家奥运会赞助企业的近百名高层管理人员出席了宴请活动。中国著名运动员刘 翔也应邀出席。
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今天，是北京奥运会倒计时一周年的日子。中国国家博物馆西侧的北京奥运倒计时钟自2004年9月1日竖立那一天起，已经见证了多个标志性的时 刻。倒计时1000天、倒计时两周年、倒计时500天……今天，当巨大的时钟显示屏跳动出365天的数字时，奥运正在更加真切地向我们走来，我们正加速向 奥运冲刺！ 中国金融大典
从2001年7月13日北京申奥圆梦，到今天奥运倒计时一周年，6年过去了。当年置身于举国欢庆的不眠之夜时，遥望北京2008奥运尚觉久远，而在这一 刻，奥运的气息已经愈发浓郁和不可抗拒地弥漫在神州大地。在奥运筹办的几年里，一座座崭新的场馆相继建立，奥运志愿者的队伍不断壮大，城市的基础设施建设 和接待能力逐步完善，更重要的是人们期待奥运、参与奥运的热情与日俱增，这些都化作巨大的能量和动力，在举国上下团结一致的共同努力下，在奥运倒计时一周 年这一标志性的时刻，全速向着2008奥运冲刺。
这是一个冲刺的时刻，无论是“鸟巢”工地顶着烈日酷暑的建筑工人，还是训练场馆挥汗如 雨的运动员，无论是国际奥委会主席罗格还是寻常巷陌的普通市民，都在积极地为心中的奥运梦想加倍努力着。作为全面展现北京2008奥运的重要窗口，北京 2008年奥运会官方网站也在北京奥运筹办这一进程中经历了孕育、诞生、成长和到今天全面运行、服务公众的过程。搜狐公司契合北京申奥成功的历史机遇，成 为百年奥运历史上第一家互联网赞助商，互联网第一次成为世界瞩目的“媒体”。
2007年8月8日凌晨零时，距北京2008年奥运会圣火点燃一年之际……
北京奥运迎来倒计时一周年
如何为全球的互联网用户提供权威、快速、准确、全面、畅通和负责任的奥运新闻报道和资讯服务，从而达到弘扬奥林匹克精神、向世界宣传中国、宣传北京、宣 传奥运的目的，便成为官方网站孜孜不断的追求。在过去的几年中，我们积极联合各方资源，挖掘自身潜力，不断发展和完善奥运官网的各项功能。
1.打造面向全球的权威、准确、快速、海量、独家的新闻资讯平台
新闻资讯是奥运官网最主要的职责。在官方新闻方面，第一时间发布奥组委的公告、新闻，并直播所有北京奥组委的新闻发布会，是全球关注北京奥运新闻的重要 途径。在赛时的报道则将通过实时的比分直播、技术统计、奖牌榜使全球互联网用户快速地掌握赛场内外的信息。官方网站将使用中、英、法、西班牙、阿拉伯五种 语言版本，使得全球各个角落的互联网用户都能及时、平等地获取奥运信息。
2.打造面向不同群体的服务资讯平台
奥运会并不仅仅是一场体育的盛会，更是蕴涵了诸多文化，面向不同群体的人类文明的载体。为此，奥运官网面向不同的群体提供了不同的服务内容。针对媒体、赛事观众、各国各地旅游者、体育爱好者、志愿者以及广大青少年，提供不同关注方向以及全面翔实的各类服务资讯。
3.打造具有影响力的活动策划与推广平台
在现代奥运的精神中，“重在参与”是非常重要的理念。奥运官网通过年度奥运十大新闻评选、奥运家庭游北京、2008名北京奥运会官方网站荣誉网友征集等 活动，使各类普通人群用不同方式都能通过奥运官网这一平台，实现参与奥运、支持奥运的愿望和梦想。通过对国际奥委会、北京奥组委以及运动员、赞助商的系列 访谈，使广大互联网用户能最真切、最全面地了解各方积极备战、冲刺奥运的动态。
在今天，2008北京奥运会倒计时一周年来临之际，刚刚 全新改版的北京奥运会官方网站也以全新的面貌向一年后的北京奥运会发起了最后的冲刺。未来的一年，是关键的一年，是全面检验各项工作、开展各项服务的一 年。秉承“绿色奥运、科技奥运、人文奥运”的理念，北京奥运会官方网站将打造一流的文化、体育传播平台，为广大互联网用户围绕奥运带来前所未有的全新体 验。借用国际奥委会主席罗格先生在日前接受奥运官方网站专访时对广大网友的一句话“我想对全体网友说，关注官方网站。无限精彩，尽在2008年北京奥运 会。”
让我们一起，为了2008，为了北京奥运---冲刺！加油！
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这张摄于2007年3月11日的照片显示的是在墨西哥城 出席新闻发布会的墨西哥电信大亨卡洛斯·斯利姆·埃卢。据墨西哥一家名为“共同感受”的金融信息服务网站报道，斯利姆所拥有的个人资产已经超过领衔《福布 斯》富豪榜13年的微软公司董事长比尔·盖茨，成为目前世界首富。这家网站说，截至2007年第二季度末，斯利姆的个人资产已达到678亿美元，超过盖茨 的约590亿美元。 新华社/法新
美国《财富》杂志６日报道，墨西哥电信巨头卡洛斯·斯利姆的个人财富已达到５９０亿美元，力压微软公司创始人比尔·盖茨，成为世界首富。
报道说，今年以来，斯利姆麾下上市公司的市场价值增加了１２０亿美元。至７月底，现年６７岁的斯利姆持有的股票价值高达５９０亿美元。
《财富》杂志指出，多年来一直是世界首富的盖茨“至少拥有５８０亿美元净资产”。
斯利姆拥有拉美地区最大的电信公司美洲移动通信公司，此外还有餐饮连锁店和银行等产业。《财富》杂志说，斯利姆麾下公司价值占到墨西哥股市市值的三分之一，其家族的财产去年等于墨西哥国民生产总值的５％左右。
一名墨西哥金融记者７月说，斯利姆已超越盖茨，成为世界首富，但斯利姆对此却不以为然。
斯利姆说：“这对我毫无意义。我不知道自己是第一，还是第二十，还是第２０００名，这些都无所谓。”
和盖茨以及在《财富》榜上排名第三的沃伦·巴菲特一样，斯利姆也热心慈善事业。他上周宣布出资３亿美元，在墨西哥修建１００所学校。（新华社电）
据新华社报道，俄罗斯最新研制的“凯旋”S-400防空导弹系统6日在莫斯科近郊埃列克特罗斯塔利市投入使用，进入战斗执勤状态。俄空军总司令泽林说，S-400防空导弹系统还将作为反导防御系统，覆盖俄罗斯的所有工业中心。
据中新社报道，负责防空工事的俄空军副司令沃克维兹基表示，“这设施实际效用在于它摧毁弹道目标、弹道导弹、航空动力目标的能力。”他说：“因此不仅有防空功能，还有导弹防御功能。”
据俄罗斯媒体报道，设计者说，研制和装备该系统是为了消灭隐形飞行器以及飞行速度达每秒4.8公里的弹道导弹。1个S-400防空导弹系统能替代3个S -300防空导弹系统。与S-300防空导弹系统相比，S-400防空导弹系统在目标命中率和速度方面的性能提高1倍，在抗干扰能力方面提高4倍。
俄空军总司令泽林说，S-400防空导弹系统将不仅作为俄军防空系统，还将作为反导防御系统，覆盖俄罗斯的所有工业中心。他说，该系统还能用于正在建立的欧洲反导防御系统。
俄罗斯将在莫斯科周边部署首个装备新型S-400导弹的防空营。在2015年前，俄军将装备几十个这样的防空导弹系统，以完成防空和反导的任务。
最近几个月来，由于美国执意准备在波兰和捷克部署导弹防御系统，俄罗斯不断与美国在此问题上发生矛盾。普京指出，在波捷部署反导系统将损害俄罗斯的利益，而俄罗斯将领曾说，莫斯科将发展自身的导弹防御系统进行报复。
8月6日,在美国马里兰州戴维营，美国总统布什（左）与阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊在召开联合发布会之后握手。 新华社/法新
美国总统布什６日在新闻发布会上出现严重口误，称伊朗“公开寻求”发展核武器。而实际上伊朗多次表明其核计划用于和平目的。
布什当天在马里兰州总统度假地戴维营与阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊举行联合新闻发布会，他在会上指责伊朗在很多地区发挥了“不稳定的影响”。
布什说：“伊朗需要向世界证明，他们是一个带来稳定的力量，而非一个带来不稳定的力量。毕竟，伊朗政府曾公开表示了他们制造核武器的意愿。”
布什这句话存在严重口误。伊朗尽管拥有核计划，但伊朗政府多次说明，其核计划是用于和平目的，主要是为了解决国内能源供应紧张问题。
参与发布会的记者们留意到了布什的口误，但当他们向白宫要求提供伊朗“公开表明寻求核武器”的例子时，白宫官员却说，布什指的是伊朗多次置国际社会的压力于不顾，继续开展铀浓缩等活动。
今年３月，联合国安理会通过了关于伊朗核问题的第１７４７号决议，加大了对伊朗核 计划相关领域的制裁，要求伊朗在６０天内暂停与铀浓缩相关的活动，同时强调继续寻求通过谈判解决伊朗核问题。伊朗方面则多次表示，伊朗的核计划完全用于和 平目的，伊朗不会寻求对抗，但将继续开展铀浓缩活动。目前国际社会与伊朗关于核问题的谈判进展不大。（新华社电）
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发言人此前回复记者询问时强调，潘基文的立场与对前一封信函的处理方式一样，没有改变，“这样做是基于联大2758号决议，以及联合国遵循的一个中国政策。”
陈水扁此次除了再度致函潘基文以外，还首次致函安理会当值主席、中国常驻联合国代表王光亚，但被拒绝并迅速退回。
陈水扁叫嚣潘基文无权拒绝其"入联申请"遭反驳
联合国秘书长潘基文退回了陈水扁关于“台湾申请加入联合国”的致函，让扁很不服气，25日叫嚣联合国秘书长无权拒绝申请案。对此，潘基文26 日通过其副发言人冈部万里江做出反驳，表示审核“新会员国”确实不是秘书长的权力，但是退回申请案的动作，是依照了２７５８号决议案，该决议案代表全体会 员国意见，因此退回申请案并无不当。而美国太平洋战区司令基廷昨天也在华府公开批评陈水扁。联合国退回陈水扁函以“台湾名义加入联合国”申请案，中国国民 党“立委”蒋孝严表示，陈水扁以一己之私造成台“外交”上极大羞辱，是自取其辱。中国常驻联合国代表王光亚１日针对陈水扁再度就“入联”致函一事回答记者 提问时说，他已于一天前以安理会主席的身份将该函退回 。 王光亚说，十多天前，联合国秘书长潘基文已拒绝并退回了台湾当局领导人的所谓致函。陈水扁搞再次致函把戏，是极为严重的“台独”分裂行径，再次 暴露了他是彻头彻尾的国际麻烦制造者。中国政府对此坚决反对。
| 日期：2007-08-08 作者： 来源：东方早报 |
| 据新华社东京8月7日电 在7日上午召开的日本第167届临时国会参议院全体会议上，参议院第一大会派“民主党·新绿风会”推荐的候选人、原科学技术厅长官江田五月当选为参议院新议长。 |
新华网莫斯科８月７日电（记者 王丹蒂）俄罗斯外交部副部长卡拉辛７日说，俄罗斯主张立即查明６日晚在格鲁吉亚领空出现的不明飞机一事。
俄塔社援引卡拉辛的话说，俄罗斯非常关心６日在格鲁吉亚领空发生的事件，认为格方对俄空军的指责并不完全反映事实真相。俄外交部称这起事件是反对冲突地区正常化的人对俄制造的新挑衅。与此同时，俄特使尤里·波波夫７日已从第比利斯赶往现场了解情况。
另据报道，格鲁吉亚总统萨卡什维利当天视察了不明飞机在格境内投下导弹的齐泰卢巴尼村。他在视察后对新闻界说，这一行动旨在破坏格鲁吉亚的安宁，挑起格国内恐慌，分裂社会，迫使格领导改变方针政策。他说，这不只是格鲁吉亚的问题，这是欧洲安全问题。
此前，格内务部长瓦诺·梅拉比什维利在第比利斯说，来自俄罗斯方向的苏－２４飞机６日晚入侵了格领空，并在齐泰卢巴尼村投下一枚导弹。
据报道，格鲁吉亚外交部７日召见俄驻格大使科瓦连科，向其展示了导弹坠落的照片。但科瓦连科指出，这并不能成为俄罗斯与此事有牵连的证据，格方的指责站不住脚。 |
Wikipedia (IPA: /ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/, /ˌwikiˈpeːdi.ə/ or /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ (Audio (U.S.) ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization.
As of August 1, 2007, Wikipedia has approximately 7.9 million articles in 253 languages, 1.932 million of which are in the English edition.[1] This makes it the largest, most extensive, and fastest growing encyclopedia ever compiled.[citation needed] It has been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world and the vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Steadily rising in popularity since its inception,[3] it currently ranks among the top ten most-visited websites worldwide.[4] Wikipedia's name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Its main servers are in Tampa, Florida, with additional servers located in Amsterdam and Seoul.
Due to Wikipedia's open nature, critics have questioned its reliability and accuracy.[5] The site has been criticized for its susceptibility to vandalism and the addition of false or unverified information,[6] uneven quality, systemic bias and inconsistencies,[7] and for favoring consensus over credentials in its editorial process.[8] Wikipedia's content policies[9] and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns.[10] Two scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived[11] and that Wikipedia is generally as accurate as other encyclopedias.[12]
Wikipedia, along with other interactive websites such as YouTube and Facebook, won the Time Person of the Year, awarded to the most influential of that year in 2006. The award praised the accelerating success of on-line collaboration and interaction by millions of users around the world made possible through the World Wide Web.[13]
Wikipedia's English edition was launched on January 15, 2001, as a complement to Nupedia, an expert-written and now defunct encyclopedia.
Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger were identified as co-founders of Wikipedia in 2001. Wikipedia's official personnel page from September 2001 states that Wales and Sanger were the two co-founders, and that there was no editor-in-chief.[2][14][15][16][17] Wales, creator of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003, today claims to be the sole founder of Wikipedia and has told The Boston Globe that "it's preposterous" to call Sanger the co-founder.[18] However, Sanger strongly contests that description. He was identified as a co-founder of Wikipedia at least as early as September 2001 and referred to himself that way as early as January 2002.[2][19][20]
Maintenance tasks are performed by a group of volunteers; these include developers, who work on the MediaWiki software, and other trusted users with various permission levels including "steward", "bureaucrat" and "administrator."[21] Administrators are the largest group of specially privileged users, and have the ability to delete (remove) pages, lock articles from being changed, and deter users from editing.[22] Wikipedia is funded through the Wikimedia Foundation. Its 4th Quarter 2005 costs were $321,000 USD, with hardware making up almost 60% of the budget.[23] The Wikimedia Foundation currently relies primarily on private donations, and holds regular fundraisers;[24] the January 2007 fundraiser raised just over $1 million.[25]
The operation of Wikipedia depends on MediaWiki, a custom-made, free and open source wiki software platform written in PHP and built upon the MySQL database. The software incorporates modern programming features, such as a macro language, variables, a transclusion system for templates, and URL redirection. MediaWiki is licensed under the GNU General Public License and used by all Wikimedia projects, as well as many other wiki projects. Originally, Wikipedia ran on UseModWiki written in Perl by Clifford Adams (Phase I), which initially required CamelCase for article hyperlinks; the present double bracket style was incorporated later. Starting in January 2002 (Phase II), Wikipedia began running on a PHP wiki engine with a MySQL database; this software was custom-made for Wikipedia by Magnus Manske. The Phase II software was repeatedly modified to accommodate the exponentially increasing demand. In July 2002 (Phase III), Wikipedia shifted to the third-generation software, MediaWiki, originally written by Lee Daniel Crocker.
Wikipedia runs on dedicated clusters of Linux servers in Florida and in four other locations.[27] Wikipedia employed a single server until 2004, when the server setup was expanded into a distributed multitier architecture. In January 2005, the project ran on 39 dedicated servers located in Florida. This configuration included a single master database server running MySQL, multiple slave database servers, 21 web servers running the Apache HTTP Server, and seven Squid cache servers. By September 2005, its server cluster had grown to around 100 servers in four locations around the world.[27]
Page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of Squid caching servers. Requests that cannot be served from the Squid cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the Linux Virtual Server software, which in turn pass the request to one of the Apache web servers for page rendering from the database. The web servers deliver pages as requested, performing page rendering for all the language editions of Wikipedia. To increase speed further, rendered pages for anonymous users are cached in a filesystem until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses. Two larger clusters in the Netherlands and Korea now handle much of Wikipedia's traffic load.
Wikipedia has been described as "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".[29] There are presently 253 language editions of Wikipedia; of these, the top 14 have over 100,000 articles and the top 139 have over 1,000 articles.[1]
Since Wikipedia is web-based and therefore worldwide, contributors of a same language edition may use different dialects or may come from different countries (this is the case for the English edition). These differences may lead to some conflicts about spelling[30] or points of view.[31] The English subdomain (en.wikipedia.org) receives approximately 51% of Wikipedia's cumulative traffic, with the remaining 49% split among the other languages (Spanish: 15%, Japanese 5%, German: 5%, French: 4%, Polish: 3%, Portuguese: 2%, Arabic: 2%).[3]
Though the various language editions are held to global policies such as "neutral point of view," they diverge on some points of policy and practice—most notably in their use of non-free images.[32][33]
Though each language edition functions more or less independently, some efforts are made to supervise them all. They are coordinated in part by Meta-Wiki, the Wikimedia Foundation's wiki devoted to maintaining all of its projects (Wikipedia and others). For instance, Meta-Wiki provides important statistics on all language editions of Wikipedia and maintain a list of articles every Wikipedia should have. The list concerns basic content by subject: biography, history, geography, society, culture, science, technology, foodstuffs, and mathematics. As for the rest, it is not rare for articles strongly related to a particular language not to have counterparts in another edition. For example, articles about small townships of the United States might only be available in English.
Multilingual editors of sufficient fluency are encouraged to translate articles manually; automated translation of articles is explicitly disallowed.[34] Translated articles represent only a small portion of articles in most editions.[35] Articles available in more than one language may offer "InterWiki" links, usually in their left margin, which link to the counterpart articles in other editions. Images and other non-verbal media are shared among the various language editions through the Wikimedia Commons repository. Beyond translations, some multilingual efforts are also realised thanks to the Multilingual coordination.
Wikipedia's content has been mirrored and forked by many sites including database dumps.[citation needed] There is a free downloadable DVD version[36] developed by Linterweb which contains "1964 + articles".[37][38]
Wikipedia appeals to the authority of peer-reviewed publications rather than the personal authority of experts. Wikipedia does not require that its contributors give their legal names or provide other information to establish their identity. Although some contributors are authorities in their field, Wikipedia requires that even their contributions be supported by published sources.
Wikipedia tries to address the problem of systemic bias, and to deal with zealous editors who seek to influence the presentation of an article in a biased way, by insisting on a neutral point of view. The English-language Wikipedia has introduced a scale against which the quality of articles is judged; other editions have also adopted this. Roughly 1200 articles have passed a rigorous set of criteria to reach the highest rank, "featured article" status; such articles are intended to provide thorough, well-written coverage of their topic, supported by many references to peer-reviewed publications.
In a study of Wikipedia as a community, economics PhD student Andrea Ciffolilli argued that the low transaction costs of participating in wiki software create a catalyst for collaborative development, and that a "creative construction" approach encourages participation.[39]
In February 2007, an article in The Harvard Crimson newspaper reported that some of the professors at Harvard University do include Wikipedia in their syllabus, but that there is a split in their perception of using Wikipedia.[40]
In June 2007, former president of the American Library Association Michael Gorman condemned Wikipedia, along with Google, for contributing to the creation of a generation of “intellectual sluggards”.[41] He also stated that academics who endorse the use of Wikipedia are “the intellectual equivalent of a dietitian who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything,” He also stated that “a generation of intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the internet” was being produced at universities. He complains that the web-based sources are discouraging students from learning from the more rare texts which are either found only on paper or are on subscription-only web sites. In the same article Jenny Fry (a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute) commented on the academics who cite Wikipedia that:
“You cannot say children are intellectually lazy because they are using the internet when academics are using search engines in their research,” she said. “The difference is that they have more experience of being critical about what is retrieved and whether it is authoritative. Children need to be told how to use the internet in a critical and appropriate way.”[42]
Wikipedia has been accused of exhibiting systemic bias and inconsistency;[5] critics argue that Wikipedia's open nature and a lack of proper sources for much of the information makes it unreliable.[43] Some commentators suggest that Wikipedia is usually reliable, but that it is not always clear how much.[8] The project's preference for consensus over credentials has been labeled "anti-elitism".[7] Editors of traditional reference works such as the Encyclopædia Britannica have questioned the project's utility and status as an encyclopedia.[44] Many university lecturers discourage students from citing any encyclopedia in academic work, preferring primary sources;[45] some specifically prohibit Wikipedia citations.[46] Co-founder Jimmy Wales stresses that encyclopedias of any type are not usually appropriate as primary sources, and should not be relied upon as authoritative.[47] Technology writer Bill Thompson commented that the debate was possibly "symptomatic of much learning about information which is happening in society today."[48]
Concerns have also been raised regarding the lack of accountability that results from users' anonymity,[49] and that it is vulnerable to vandalism and similar problems. In one particularly well-publicized incident, false information was introduced into the biography of John Seigenthaler, Sr. and remained undetected for four months.[50] Some critics claim that Wikipedia's open structure makes it an easy target for internet trolls, advertisers, and those with an agenda to push.[51][52] The addition of political spin to articles by organizations including the U.S. House of Representatives and special interest groups[6] has been noted,[53] and organizations such as Microsoft have offered financial incentives to work on certain articles.[54] Some claim that Wikipedia's political articles have been taken over by left-wing partisans.[55] These issues have been parodied, notably by Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report.[56]
Wikipedia's community has been described as "cult-like,"[57] although not always with entirely negative connotations,[58] and criticised for failing to accommodate inexperienced users.[59]
Wikipedia's content policies[9] and sub-projects set up by contributors seek to address these concerns.[60] Several scholarly studies have concluded that vandalism is generally short-lived,[11] and that Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as other online encyclopedias.[12]
Wikipedia won two major awards in May 2004.[61] The first was a Golden Nica for Digital Communities of the annual Prix Ars Electronica contest; this came with a €10,000 (£6,588; $12,700) grant and an invitation to present at the PAE Cyberarts Festival in Austria later that year. The second was a Judges' Webby Award for the "community" category.[62] Wikipedia was also nominated for a "Best Practices" Webby. In September 2004, the Japanese Wikipedia was awarded a Web Creation Award from the Japan Advertisers Association. This award, normally given to individuals for great contributions to the Web in Japanese, was accepted by a long-standing contributor on behalf of the project.
In a 2006 Multiscope research study, the Dutch Wikipedia was rated the third best Dutch language site, after Google and Gmail, with a score of 8.1.[63] On 26 January 2007, Wikipedia was also awarded the fifth highest brand ranking by the readers of brandchannel.com, receiving 15% of the votes in answer to the question "Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?"[64] Jimmy Wales was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine in 2006.[65] In 2006, the Russian Wikipedia won the "Science and education" category of the "Runet Prize" (Russian: Премия Рунета) award, supervised[66] by the Russian government agency FAPMC.
In November 2006, Turkish Wikipedia was nominated under the Science category for the Altın Örümcek Web Ödülleri (Golden Spider Web Awards), which are commonly known as the "Web Oscars" for Turkey. In January 2007, Turkish Wikipedia was given the award for "Best Content" in this competition. The award was given in a ceremony on January 25, 2007 at Istanbul Technical University.
Wikipedia's content has also been used in academic studies, books, conferences, and court cases.[67][68] The Canadian Parliament website refers to Wikipedia's article on same-sex marriage in the "related links" section of its "further reading" list for Civil Marriage Act.[69] The encyclopedia's assertions are increasingly used as a source by organizations such as the U.S. Federal Courts and the World Intellectual Property Office[70] — though mainly for supporting information rather than information decisive to a case.[71] Wikipedia has also been used as a source in journalism,[72] sometimes without attribution; several reporters have been dismissed for plagiarizing from Wikipedia.[73][74][75] In July 2007 Wikipedia was the focus of a 30 minute documentary on BBC Radio 4 [76] which argued that, with increased usage and awareness, the number of references to Wikipedia in popular culture is such that the term is one of a select band of 21st Century nouns that are so familiar (Google,Facebook, YouTube) that they no longer need explanation[77]. Many parody Wikipedia's openness, with characters vandalizing or modifying the online encyclopedia project's articles. Notably, comedian Stephen Colbert has parodied or referenced Wikipedia on numerous episodes of his show The Colbert Report and coined the related term "wikiality".[56] Websites such as Uncyclopedia have also been set up parodying Wikipedia; its Main Page claims that it is the "content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,"[78] parodying the English Wikipedia's welcome message on its Main Page.
A number of interactive multimedia encyclopedias incorporating entries written by the public existed long before Wikipedia was founded. The first of these was the 1986 BBC Domesday Project, which included text (entered on BBC Micro computers) and photographs from over 1 million contributors in the UK, and covering the geography, art and culture of the UK. This was the first interactive multimedia encyclopedia (and was also the first major multimedia document connected through internal links), with the majority of articles being accessible through an interactive map of the UK. The user-interface and part of the content of the Domesday Project have now been emulated on a website[79]. One of the most successful early online encyclopedias incorporating entries by the public was h2g2, which was also created by the BBC. The h2g2 encyclopedia was relatively light-hearted, focusing on articles which were both witty and informative. Both of these projects had similarities with Wikipedia, but neither gave full editorial freedom to public users.
Wikipedia has also spawned several sister projects. The first, "In Memoriam: September 11 Wiki",[80] created in October 2002,[81] detailed the September 11, 2001 attacks; this project was closed in October 2006.[82] Wiktionary, a dictionary project, was launched in December 2002;[83] Wikiquote, a collection of quotations, a week after Wikimedia launched, and Wikibooks, a collection of collaboratively written free books, the next month. Wikimedia has since started a number of other projects.[84]
A similar non-wiki project, the GNUpedia project, co-existed with Nupedia early in its history; however, it has been retired and its creator, free-software figure Richard Stallman, has lent his support to Wikipedia.[85]
Other websites centered on collaborative knowledge base development have drawn inspiration from or inspired Wikipedia. Some, such as Susning.nu, Enciclopedia Libre, and WikiZnanie likewise employ no formal review process, whereas others use more traditional peer review, such as the expert-written Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, h2g2 and Everything2.
Conservapedia is a wiki encyclopedia project with goals similar to Wikipedia, but attempts to write articles from a socially and economically conservative perspective. It was started in late 2006 by Andrew Schlafly, a son of Phyllis Schlafly, who felt Wikipedia had a liberal bias in its articles. Conservapedia is not affiliated with Wikipedia or Wikipedia's parent organization, the Wikimedia Foundation, although both use the free MediaWiki software to power their site.
Jimmy Wales, the de facto leader of Wikipedia,[86] said in an interview in regard to the online encyclopedia Citizendium which is overviewed by experts in their respective fields:[87] "We welcome a diversity of efforts. If Larry's project is able to produce good work, we will benefit from it by copying it back into Wikipedia."[88]
