People who work on Wikipedia are called Wikipedians. Building the world’s largest database of information with people from all over can be challenging. Wikipedians write rules, guidelines and essays to help other people understand being a Wikipedian. “No angry mastodons”, an essay, suggests that you shouldn’t edit when you’re hungry or intoxicated.
The world’s first photograph, now on Wikimedia Commons, is entirely inscrutable. The first photo to be uploaded to Commons was a pair of quail. Speaking of birds and photos, there is such a thing as pigeon-photography, “A homing pigeon was fitted with an aluminium breast harness to which a lightweight time-delayed miniature camera could be attached.” (There was a stamp for pigeon mail, it’s adorable and shaped like a triangle.)
One of the first articles ever written was for the standard poodle. It simply said, “A dog by which all others are measured.” The English Wikipedia page for poodle is now more than 5,000 words, and includes the many words that people have invented to name poodles crossed with other dog breeds. Labradoodle, Poochon, Cockapoo, Spoodle, Maltipoo, Goldendoodle, Schnoodle, Pekapoos, Cavapoo, and Bernedoodle.
Researchers can predict the spread of illness from data on Wikipedia: “Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory were able to make extremely accurate forecasts about the spread of dengue fever in Brazil and flu in the U.S., Japan, Poland and Thailand by examining three years’ worth of Wikipedia search data.”
Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963) was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" in various Commonwealth countries. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived two plane crashes; tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and bit off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, "Frankly I had enjoyed the war."
QRpedia lets people visiting places like museums, historic towns, buildings or zoos access Wikipedia articles in their preferred language on their mobile device, simply by scanning a single graphic icon.
The 'Voice Intro Project' invites people who are the subject of a Wikipedia biography to record a short sample of their speaking voice, so we know what they sound like and how they pronounce their name. They can do so in any language they feel comfortable speaking.