Wikiquote, the free compendium of quotations, reaches 10,000 articles in the English edition

7 May, 2007 (St. Petersburg, Fl) - The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the 10,000th article in the English language edition of Wikiquote (http://www.wikiquote.org), a community-built multilingual compendium of quotations. The article is for quotes by or about Langdon Smith, and it was started by the Wikiquote contributor whose username is Kalki.

The Wikiquote project itself is going to celebrate its four-year anniversary on June 27. The Wikiquote in the English language edition is the biggest and oldest among all Wikiquote language editions. But the growth is not limited to the English version, as more than 50,000 articles are now being worked on in the non-English editions of Wikiquote in over 35 languages. As of yet, thirteen projects including English Wikiquote have more than 1,000 articles: top 5 are English, German, Polish, Italian and Slovak.

The scope of Wikiquote collection is from notable people like Tony Blair to creative works like Lord of the Rings or Latter Days in every language, including sources (where known) and translations of non-English quotes as Rainer Maria Rilke. Besides articles by source, Wikiquote also provides its readers articles by theme.

Wikiquote is a public WikiWikiWeb, a website where anyone can edit any article at any time, similar to its well-known sister project Wikipedia. Users build upon each other's edits, and vandalized articles are quickly repaired by restoring an older version. In Wikiquote's third year, thousands of volunteer editors from around the world have added 2,500 entries to the English version and 15,000 more to the other language editions of Wikiquote.

Since 2004, the English Wikiquote provides a good quotation for readers every day selected from its collection. It is available on its Main Page and also archives.

About Wikiquote

Wikiquote was launched in June 27, 2003, as a spin-off of Wikipedia. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Sister projects include also a dictionary, a library of textbooks, a compendium of quotations, a news site, and a media repository. These projects are all run using the open source MediaWiki software.

Wikiquote content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, which ensures that anyone may reuse the entries on the site in any way they wish, including commercially, as long as they too preserve that right in their own versions and credit Wikiquote as the source.

About Wikimedia

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a US-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity. It runs the websites for Wikiquote and other Wikimedia projects; Wikipedia, free encyclopedia, Wiktionary, free dictionary, Wikibooks, free learning materials, Wikinews, free content news source, Wikisource, original text repository, Wikispecies, directory of species, Wikimedia Commons, free media repository and Wikiversity, limitless learning center.

Further information

Contact

For questions and interviews, please email press@wikimedia.org, or contact directly:

Florence Devouard, Chair, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation
Email: fdevouard (at) wikimedia.org (in French or English only)

Jimmy Wales, Chair Emeritus, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation
Phone: +1-310-474-3223
Email: jwales (at) wikimedia.org (in English only)

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