Growth of the Wikipedia
Since the Wikipedia’s creation in 2001, the web-based encyclopedia has grown rapidly to become one of the most accessed sites on the internet according to Alexa1, an internet web service by Amazon
In September 2005 it was reported by Nielsen NetRatings that the Wikipedia had 12.7 millions users in the United States2. On the 1st of March 2006, The English Wikipedia recorded its 1-millionth registered user3 as well as the creation of its 1-millionth article4. In a period of just under a year5, the English Wikipedia has experienced a two-fold increase in the number of articles.
The public's use of the information on the Wikipedia has growth along side the increase of articles in the Wikipedia. According to a survey by BlogPulse, an automated trend discovery system for blogs, Wikipedia has been experiencing a steady increase in consumer references and citations in blogs6. The survey also reported that real world events such as Hurricane Katrina and the London bombings in July 2005 have served as catalysts for the growth in Wikipedia's use and online traffic.
A study by Andrew Lih, the Director of Technology Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong showed that the mainstream media has been citing articles from the Wikipedia with an increased frequency7. The Economist used the Wikipedia as a source for an article about using Bayesian reasoning to understand the human mind8. This growth of Wikipedia users and increase in press citations demonstrates the Wikipedia's increased relevance to the world community as a public source of information and an effective means to expand the commons.
However, the Wikipedia has not been embraced by all as a credible source of information due to vandalism and misinformation on the Wikipedia.