WIKIPEDIA is 20 years old!
published: 09/01/21, 08:24
Twenty years ago, Wikipedia was born with the ambition to radically democratize the production of knowledge. Has the promise been kept?
In 2001, Jimmy Wales published "Hello World", the first Wikipedia article inviting the community to participate in an encyclopedic project. Twenty years later, Wikipedia touches all areas of our daily lives. With over 50 million articles, it is the largest encyclopedia of all time. Wikipedia opened with a promise: to radically democratize the production of knowledge, monopolized for millennia by the elites. Anyone can collaborate on the platform, regardless of education level or social background. Has this almost utopian project really come true?
This documentary plunges into the heart of the online encyclopedia thanks to the testimony of many "Wikipedians", these anonymous contributors from all over the world. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, founders of the site, tell about the enthusiasm the project experienced from its launch, which they did not even dare to dream of. Sanger is however today one of the biggest detractors of Wikipedia. What happened ? Wikipedia is the mirror of a society which is going through profound upheavals. On this site, for example, women and men from Southern countries are under-represented, although more and more contributors are shaking up this status quo. Twenty years after its creation, how has the encyclopedia evolved? Has she become more conservative or more radical? Is it a truly global plan or a tool that produces "Eurocentric" knowledge?