Editing Wikipedia (section)

== Operation ==
=== Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia movement affiliates ===
{{main|Wikimedia Foundation}}
[[File:Katherine Maher.jpg|thumb|[[Katherine Maher]] became the third executive director of Wikimedia in 2016, succeeding [[Lila Tretikov]], who had taken over from [[Sue Gardner]] in 2014.|alt=Katherine Maher in 2016. She is seen with light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. She is seen wearing a black shirt.]]
Wikipedia is hosted and funded by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], a non-profit organization which also operates Wikipedia-related projects such as [[Wiktionary]] and [[Wikibooks]]. The foundation relies on public contributions and grants to fund its mission.<ref name="financialstatements">{{cite web |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/a/ac/FINAL_10_11From_KPMG.pdf |title = Wikimedia Foundation&nbsp;– Financial Statements&nbsp;– June 30, 2011 and 2010 |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |access-date = June 5, 2016}}</ref> The foundation's 2013 IRS Form 990 shows revenue of $39.7&nbsp;million and expenses of almost $29&nbsp;million, with assets of $37.2&nbsp;million and liabilities of about $2.3&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/5/5c/Form_990_-_FY_12-13_-_Public.pdf |title = Wikimedia Foundation IRS Form 990 |access-date = October 14, 2014}}</ref>

In May 2014, Wikimedia Foundation named [[Lila Tretikov]] as its second executive director, taking over for Sue Gardner.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_announces_new_ED_Lila_Tretikov |title = Press releases/WMF announces new ED Lila Tretikov |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |date = May 31, 2018|access-date = June 14, 2014}}</ref> The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported on May 1, 2014, that Tretikov's information technology background from her years at University of California offers Wikipedia an opportunity to develop in more concentrated directions guided by her often repeated position statement that, "Information, like air, wants to be free."<ref name="Jeff Elder 2014">Jeff Elder, ''The Wall Street Journal'', May 1, 2014, "Wikipedia's New Chief: From Soviet Union to World's Sixth-Largest Site".</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/02/business/media/open-source-software-specialist-selected-as-executive-director-of-wikipedia.html?_r=0 |title = Media: Open-Source Software Specialist Selected as Executive Director of Wikipedia |first = Noam |last = Cohen |author-link=Noam Cohen |date = May 1, 2014 |work = The New York Times}}</ref> The same ''Wall Street Journal'' article reported these directions of development according to an interview with spokesman Jay Walsh of Wikimedia, who "said Tretikov would address that issue ([[conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia|paid advocacy]]) as a priority. 'We are really pushing toward more transparency{{nbsp}}... We are reinforcing that paid advocacy is not welcome.' Initiatives to involve greater diversity of contributors, better mobile support of Wikipedia, new geo-location tools to find local content more easily, and more tools for users in the second and third world are also priorities," Walsh said.<ref name="Jeff Elder 2014" />

Following the departure of Tretikov from Wikipedia due to issues concerning the use of the "superprotection" feature which some language versions of Wikipedia have adopted, Katherine Maher became the third executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation in June 2016.<ref>Dimitra Kessenides. Bloomberg News Weekly. December 26, 2016. "Is Wikipedia 'Woke'".</ref> Maher has stated that one of her priorities would be the issue of editor harassment endemic to Wikipedia as identified by the Wikipedia board in December. Maher stated regarding the harassment issue that: "It establishes a sense within the community that this is a priority{{nbsp}}... (and that correction requires that) it has to be more than words."<ref>Dimitra Kessenides. Bloomberg News Weekly. December 26, 2016, p. 74. "Is Wikipedia 'Woke'".</ref>

Wikipedia is also supported by many organizations and groups that are affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation but independently-run, called [[Wikimedia movement affiliates]]. These include [[list of Wikimedia chapters|Wikimedia chapters]] (which are national or sub-national organizations, such as Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikimédia France), thematic organizations (such as Amical Wikimedia for the [[Catalan language]] community), and user groups. These affiliates participate in the promotion, development, and funding of Wikipedia.

=== Software operations and support ===
{{see also|MediaWiki}}
The operation of Wikipedia depends on [[MediaWiki]], a custom-made, [[free software|free]] and [[open-source software|open source]] [[wiki software]] platform written in [[PHP]] and built upon the [[MySQL]] database system.<ref name="nedworks database system">{{cite web |url=https://www.nedworks.org/~mark/presentations/san/Wikimedia%20architecture.pdf |title = Wikimedia Architecture |first = Mark |last = Bergsma |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |access-date = June 27, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303204708/https://www.nedworks.org/~mark/presentations/san/Wikimedia%20architecture.pdf |archive-date = March 3, 2009}}</ref> The software incorporates programming features such as a [[macro (computer science)|macro language]], [[variable (programming)|variable]]s, a [[transclusion]] system for [[web template system|template]]s, and [[URL redirection]]. MediaWiki is licensed under the [[GNU General Public License]] (GPL) and it is 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 [[PhpWiki|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 [[exponential growth|exponentially increasing]] demand. In July 2002 (Phase III), Wikipedia shifted to the third-generation software, MediaWiki, originally written by [[Lee Daniel Crocker]].

Several MediaWiki extensions are installed<ref name="WP extensions installed">{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Version |title = Version: Installed extensions |date = September 28, 2018 |access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> to extend the functionality of the MediaWiki software.

In April 2005, a [[Lucene]] extension<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2005-04-18/Lucene_search |title = Lucene search: Internal search function returns to service |publisher = Wikimedia Foundation |first = Michael |last = Snow |access-date = February 26, 2009 |date = December 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-April/016297.html |title = [Wikitech-l&#93; Lucene search |first = Brion |last = Vibber |access-date = February 26, 2009}}</ref> was added to MediaWiki's built-in search and Wikipedia switched from [[MySQL]] to Lucene for searching. Lucene was later replaced by CirrusSearch which is based on [[Elasticsearch]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Extension:CirrusSearch – MediaWiki|url=https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CirrusSearch|access-date=2021-04-10|website=MediaWiki.org|language=en}}</ref>

In July 2013, after extensive beta testing, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) extension, [[VisualEditor]], was opened to public use.<ref name="thenextwebve">{{cite news |newspaper = TNW &#124; Insider |url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/07/02/wikimedia-rolls-out-its-wysiwyg-visual-editor-for-logged-in-users-accessing-wikipedia-articles-in-english/ |title = Wikimedia rolls out WYSIWYG visual editor for logged-in users accessing Wikipedia articles in English |first = Emil |last = Protalinski |date = July 2, 2013 |access-date = July 6, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/10196578/Wikipedia-introduces-new-features-to-entice-editors.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/10196578/Wikipedia-introduces-new-features-to-entice-editors.html |archive-date=2022-01-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper = The Daily Telegraph |title = Wikipedia introduces new features to entice editors |author = Curtis, Sophie |date = July 23, 2013 |access-date = August 18, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="TheEconomistVE">{{cite news |newspaper = [[The Economist]] |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/12/changes-wikipedia |title = Changes at Wikipedia: Seeing things |author = L. M. |date = December 13, 2011 |access-date = July 28, 2013}}</ref><ref name="softpedia-best">{{cite web |website = [[Softpedia]] |url=https://news.softpedia.com/news/Wikipedia-s-New-VisualEditor-Is-the-Best-Update-in-Years-and-You-Can-Make-It-Better-365072.shtml |title = Wikipedia's New VisualEditor Is the Best Update in Years and You Can Make It Better |first = Lucian |last = Parfeni |date = July 2, 2013 |access-date = July 30, 2013}}</ref> It was met with much rejection and criticism, and was described as "slow and buggy".<ref name="Orlowski, Andrew">{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/01/wikipedians_reject_wysiwyg_editor/ |title = Wikipedians say no to Jimmy's 'buggy' WYSIWYG editor |author = Orlowski, Andrew |date = August 1, 2013 |website = The Register |access-date = August 18, 2013}}</ref> The feature was changed from opt-out to opt-in afterward.

=== Automated editing ===
{{main|Wikipedia bots}}
Computer programs called [[Internet bot|bot]]s have often been used to perform simple and repetitive tasks, such as correcting common misspellings and stylistic issues, or to start articles such as geography entries in a standard format from statistical data.<ref>{{srlink|Wikipedia:Bots|Wikipedia Bot Information}}</ref><ref name="meetbots">{{cite news |title = Meet the 'bots' that edit Wikipedia |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18892510 |first = Daniel |last = Nasaw |work = BBC News |date = July 24, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last = Halliday |first = Josh |author2 = Arthur, Charles |title = Boot up: The Wikipedia vandalism police, Apple analysts, and more |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2012/jul/26/boot-up-wikipedia-apple |newspaper = [[The Guardian]] |date = July 26, 2012 |access-date = September 5, 2012}}</ref> One controversial contributor, {{ill|Sverker Johansson|sv}}, creating articles with his [[Lsjbot|bot]] was reported to create up to 10,000 articles on the Swedish Wikipedia on certain days.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/for-this-author-10-000-wikipedia-articles-is-a-good-days-work-1405305001|title=For This Author, 10,000 Wikipedia Articles Is a Good Day's Work|last=Jervell|first=Ellen Emmerentze|date=July 13, 2014|work=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> Additionally, there are bots designed to automatically notify editors when they make common editing errors (such as unmatched quotes or unmatched parentheses).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-03-23/Abuse_Filter |title = Wikipedia signpost: Abuse Filter is enabled |publisher = English Wikipedia |date = March 23, 2009 |access-date = July 13, 2010}}</ref><!-- And prevent the creation of links to particular websites. Bots also find and revert changes by suspicious new accounts, enforce bans against shared [[IP address]]es or the use of [[sockpuppet (Internet)|sockpuppet]]s by a banned person operating from an alternate IP address.(unsourced/unverifiable) --> Edits falsely identified by bots as the work of a banned editor can be restored by other editors. An anti-vandal bot is programmed to detect and revert vandalism quickly.<ref name="meetbots" /> Bots are able to indicate edits from particular accounts or IP address ranges, as occurred at the time of the shooting down of the [[Malaysia Airlines Flight 17|MH17 jet]] incident in July 2014 when it was reported that edits were made via IPs controlled by the Russian government.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201407211855-0023944 |title = MH17 Wikipedia entry edited from Russian government IP address |publisher = Al Jazeera |access-date = July 22, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116002928/https://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201407211855-0023944 |archive-date = November 16, 2016 |df = mdy |date = July 21, 2014}}</ref> Bots on Wikipedia must be approved before activation.<ref>{{srlink|Wikipedia:Bot policy|Wikipedia's policy on bots}}</ref>

According to [[Andrew Lih]], the current expansion of Wikipedia to millions of articles would be difficult to envision without the use of such bots.<ref>Andrew Lih (2009). ''[[The Wikipedia Revolution]]'', chapter ''Then came the Bots'', pp. 99–106.</ref>

=== Hardware operations and support ===
{{see also|Wikimedia Foundation#Hardware}}
Wikipedia receives between 25,000 and 60,000-page requests per second, depending on the time of the day.<ref name="WP tools requests per day">[https://web.archive.org/web/20081028185204/https://toolserver.org/~leon/stats/reqstats/reqstats-monthly.png "Monthly request statistics"], Wikimedia. Retrieved October 31, 2008.</ref>{{update inline|date=July 2019}} {{As of|2021|post=,}} page requests are first passed to a front-end layer of [[Varnish (software)|Varnish]] caching servers and back-end layer caching is done by [[Apache Traffic Server]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Varnish|title=Varnish – Wikitech|website=wikitech.wikimedia.org|access-date=May 12, 2019}}</ref> Further statistics, based on a publicly available 3-month Wikipedia access trace, are available.<ref name="globule access trace">{{cite web |url = https://www.globule.org/publi/WWADH_comnet2009.html |title = Wikipedia Workload Analysis for Decentralized Hosting |author = Guido Urdaneta, Guillaume Pierre and Maarten van Steen |publisher = Elsevier Computer Networks 53 (11), pp. 1830–1845, June 2009 |access-date = June 5, 2016 |archive-date = May 6, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160506075037/http://www.globule.org/publi/WWADH_comnet2009.html |url-status = dead }}</ref> Requests that cannot be served from the Varnish cache are sent to load-balancing servers running the [[Linux Virtual Server]] software, which in turn pass them 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 are cached in a distributed memory cache until invalidated, allowing page rendering to be skipped entirely for most common page accesses.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-12 |title=Front-End Performance Checklist 2021 (PDF, Apple Pages, MS Word) |url=https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/01/front-end-performance-2021-free-pdf-checklist/ |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=Smashing Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Wikipedia webrequest flow 2020.png|alt=Diagram showing flow of data between Wikipedia's servers.|thumb|Overview of system architecture {{as of|2020|04|lc=on}}]]
Wikipedia currently runs on dedicated [[Computer cluster|clusters]] of [[Linux]] servers with [[Debian]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Debian – Wikitech|url=https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Debian|access-date=2021-04-09|website=wikitech.wikimedia.org|language=en}}</ref> {{As of|2009|12|post=,}} there were 300 in Florida and 44 in [[Amsterdam]].<ref name="servers" /> By January 22, 2013, Wikipedia had migrated its primary data center to an [[Equinix]] facility in [[Ashburn, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://diff.wikimedia.org/2013/01/19/wikimedia-sites-move-to-primary-data-center-in-ashburn-virginia/ |title = Wikimedia sites to move to primary data center in Ashburn, Virginia |first = Guillaume |last = Palmier |date = January 19, 2013 |publisher = WMF |access-date = June 5, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/14/its-official-equinix-ashburn-is-wikimedias-home/ |title = It's Official: Ashburn is Wikipedia's New Home |first = Jason |last = Verge |publisher = Data Center Knowledge |access-date = June 5, 2016 |date = January 14, 2013}}</ref> In 2017, Wikipedia installed a caching cluster in an Equinix facility in [[Singapore]], the first of its kind in Asia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T156028|title=⚓ T156028 Name Asia Cache DC site|website=Wikimedia Phabricator|access-date=May 12, 2019}}</ref>

=== Internal research and operational development ===
Following growing amounts of incoming donations exceeding seven digits in 2013 as recently reported,<ref name="Simonite-2013" /> the Foundation has reached a threshold of assets which qualify its consideration under the principles of [[industrial organization]] economics to indicate the need for the re-investment of donations into the internal research and development of the Foundation.<ref name=autogenerated5>{{cite book |last1=Scherer |first1=Frederic M. |author1-link=Frederic M. Scherer |title=Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance |date=2009 |publisher=Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship, [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] |orig-date=1970 |ssrn=1496716}}</ref> Two of the recent projects of such internal research and development have been the creation of a Visual Editor and a largely under-utilized "Thank" tab which were developed to ameliorate issues of editor attrition, which have met with limited success.<ref name="Simonite-2013" /><ref name="Orlowski, Andrew" /> The estimates for reinvestment by industrial organizations into internal research and development was studied by Adam Jaffe, who recorded that the range of 4% to 25% annually was to be recommended, with high-end technology requiring the higher level of support for internal reinvestment.<ref name="Patents, Citations pp 89-153">''Patents, Citations, and Innovations'', by Adam B. Jaffe, Manuel Trajtenberg, pp. 89–153.</ref> At the 2013 level of contributions for Wikimedia presently documented as 45&nbsp;million dollars, the computed budget level recommended by Jaffe and Caballero for reinvestment into internal research and development is between 1.8&nbsp;million and 11.3&nbsp;million dollars annually.<ref name="Patents, Citations pp 89-153" /> In 2016, the level of contributions were reported by'' Bloomberg News'' as being at $77&nbsp;million annually, updating the Jaffe estimates for the higher level of support to between $3.08&nbsp;million and $19.2&nbsp;million annually.<ref name="Patents, Citations pp 89-153" />

=== Internal news publications ===
Community-produced news publications include the [[English Wikipedia]]'s ''The Signpost'', founded in 2005 by Michael Snow, an attorney, Wikipedia administrator, and former chair of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] board of trustees.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/technology/05wikipedia.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1 |title = A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side |first = Noam |last = Cohen |author-link=Noam Cohen |work = The New York Times |date = March 5, 2007 |access-date = October 18, 2008}}</ref> It covers news and events from the site, as well as major events from other [[Wikimedia project]]s, such as [[Wikimedia Commons]]. Similar publications are the German-language ''Kurier'', and the Portuguese-language ''Correio da Wikipédia''. Other past and present community news publications on English Wikipedia include the ''Wikiworld'' webcomic, the Wikipedia Weekly podcast, and newsletters of specific WikiProjects like ''The Bugle'' from WikiProject Military History and the monthly newsletter from The Guild of Copy Editors. There are also several publications from the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] and multilingual publications such as Wikimedia Diff and ''This Month in Education''.

=== The Wikipedia Library ===
{{for|information for Wikipedia editors|Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|selfref=yes}}
The Wikipedia Library is a resource for Wikipedia editors which provides free access to a wide range of [[Electronic publishing|digital publications]], so that they can consult and cite these while editing the encyclopedia.<ref name="orlowitz">{{cite journal |last1=Orlowitz |first1=Jake |title=The Wikipedia Library : the biggest encyclopedia needs a digital library and we are building it |journal=JLIS.it |date=2018 |volume=9 |issue=3 |doi=10.4403/jlis.it-12505 |access-date=}}</ref><ref name=bna>{{cite news |last1=The British Newspaper Archive |title=Working with Wikipedia to bring history facts to light |url=https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2014/07/18/working-with-wikipedia-to-bring-history-facts-to-light/ |access-date=26 October 2021 |work=blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk |date=18 July 2014}}</ref> Over  60 publishers have partnered with The Wikipedia Library to provide access to their resources: when [[ICE Publishing]] joined in 2020, a spokesman said "By enabling free access to our content for Wikipedia editors, we hope to further the research community's resources – creating and updating Wikipedia entries on civil engineering which are read by thousands of monthly readers."<ref name="hall">{{cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Sam |title=ICE Publishing partners with The Wikipedia Library |url=https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/ice-news/106-wikipedia-library |website=ICE Virtual LIbrary |access-date=26 October 2021 |language=en |date=24 January 2020}}</ref>