How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It

Wikipedia operates on the basic principle that information should be publicly available and free of charge. Its editorial model is populist and counter-intuitive, allowing anyone to edit its two-million English-language encyclopedia entries. A volunteer organization with a tiny staff, Wikipedia has broken into the world's top ten online sites, and is still growing steadily in content, quality, and traffic.

Wikipedia is one of the world's most trafficked websites, read by hundreds of millions of people in over 200 languages, with coverage of politics, science, the arts, technology, geography, pop culture, history, and more. Anyone can add a new article, or edit existing content, but Wikipedia is poorly understood and can be daunting to new contributors. How Wikipedia Works explains how this vast, collaborative site functions, condensing thousands of hyperlinks of documentation into an easy to use handbook for current or aspiring contributors. It covers the basics-such as navigating, searching, and editing-and dives deeply into difficult topics like advanced syntax, editor etiquette, and administrative policies and processes. The veteran Wikipedians behind this book share the secrets and profound success of this incredible, diverse, and unique community.