Wikipedia
Wikipedia (/ˌwɪkɪˈpiːdiə/ (
listen), /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/ (listen) WIK-ih-PEE-dee-ə) is a multilingual online encyclopedia with exclusively free content and no ads (though donations are accepted), based on open collaboration through a model of content editing using web-based applications such as web browsers, called wiki. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the World Wide Web,[3][4][5] and is one of the most popular websites by Alexa rank as of April 2019.[6] It is owned and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that operates on money it receives from donors to remain ad-free.[7][8][9][10]
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.[11] Sanger coined its name,[12][13] as a portmanteau of wiki (the Hawai’ian word for “quick”[14]) and “encyclopedia“. Initially an English-language encyclopedia, versions in other languages were quickly developed. With 5,861,248 articles,[notes 3] the English Wikipedia is the largest of the more than 290 Wikipedia encyclopedias. Overall, Wikipedia comprises more than 40 million articles in 301 different languages[15] and by February 2014 it had reached 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors per month.[16]
In 2005, Nature published a peer review comparing 42 hard science articles from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia and found that Wikipedia’s level of accuracy approached that of Britannica,[17] although critics suggested that it might not have fared so well in a similar study of a random sampling of all articles or one focused on social science or contentious social issues.[18][19] The following year, Time magazine stated that the open-door policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the biggest and possibly the best encyclopedia in the world, and was a testament to the vision of Jimmy Wales.[20]
Wikipedia has been criticized for exhibiting systemic bias, for presenting a mixture of “truths, half truths, and some falsehoods”,[21] and for being subject to manipulation and spin in controversial topics.[22] But by 2017, Facebook announced that it would help readers detect fake news by suggesting links to related Wikipedia articles. YouTube announced a similar plan in 2018.[23]
Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee.[7] The population was 108,755 according to the 2010 census, up from 68,816 residents certified in 2000. In 2015, census estimates showed a population of 126,118.[5]The city is the center of population of Tennessee[8] and is part of the Nashville metropolitan area, which includes thirteen counties and a population of 1,757,912 (2013). It is Tennessee’s fastest growing major city and one of the fastest growing cities in the country.[9] Murfreesboro is also home to Middle Tennessee State University, the largest undergraduate university in the state of Tennessee, with 22,729 total students as of fall 2014.[10]
In 2006, Murfreesboro was ranked by Money as the 84th best place to live in the United States, out of 745 cities with a population over 50,000.[11][12]
In 1811, the Tennessee State Legislature established a county seat for Rutherford County. The town was first named “Cannonsburgh” in honor of Newton Cannon, then Rutherford County’s member of the state legislature, but it was soon renamed “Murfreesboro” for Revolutionary War hero Colonel Hardy Murfree.[13] Author Mary Noailles Murfree was his great-granddaughter.
As Tennessee settlement expanded to the west, the location of the state capital in Knoxville became inconvenient for most newcomers. In 1818, Murfreesboro was designated as the capital of Tennessee. Eight years later, however, it was itself replaced by Nashville.[14]