Wikimedia

Wikimedia refers to a family of free knowledge projects and the nonprofit organization that hosts them, the Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation is a nonprofit corporation established in 2003 to coordinate and support the Wikimedia projects, which grew out of the success of Wikipedia, launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The Wikimedia projects include Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikisource, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews. All content on these sites is contributed by volunteers and released under open licenses that permit wide reuse with attribution.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the Foundation is governed by a board of trustees and works to advance a world in which knowledge is freely accessible to everyone. Its activities include software development, hosting, community support, policy development, and fundraising. The organization relies primarily on donations from individuals and organizations, as well as grants, to operate and fund improvements, outreach, and accessibility initiatives.

Wikimedia projects have become among the largest sources of free knowledge on the internet, offering content in hundreds of languages and hosting extensive media collections via Wikimedia Commons. The movement emphasizes open collaboration, volunteer governance, and the principle that information should be freely shareable and reusable. The Wikimedia Foundation and its projects aim to empower people to collect, create, and distribute knowledge widely and openly.