Wikipedia

Do you remember the days of the Encyclopedia? Encyclopedia Britannica, anyone?

I remember when our first Encyclopedia Britannica arrived to our door. My mother opened the boxes with pride - an investment to the knowledge and growth of her children! Throughout school I'd research pages and pages for different reports and turn the tissue-paper thin pages with care. To me, the fragility of the pages represented the importance of the books. I knew if I treated it with care, it would treat me well too. 

Gone are the days of the bound Encyclopedia. Welcome, Wikipedia.

Here's what Wikipedia says about Wikipedia:
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. It's 18 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site. Wikipedia was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the internet...365 million readers.

I've been a slow taker to the online tool - always one to be hesitant of new technology and protector of the soon-to-be lost art of bound books! But, I do admit, with every single google search, wikipedia is always a reliable reference for my needs. Quick information right at my fingertips!

Fun wikipedia fact of the day: "The name Wikipedia was coined by Larry Sanger and is a portmanteau of wiki (a techonology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki,  meaning "quick") and encyclopedia!