Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher
The crowdsourced encyclopedia is a welcome oddity on the modern internet
LYING DRUNK in a field outside the Austrian city of Innsbruck in 1971, inspiration struck Douglas Adams, a science-fiction writer. He looked at his copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe”, and then up at the stars, and came up with the idea for a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. It would be a (fictional) mixture of travel book and encyclopedia, but with an absurd-seeming twist: instead of being written by experts, anyone could contribute.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The other tech giant”
From the January 9th 2021 edition
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“Tariffers” v “traders”: the new contest for Donald Trump’s ear
Eye-witnesses to the drama of the first Trump presidency brace for the sequel
The world is losing the fight against international gangs
Globalisation and technological progress are leading to a boom in organised crime
Half a loaf, at best, from the climate talks
This year’s negotiations made very modest progress
Is your master’s degree useless?
New data show a shockingly high proportion of courses are a waste of money
The perils of appeasing a warlike Russia
Finland’s cold-war past offers urgent lessons for Ukraine’s future
The danger zone between two presidents
The world’s bad actors will relish any power vacuum