The Wikimedia Foundation, operator of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, opened its annual international conference in Taipei yesterday with more than 500 Wikipedia enthusiasts from 43 countries attending to learn more about the open-source community.
The three-day event will address Wiki technology and Internet developments related to shared knowledge and the implications these have for educational and social trends.
With Taiwan's widespread Internet access and the emergence of vibrant, active online communities, an increasing number of Taiwanese have become involved in Wikipedia, Florence Devouard, member of the board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, told a press conference yesterday.
Founded in 2003 in St Petersburg, Florida, the foundation is a nonprofit organization funding nine free information projects to encourage the development and distribution of free content online. The most well-known of these projects is Wikipedia.
Launched in January 2001, Wikipedia, which relies on Internet users to contribute, edit and cite sources for information organized into an encyclopedia, Wikipedia now has more than 5 million articles in more than 250 languages.
The Chinese-language Wikipedia site was inaugurated in October 2002.
About 40 volunteers work with Wikimedia in Taiwan, said Titan Deng (
The foundation's main source of funding is public donations and grants, and most staff are unpaid.
If Wikimedia Taiwan receives stable funding, it will consider hiring employees to expand its activities, Teng said, adding that the organization would like to work with the government, schools or companies in developing open-source access to knowledge online.
Wikipedia has rapidly become a favorite resource for Web users and professionals worldwide, and Taiwan is no exception.
Last month, a Cabinet report on the 20th anniversary of the end of Martial Law cited Wikipedia.
"We don't mind our content being used by other media, even for commercial purposes, as long as they attribute the copyright to us," Devouard said.
Many Web sites and companies are not aware that they should cite Wikipedia when using information from the Web site, since the encyclopedia's content is collectively produced.
Most have complied with the copyright policy after receiving a notice from Wikipedia, but a few have refused to do so, such as Chinese search engine Baidu Inc (
Baidu frequently uses content from Wikipedia without citing the organization, even after several reminders, Devouard said.
"We provide free knowledge to everyone, but this is not what we want," Devouard said.
The organization will continue communicating with Baidu over the issue on friendly terms, rather than taking legal action against the company, said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia cofounder.
Although some content from Wikipedia is used on other Web sites that can be viewed in China, Wikipedia is blocked by Beijing.
"Wikipedia has nothing to do with politics ... we'd like not to be blocked, considering the huge market size in China," Sandra Ordonez, the foundation's communication manager, told the Taipei Times. "The more contributors we have, the higher quality our site will be."
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS