Launched in the year 2001, Wikipedia is the most popular free encyclopedia on the Internet.  Many people wonder what the word "Wikipedia" stands for.  Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick, with a portion of the word encyclopedia.  Wikipedia is home to over 13 million articles written by volunteers across the globe.  One of the most useful features of Wikipedia shines with stunning exception.  Almost all of the Wikipedia articles can be created and edited by anyone who can access the Website.    This can be useful for frequently changing material as well as frequent content submission. 

A common misconception surrounding Wikipedia is the source of their article content.  Articles are submitted by users but do not go through a review process of validation.  The user editing and submission feature poses a moderate risk of incorrect information being published.  While the majority of articles submitted to Wikipedia are screened for accuracy, some articles will undoubtedly contain some questionable details.  Future upgrades and revisions to the Wikipedia Website plan to correct discrepancies surrounding their content verification.  Although Wikipedia is backed by a plentiful supply of financial resources, the cost of an article verification staff could prove to be too costly to maintain.  The number of total articles needed be verified for validity would take years to complete.

Almost everything in the world can be found on Wikipedia, and most of the raw statistics they provide are trustworthy.  Research should be done in an effort to dispute the validity of any information within the articles  Sometimes called cross-referencing, this strategy proves to be a safeguard against falling victim to incorrect information. If you must have undisputedly true information, Wikipedia can serve as a wonderful starting point for researching any subject matter. 

Overall, Wikipedia is a modern miracle.  More people utilize Wikipedia for beginning research projects than any other online encyclopedia.  Just like the search engine Google, Wikipedia has experienced a similar and explosive popularity increase.  Time magazine recently recognized Wikipedia as a shining example of Web 2.0 technology.  And rightly so, Wikipedia was one of the most frequently accessed sites on the Internet in 2008. 

Some countries do not allow access to the Wikipedia Website because of network restrictions.  Iran is one example of a country that does not allow access to this online encyclopedia. A virtual private network connection can allow full access to the entire Internet! Using a VPN connection, everything you do will be anonymous and encrypted via our servers located around the world. You would be able to access bocked websites and if YouTube is blocked you can unblock Wikipedia.