Wikitravel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Wikipedia
Featured:  |
Wikitravel is a Web-based project "to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide."
History
Wikitravel was started in July 2003 by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins, inspired in part by Wikipedia.The project uses the MediaWiki software, which is also used by Wikipedia. However, Wikitravel is not a Wikimedia project; it was begun and is operated independently. Unlike Wikipedia, it uses the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license rather than the GNU Free Documentation License. Among other things, this more easily allows individuals, tourism agencies, etc., to make free reprints of individual pages. Although both Wikipedia and Wikitravel are free-content resources, because of the incompatible licenses, content cannot be freely copied between them. Wikitravel's different objectives have also resulted in different policies and content guidelines. For example, Wikitravel eschews a neutral-point-of-view requirement, as it is written from the point of view of a traveler and, instead, encourages editors to "be fair."
On April 20, 2006, Wikitravel announced that it and World66 — another open-content travel guide — had been acquired by Internet Brands. The new owner hired Prodromou and Jenkins to continue managing Wikitravel as a consensus-based project. They explained that Internet Brands' long-term plan was for Wikitravel to continue to focus on collaborative, objective guides, while World66 would focus more on personal experiences and reviews. As a result, many authors of the German language community decided to fork the German Wikitravel, which was released on December 10, 2006, as Wikivoyage. On April 1, 2008, Internet Brands added Google advertising to Wikitravel, with an opt-out procedure for registered users.
On May 1, 2007, Wikitravel received the Webby Award for Best Travel Website.
On August 3, 2007, Prodromou, Jenkins, and long-time contributor Jani Patokallio started Wikitravel Press, a company that produces and sells print guidebooks based on material contributed to Wikitravel. The first Wikitravel Press guides, Chicago and Singapore, were officially launched on February 1, 2008. Content in these guidebooks is available under the same Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license that Wikitravel material is licensed under.
Milestones
- December 23, 2005 — 10,000 articles across all versions.
- June 11, 2006 — 10,000 articles on the English version.
- September 29, 2006 — 20,000 articles across all versions.
- April 20, 2007 — 30,000 articles across all versions.
- May 1, 2007 — Wikitravel wins Webby Award for Best Travel Website.
- May 27, 2007 — 15,000 articles on the English version.
- February 1, 2008 — publication of first printed Wikitravel Press guides.
