wikiHow

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Globe icon of the infobox
wikiHow
Website logo
English: “We're trying to help everyone on the planet learn how to do anything. Join us. "
German:" Instructions and tips from A - Z. Join us too! "
Wiki for tutorials
languages 17 languages
editorial staff Jack Herrick
Registration optional
On-line January 15, 2005 (currently active)
https://www.wikihow.com/

wikiHow is a website for tutorials and howtos based on the wiki principle. The project was founded on January 15th, 2005 by Jack Herrick. The aim of wikiHow is to " create the most helpful guides in the world so that everyone can learn how to do anything."

history

wikiHow was founded on January 15th, 2005 by Jack Herrick with the aim of creating an extensive database for detailed instructions ( Howtos ) in different languages ​​on every imaginable topic. Impressed by the success of Wikipedia , that it is quite possible to build an extensive encyclopedia based on the Wiki principle, which is operated by an online community of enthusiastic volunteers, Jack Herrick saw the possibility of using this Wiki principle to create tutorials as well to use. To honor Wikipedia, January 15, 2005 was chosen as the founding date, as Wikipedia was founded exactly four years earlier, on January 15, 2001.

The content of wikiHow is now available in 17 different languages. The English language version of wikiHow is the largest with more than 190,000 articles (as of September 2017). Just five months after it was founded, on June 15, 2005, wikiHow reached the first 1,000 articles. 10,000 articles were reached in the wikiHow on August 7, 2006 and on March 11, 2011 there were already 100,000 articles.

In December 2009 the website reached a monthly visitor number of more than 20 million users for the first time. In addition, the web interface has been revised.

In September 2017, there were around 16,000 articles in the German-language version of wikiHow.

Content

Workshop "Women on wikiHow" at Wikimania 2012

As with other Wiki projects, the content on wikiHow is contributed and edited by volunteers.

The text content in all language versions of wikiHow is under the Creative Commons license "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0" ("Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported", see also Creative Commons # The current licenses ). The images in the instructions can also be published under other Creative Commons licenses, but most are usually also published under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Companies

The company behind wikiHow, wikiHow, Inc., works as a so-called " hybrid organization". As part of the mission that everyone can learn to do anything, wikiHow disseminates free knowledge for free . This approach is similar to that of a non-profit organization such as the Wikimedia Foundation . On the other hand, the company has an intention to make a profit ("for-profit business"), so that the advertising revenue on the website pays the employees and ensures innovation, expansion and the permanent availability of the website.

reception

wikiHow has already won several awards, including the Webby Award in the “Community” category in 2009 and the “Co-Creation award” in the “Open Innovation” category organized by the British daily The Guardian and the charity Nesta in 2010 .

According to statistics from Alexa Internet , as of September 2017, the website at wikihow.com is the 184th most visited website in the world (“Global Rank”).

There have been several reports about wikiHow in both German and English-language media, including as “Surf Tip of the Week” on Focus Online : “The texts are clearly structured with procedures, tips and warnings. They are supplemented with pictures or graphics. ”The New York Times described the content of wikiHow as“ useful ”.

The reception of wikiHow is in part also critical or satirical. In an article in the US daily The Boston Globe , the pursuit of the ideal of beauty, the thigh gap, is criticized, including a wikiHow page with “outrageous advice” (“There's even a wikihow website with outrageous tips on getting a thigh gap, which includes stretches and recommendations to take birth control pills. "). Other publications on wikiHow, for example in the Huffington Post , highlight the sometimes "bizarre" and "confusing" character of some wikiHow instructions, such as how to dress up as a tree, how to hypnotize a chicken or how to calculate the circle number pi , by throwing frozen sausages. A simple formula helps with the evaluation for the calculation of Pi, which according to his own statement will always be close to the desired result.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c wikiHow: Mission. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ wikiHow - How to Do It from A to Z. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b wikiHow: Language Projects. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e wikiHow: History of wikiHow. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  5. ↑ wikiHow: About wikiHow. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b c wikiHow: Statistics. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b WikiHow Gets Pretty, And Hits 20 Million Monthly Visitors. In: techcrunch.com. TechCrunch , December 9, 2009, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  8. ↑ wikiHow: Statistics. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  9. ↑ a b wikiHow: Creative Commons. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  10. ↑ wikiHow, Inc .: Private Company Information. In: bloomberg.com. Bloomberg LP , accessed September 4, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b c wikiHow: Hybrid Organization. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 4, 2017 .
  12. ↑ wikiHow - The Webby Awards. In: webbyawards.com. The Webby Awards , accessed September 4, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Open innovation is coming of age. In: theguardian.com. The Guardian , April 14, 2010, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Wikihow.com Traffic, Demographics and Competitors. In: alexa.com. Alexa Internet , accessed September 1, 2017 .
  15. ^ Current websites - c't magazine. In: heise.de. Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG , October 30, 2006, accessed on September 4, 2017 .
  16. ^ New Web Sites Seeking Profit in Wiki Model. In: nytimes.com. The New York Times , September 4, 2006, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  17. ↑ WikiHow's Recipe for Success: The Hybrid Business Model. In: inc.com. Inc. , Mansueto Ventures LLC, November 8, 2012, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  18. ↑ How to Stay Safe While Reporting from Hostile (and Not So Hostile) Environments. In: mediashift.org. MediaShift, May 14, 2014, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Surfing tip of the week - Wikihow: Practical everyday tips on the knowledge portal. In: focus.de. FOCUS Online Group GmbH , November 10, 2012, accessed on September 4, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Apps for Home Repairs for the Handy and the Less So. In: nytimes.com. The New York Times , November 28, 2012, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Weekly challenge: Stop striving for a “thigh gap” or six-pack abs. In: bostonglobe.com. The Boston Globe , August 19, 2013, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  22. ↑ a b c d 11 Bizarre Life Skills You Could Only Learn From Wikihow. In: huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post , November 1, 2013, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  23. ↑ 9 brilliantly bizarre WikiHow articles that will fix all your life problems. In: dailyedge.ie. The Daily Edge, June 2, 2014, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  24. ↑ 15 Utterly Deranged Wikihow How-To Guides. In: jezebel.com. Jezebel, September 5, 2014, accessed September 4, 2017 .
  25. ↑ How to Disguise Yourself As a Tree. In: archive.org / wikihow.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2015 ; accessed on September 6, 2017 (English).
  26. ^ How to Hypnotize a Chicken. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 6, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Hypnotize a chicken. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 6, 2017 .
  28. ↑ How to Calculate Pi by Throwing Frozen Hot Dogs. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 6, 2017 .
  29. ↑ a b Calculate pi by throwing frozen sausages. In: wikihow.com. wikiHow, Inc., accessed September 6, 2017 .