Italian Wikipedia

Italian Wikipedia

Screenshot
URL	it.wikipedia.org
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Internet encyclopedia project
Registration	Optional
Available language(s)	Italian
Owner	Wikimedia Foundation
Created by	Italian wiki community

The Italian Wikipedia (Italian: Wikipedia in italiano) is the Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was created on May 11, 2001^[1] and first edited on June 11, 2001. As of 2011 it has over 862,000 articles and more than 690,000 registered accounts.^[2] It is the 4th-largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles (after the English, German, and French editions).^[3]

History

In August 2005 the Italian Wikipedia overtook the Spanish and Portuguese language editions, becoming the 8th largest edition by article count. The primary reason for the rapid leap from 56,000 to 64,000 articles was an automated bot which created stub articles on more than 8,000 municipalities of Spain in an operation dubbed "Comuni spagnoli".^[4][5]

On September 8, 2005, the Italian Wikipedia overtook the Dutch Wikipedia and one day later, on September 9, it passed 100,000 articles. On September 11, it overtook the Swedish Wikipedia, becoming the fifth-largest language edition. Again, automated scripts contributed heavily to the growth. For instance, a bot created more than 35,000 articles on municipalities of France.^[6] However, it was overtaken by the Polish edition on September 23, 2005.

In 2009 the Italian Wikipedia was awarded the Premiolino, the oldest and most prestigious Italian journalism prize, in the new media category.

On June 22, 2010, it passed 700,000 articles (Robie House – 700,000th article). On September 28, 2010, the Italian Wikipedia overtook the Polish Wikipedia, becoming the 4th largest edition, though in October 2010 the numbers on both Wikipedias were very close, and as of 2011 the Polish Wikipedia is in the lead again.^[7] On May 12, 2011, it passed 800,000 articles. In the same day, it overtook the Polish Wikipedia.

2011 mass blanking protest

From October 4 to October 6, 2011, all pages on the Italian Wikipedia project were redirected to this one-page Manifesto.

From October 4 to October 6, 2011, following a decision adopted by volunteers of the Italian Wikipedia community, all of the site's articles were hidden and the website was blocked by its administrators, as a protest against paragraph 29 of the DDL intercettazioni (Wiretapping Bill)^[8] which was being debated at the time in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian parliament.^[9]

The proposed bill would empower anyone who believes themselves to have been offended by the content of a web site, even if the content is true, to enforce publication of a reply in the same place and with equal prominence of the related content, within 48 hours and without any prior evaluation of the claim by a judge. If after 48 hours the reply hadn't been published, the person requesting the reply may eventually appeal to a civil court which would assess the request and evaluate the disputed content. The sanction would be a fine between 9,500 and 12,000 euros. Should the bill pass, it is thought likely to inflict severe limitations on the "horizontal" freedom of access and editing that is common to Wikimedia projects.

This was the first time that a Wikipedia had blanked all its content to protest.^[10][11][12] The Wikimedia Foundation officially supported the decision of the Italian Wikipedia by a statement released the same day.^[9] As of 5 October 2011 (2011 -10-05)^[update] the manifesto, which replaced the Italian Wikipedia, had been viewed approximately 8 million times.^[13] On October 6, 2011, the website content was restored, with a banner across the top of each page explaining the reason for the protest.^[14]

Italian newspaper Il Tempo journalist Alberto Di Majo described the closure of the Italian-language Wikipedia as an "unexpected merit" of the Wiretapping Bill.^[15]

References

1. ^ New language wikis, Wikipedia-l mailing list.
2. ^ Italian Wikipedia. "Speciale:Statistics". http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciale:Statistics. Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
3. ^ List of Wikipedias
4. ^ Italian Wikipedia. "Wikipedia:Ultime_notizie". http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ultime_notizie. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
5. ^ Italian Wikipedia. "Progetto:Geografia/Antropica/Comuni_spagnoli" (in italian). http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:Comuni_spagnoli. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
6. ^ Italian Wikipedia. "Progetto:Comuni_della_Francia" (in italian). http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:Amministrazioni/Comuni_francesi. Retrieved 2008-02-23. 
7. ^ On October 12, 2010: 735 444 (pl) vs 735.375 (it)
8. ^ "Camera dei Deputati: disegno di legge N. 1415-B" (in Italian). Camera dei Deputati. http://www.camera.it/Camera/view/doc_viewer_full?url=http%3A//www.camera.it/_dati/leg16/lavori/stampati/pdf/16PDL0038530.pdf&back_to=http%3A//www.camera.it/126%3FPDL%3D1415-B%26leg%3D16%26tab%3D2%26stralcio%3D%26navette%3D. Retrieved October 4, 2011. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Wikimedia blog » Blog Archive » Regarding recent events on Italian Wikipedia". Blog.wikimedia.org. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/regarding-recent-events-on-italian-wikipedia/. Retrieved 2011-10-05. 
10. ^ Official announcement (English version); permanent link: http://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011&oldid=43934170.
11. ^ "Intercettazioni, Wikipedia protesta – Homepage in bianco: "Inaccettabile ddl"" (in Italian). la Repubblica. October 4, 2011. http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2011/10/04/news/wikipedia_in_bianco_contro_le_intercettazioni-22703312/. Retrieved October 4, 2011.  (Archived at WebCite)
12. ^ "Wikipedia Hides Italian Language Edition to Protest New Law | PCWorld Business Center". Pcworld.com. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/241149/wikipedia_hides_italian_language_edition_to_protest_new_law.html. Retrieved 2011-10-05. 
13. ^ "Wikipedia article traffic statistics". Stats.grok.se. http://stats.grok.se/it/201110/Wikipedia%3AComunicato_4_ottobre_2011. Retrieved 2011-10-05.  (Archived at WebCite)
14. ^ http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gqt7W7Fn1fKrfqU1cPF0Mr6M-R3w?docId=CNG.c05571d1da8b533f5fbbc6407b4da20d.1b1
15. ^ Wikipedia protesta? Meglio, c'è la Treccani - Il Tempo, October 5, 2011 (in Italian)

External links

• (Italian) Italian Wikipedia mobile version