Paris (AFP)

"Wikipedia is still the greatest digital common good that the internet has delivered to us": the free online encyclopedia, one of the last "dinosaurs" of the libertarian and participatory internet, celebrates its 20 years with several challenges to overcome.

"A small miracle" at the time of the triumph of the Gafam and the Internet merchant, thus describes it to AFP historian Rémi Mathis, ex-president of the Wikimedia France association.

Founded on January 15, 2001 by the American Jimmy Wales with a non-profit goal, Wikipedia aims to bring together the knowledge of the planet on a single online platform thanks to millions of voluntary contributors.

The success was immediate.

The first site was developed in English, German and Swedish Wikipedia followed in March 2001, and soon after ten more - including French, Italian, Chinese, Russian and Catalan.

For the future, Jimmy Wales hopes Wikipedia will spread to developing countries: "It is really important that the next billion people who come on the internet want to contribute."

The founder, interviewed by AFP, dreams of an "institution that lasts as long (...) as the University of Oxford."

The seventh most visited site in the world, Wikipedia has more than 55 million articles published in 309 languages.

The content of each site is independent: no translations but original contributions, sometimes supplemented by robots from public data.

Contrary to the traditional encyclopedia written by recognized experts, this collection of knowledge compiled by amateurs, often anonymous, has attracted innumerable criticism and hostility from certain academic circles.

- Lack of diversity -

"When we know in more detail how Wikipedia is monitored, the articles are written, and the community exchanges, we can still consider that there is a level of overall reliability which is important", believes Lionel Barbe, master of conferences at Paris-Nanterre University.

There remains a problem of diversity in the sources and themes addressed, with blind spots on subjects linked to developing countries.

In question, the profile of the contributors, mainly from the United States and Western countries.

"The fact of wanting to build an encyclopedia does not attract just anyone and the people who are there are often CSP +, urban, graduates", supports Rémi Mathis, author of "Wikipedia: Behind the scenes of the largest encyclopedia of world "(First Editions).

"80%, or even more, are white men who write Wikipedia articles," Marie-Noëlle Doutreix, lecturer at Lyon 2 University, told AFP.

"We have gone from 15 to 18.6% of biographies of women in French Wikipedia," rejoices Natacha Fault.

Founder of the "Les sans pages" project, aimed at combating gender imbalances.

But "the + gender gap + will never be filled because the reality is that the achievements of women have been little documented" throughout history.

- Refuge from the abuses of social networks?

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Despite everything, at a time of the triumph of the Gafam, the online encyclopedia is a rare survivor of the participatory utopia of the libertarian web, conceived as "a decentralized network of exchange and knowledge", recalls Lionel Barbe, for who "Wikipedia is after all the greatest digital common good that the internet has delivered to us."

Jimmy Wales assures us: "We are not diverted from our mission for the sake of making more income, so we are not faced with these problems that we see today, this question of algorithms designed in such a way as to encourage commitment to increase advertising revenue. "

"The commercial internet also has an interest in Wikipedia's survival", nuance Marie-Noëlle Doutreix.

"Google has promoted the visibility of Wikipedia, but in return it uses its articles in its search engine and has significant traffic through this encyclopedia."

Some would also like to draw inspiration from the encyclopedia's original model of community moderation in the face of the massive circulation of false information on social networks.

"We must not believe either that it is Wikipedia which will save us from our own demons. It remains a tool. If we love conspiracy, I doubt that Wikipedia can discourage you," explains Lionel Barbe.

So here is Wikipedia facing two major challenges: to continue to encourage vocations as encyclopedias, and to moderate its own content and internal debates, on the basis of volunteering.

All, as Lionel Barbe explains, in a "context of very strong growth in collective fantasies."

© 2021 AFP