The Esperanto Wikipedia (Vikipedio en Esperanto, or esperantlingva Vikipedio) is the Esperanto edition of Wikipedia. Started in December 2001 as the eleventh edition of Wikipedia (alongside the Basque Wikipedia), this edition has over 100,000 articles as of June 2008, and is the 21st largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles and the largest Wikipedia in a constructed language (not considering the Volapük Wikipedia that consists mainly of stubs).

The Esperanto Wikipedia started off with the 139 articles of the Enciklopedio Kalblanda by Stefano Kalb.

Wikipedia handbook in Esperanto

The Esperanto Wikipedia community has created and published a 40-page "Wikipedia: Practical Handbook" (Vikipedio: Praktika Manlibro) which is sold on-line and at conventions. The manual is intended to give new Wikipedians advice and information on how to edit Wikipedia in Esperanto. It is currently in its second printing.

Quality of the Esperanto Wikipedia

As of August 2008, the Esperanto Wikipedia has 167 articles of feature quality ("Elstaraj artikoloj") and a further 130 considered high-quality. Weekly community projects include a "Collaboration of the Week" which improves neglected articles and an "Article of the Week" featuring good-quality articles on the front page. The Esperanto community is a frequent contributor to the Meta project, Translation of the week.

According to the List of Wikipedias by sample of articles at Meta, a list based on List of articles every Wikipedia should have, Esperanto ranks #34, lacking none of the list of vital articles, but having in general rather short articles.

Notability within the Esperanto community

Including learners and other Esperantists of all levels, many experienced Esperantists and native Esperantists have joined the project. At least two editors are members of the Academy of Esperanto, Gerrit Berveling and Bertilo Wennergren, a notable Esperanto grammarian and the director of the Academy's section about Esperanto vocabulary.

Vikipedio incorporates, with permission, the content of the 1934 Enciklopedio de Esperanto and also content of several reference books and the monthly periodical Monato.

The Esperanto Wikipedia has been featured in many Esperanto news media, including a radio interview at Radio Polonia, and recent articles at Esperanto, Kontakto, Libera Folio and Raporto.info.

Esperanto organisations like Universal Esperanto Association do not contribute to Vikipedio but support it by providing chambers at Esperanto conventions for Vikipedio presentations and trainings. At the World Esperanto Congress in Rotterdam, summer 2008, there has been two Wikipedian meetups and a lecture at Esperantology Conference.

External links

• Manual at Vikilibroj (Wikibooks)
• Report at Libera Folio, March 2008
• Clip at Youtube.com

References