[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E55]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       RECOGNIZING WIKIPEDIA FOR CELEBRATING ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY

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                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 21, 2021

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives 
to join me in honoring Wikipedia on the 20th anniversary of its 
founding on January 15, 2001. The organization has developed a 
flourishing, free, and accessible home for the world's knowledge and 
has become an indispensable part of our lives.
  While encyclopedias have long relied on a small number of academics 
and experts to write and update information, Wikipedia leverages a 
voluntary, community-based approach that has allowed the product to 
expand to cover an extraordinary array of topics that has worldwide 
scale, well beyond what all previous encyclopedias could cover, 
combined. To date, Wikipedians have created an astonishing 175 million 
pages that are visited by two billion unique devices per month.
  The world-class team of people . . . employees and volunteers that 
administer Wikipedia, are a major reason why the project has been such 
a success, and I'm proud that many of my constituents are part of this 
group. Wikipedia's success is also due to the fact that it is managed 
by a values-driven nonprofit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation.
  Wikipedia is a large part of the reason we all have the world's 
information at our fingertips and it's a privilege to congratulate 
Wikipedia on celebrating 20 years of informing the world.

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