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'Wikitravel' is a Web-based project "to create an open content, complete, up-to-date, and reliable world-wide travel guide."

Contents

Overview

History

Milestones

Languages

References

See also

Overview

Although it uses a wiki model to create the guide and to deliver it on the World Wide Web, Wikitravel is also aimed towards production of printed guides. Wikitravel is built in collaboration by ''Wikitravellers'' from around the globe. Articles can cover any level of geographic specificity, from continents to districts of a city. These are logically connected in a hierarchy, by specifying that the location covered in one article "is in" the larger location described by another. The project also includes articles on travel-related topics, phrasebooks for travelers, and suggested itineraries.

History

Wikitravel was started in July 2003 by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins, inspired in part by Wikipedia ^[1]. The project uses the MediaWiki software, which is also used by Wikipedia. However, Wikitravel is not a Wikimedia project; it was begun and is operated independently. Unlike Wikipedia, it uses the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license rather than the GNU Free Documentation License. Among other things, this more easily allows individuals, tourism agencies, etc. to make free reprints of individual pages. Although both Wikipedia and Wikitravel are free content resources, because of the incompatible licenses, content cannot be freely copied between them. Wikitravel's different objectives have also resulted in different policies and content guidelines. For example, rather than a strict neutral point of view requirement, Wikitravel encourages editors to "be fair."
On April 20, 2006, Wikitravel announced that it and World66 – another open-content travel guide – had been acquired by Internet Brands.^[2] The new owner hired Prodromou and Jenkins to continue managing Wikitravel as a consensus-based project. They explained that Internet Brands' long-term plan was for Wikitravel to continue to focus on collaborative, objective guides, while World66 would focus more on personal experiences and reviews. As a result many authors of the German language community decided to fork the , which was released on December 10, 2006 as Wikivoyage.
On May 1, 2007 Wikitravel received the Webby Award for Best Travel Website.^[3]

Milestones

★ December 23, 2005 — 10,000 articles across all versions

★ June 11, 2006 — 10,000 articles on the English version

★ September 29, 2006 — 20,000 articles across all versions

★ April 20, 2007 — 30,000 articles across all versions

★ May 1, 2007 — Wikitravel wins Webby Award for Best Travel Website

★ May 27, 2007 — 15,000 articles on the English version

Languages

Wikitravel is a multilingual project available in 17 languages, with each language-specific project developed independently. In order of launch:

★ English

★ Romanian

★ French

★ German

★ Swedish

★ Japanese

★ Dutch

★ Portuguese

★ Spanish

★ Polish

★ Italian

★ Esperanto

★ Hungarian

★ Catalan

★ Finnish

★ Hindi

★ Hebrew

★ Russian

References

1. WikiTravel Milestones
2.

3. Webby Award

See also

★ World66

★ WikiMapia

★ allows editors to insert links in Wikipedia articles about places to corresponding Wikitravel articles.