Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Launches Open Directory of City Guides; World Wikia Provides Free, Fully Editable Worldwide Guide of Places to Go and Things to Do -- Site Now Open for Contributions From All Travelers.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif. -- Wikia, Inc., the leading site for developing and hosting community-based wikis See wiki. , today announced the launch of a free, fully editable worldwide guide of places to go and things to do. The guide, World Wikia, is now online at http://world.wikia.com/ and is open to contributions from all travelers. Additionally, Wikia announced the appointment of Bill Kaufmann as the founder of World Wikia, a collection of city guides devoted to serving the interests of world travelers. Kaufmann joins Wikia following a lifetime of extensive travels -- including trips to over 40 countries and all seven continents. With work experience as diverse as his travels, Kaufmann has held positions in Internet, software, finance, energy and non-profit organizations A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes. . "When I'm planning a trip online, I often feel as if I'm being sold something -- when what I really want is to understand the 'on-the-ground' feeling of what a place is truly like, what the locals do there, and how people live in that region," said Kaufmann. "With World Wikia, we are looking to both residents and to people who have been there before to provide that ground's-eye-view of cities throughout the world." Today, World Wikia includes a diverse set of city guides for locations such as New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded , London, San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , and more. For example, the Churches of Rome The Churches of Rome are more than 900 in numbers. Ancient churches The first churches of Rome originated by the places where the Christians met, and are divided into three classes:
"I am someone who travels all over the world to visit with community members," said Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born early August 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama[1][2]) is an American Internet entrepreneur known for his role in founding Wikipedia[3][4][5] , founder of Wikipedia and chairman of Wikia. "I find that traditional travel guides never tell me what I really want to know. The best times I have had are when local people take me to do the things that they know are best, instead of the tourist traps tourist trap n. A place, such as a shop or resort area, that offers overpriced goods and services to tourists. , or when I have stumbled open a real travel story on the web and followed the advice of an ordinary person. I look forward to sharing with and learning from the millions of passionate travelers out there." Partners contribute to free, travel-specific content movement For the first time, multiple commercial publishers have agreed to open-source content to benefit the traveler community and let anyone edit the information. SmarterTravel.com, which offers an industry-leading travel tool that provides those looking to earn free travel quick and easy access to a database of mileage and point-earning offers and opportunities, is one example. As part of an overall effort from SmarterTravel.com to combine expert travel advice with user-generated content The production of content by the general public rather than by paid professionals and experts in the field. Mostly available on the Web via blogs and wikis, user-generated content refers to material such as the daily news, encyclopedias and other references, movie and product reviews as , World Wikia users now have the ability to both search for and post mileage and point-earning opportunities from a single location. In addition, HostelsClub.com (http://www.hostelsclub.com), a leading European website catering specifically to the accommodation needs of budget travelers (offering some of the world's cheapest accommodation) has contributed some of its best city guides to the project. Vacapedia.com (http://www.vacapedia.com) has teamed with Wikia to provide access to a free directory of thousands of vacation rentals Vacation rental is a term in the travel industry meaning renting out a furnished apartment or house on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. Vacation rentals are becoming increasingly popular in Europe (especially in the UK) as well as in Canada. , holiday homes and self-catering accommodations to both renters and landlords. For each holiday home, Vacapedia.com delivers detailed information such as location, property type, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, amenities, activities, pricing, contact information and more. World Wikia users are then able to contribute their own reviews and photos and can register with Vacapedia.com to start earning Vpoints(TM) that can be used for stays in vacation rentals worldwide. About Wikia, Inc. Since the site's launch in November 2004, over 1,500 Wikia have been created and edited by over 30,000 registered users. Wikia are already available in over 40 languages. A list of Wikia can be seen at http://www.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Wikia. Wikia already hosts some of the world's largest wikis outside of Wikipedia including: http://lost.wikia.com, a fan site for the Lost TV show; http://starwars.wikia.com, a community devoted to Star Wars fans, and hundreds more including topics ranging from politics to pets. Wikia enables groups to share information, news, stories, media and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia. Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley <noinclude></noinclude> Angela Beesley is a co-founder and vice president for community relations of Wikia.[1] Involved in Wikipedia since 2003, Beesley was elected to the Board of Trustees of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation in 2004, and launched Wikia in 2004 to provide community-based wikis inspired by the model of Wikipedia -- the free, open-source encyclopedia founded by Jimmy Wales. Wikia is committed to openness, inviting anyone to contribute web content. Authors retain their own copyrights and allow others to freely reuse their content under the GNU Free Documentation License (legal) GNU Free Documentation License - (GFDL) The Free Software Foundation's license designed to ensure the same freedoms for documentation that the GPL gives to software. , allowing widespread distribution of knowledge and ideas. Website: http://www.wikia.com/ |
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