Wikipedia, an online information hub, has significantly changed the face of encyclopedias and academic journals over the past decade. It is rapidly taking books, journals, and money out of the research equation. Wikipedia has created a new way to gather information, social network and do research. While Wikipedia has its positive uses, it is not always a reliable source and is best used as a starting point for research. In March 2000, Wikipedia began as Nupedia.com with an expert review board. In 2001, fewer than twenty-four articles were completed. That's when the creator, Jimmy Wales, and his editor-in-chief, Larry Sanger, decided to create Wikipedia. They created it as an open source encyclopedia that allowed anyone to create and edit its content. This freedom has allowed Wikipedia to grow at an exponential rate. In 2006 there were approximately one million articles and by 2007 they had grown to over two million (“Wikipedia”). When compared to other online encyclopedias like Britannica.com, it surpasses it in every way, except that people are fallible and sometimes the information is not 100% accurate. On Britannica the free features are limited and there are advertisements throughout the web page, but for a certain amount of money per year a user can access all the benefits of the site. Wikipedia is completely free and royalty-free, allowing access in several languages ​​and from anywhere in the world without any advertising being found. Because of the way Wikipedia was originally designed, users can print, copy, and distribute the information they collect. Otherwise, if a distinct number of words are used from any of Richard Hofstadter's works, a check must be sent to him to avoid penalties for plagiarism (Rosenzweig 117-46). The...... middle of paper......: How the Internet is killing our culture today (2008)4. Andrew Lih, from The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Group of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia (2009)5. Amit Ray and Erhardt Graeff, from “Reviewing the Author-Function in the Age of Wikipedia,” in Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism, eds. Caroline Eisner and Martha Vicinus (2008)6. Roy Rosenzweig, from “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past,” in Journal of American History 93.1 (June 2006): 117-46.7. Adam Tornes, “Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Kama Sutra?” 31 May 2007. 3 September 20098. Jakob Voss, from “Measuring Wikipedia”, Physical Review 74.3 (2006). August 28, 20099. Jonathan Zittrain, from The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It (2008)