Memory:Timeline/2003

2003

Quick facts (as of 1 January)

Number of servers maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation: 1^{[footnotes 1]}
Number of Foundation staff: 0
Number of official Wikimedia Foundation projects: 3^{[footnotes 1]}^[1]
Total number of edits to official Wikimedia projects supported by Foundation: 986,819^{[footnotes 2]}^[2]
Number of Wikimedia movement affiliates: 0
Lines of code in MediaWiki core: 0^{[footnotes 3]}
Wikimedia Foundation's annual expenses (June through July of following year): US$56,666^[3]

Screenshot of Aldo Busi article on Italian Wikiquote

Wikimedia Foundation's first logo, by Neolux, introduced in October 2003 and in use until January 2006

Wikimedia.org launches as a single page website for the Wikimedia Foundation.

June

Jimmy Wales announces formation of Wikimedia and intention to create a charity and select a governing board. The intention is to provide a not-for-profit charitable framework for Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, and the growing technical and organizational infrastructure necessary to support them.
9: MediaWiki's ISBN interface is amended to make ISBNs in articles link to Special:Booksources, which fetches its contents from a page editable by contributors.
20: Wikimedia Foundation founded in Florida, United States. Until this time, the Wikimedia sites and servers were supported by Bomis, Jimmy Wales's for-profit business at the time.

July

WikimediaFoundation.org launches as a redirect to Wikimedia.org
The "Wikipedia software" is officially named "MediaWiki", a wordplay by Daniel Mayer on the Wikimedia Foundation's name. It is adopted as the Foundation's fourth official project.^[4]

10: Wikimedia Foundation launches its fifth official project, Wikibooks.
10: Wikimedia Foundation launches its sixth official project, Wikiquote.

October

15: The second place logo of the 2003 Wikipedia international logo contest, created by Neolux, is appointed as the logo for Wikimedia by logo contest organizer Erik Möller. A version by Neolux is adopted for the Wikimedia Foundation.^[5] This specific version would remain in use until January 2006, and the overall design remains in use by the Foundation as of June 2023.

November

24: Wikimedia Foundation launches its seventh official project, Wikisource.

December

A major computer crash takes Wikipedia offline for a week and prompts Jimmy Wales to launch a fundraising drive. In less than a week more than US$30,000 is raised, thanks partly to mentions on Slashdot. The money allows the Wikimedia Foundation to purchase nine new servers.

6: Wikimedia Foundation developers support ending system messages within MediaWiki displayed to Wikimedia project users from being hard coded, allowing for contributors to modify and translate them easier.

References

↑ "Wikimedia.org". Retrieved June 2023. (Wayback Machine)
↑ "All wikis - Edits". Wikimedia Statistics. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
↑ "Financial Reports". wikimediafoundation.org. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved June 2023.
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named mediawiki1
↑ "International logo contest/Results". Meta-Wiki. Retrieved 8 June 2023.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 While the Wikimedia Foundation had not yet been founded as of 1 January 2003, what would become its initial assets existed and were housed within Bomis, Jimmy Wales's for-profit business at the time.
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2003projects
↑ Until July 2003, the software which operated the Wikimedia sites was known as the Wikipedia software. As such, there was no MediaWiki code on 1 January 2003.

[wikimediaorg-2] "Wikimedia.org". Retrieved June 2023. (Wayback Machine)

[wikistats-edits-4] "All wikis - Edits". Wikimedia Statistics. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 13 June 2023.

[financials-6] "Financial Reports". wikimediafoundation.org. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved June 2023.

[mediawiki1-7] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named mediawiki1

[8] "International logo contest/Results". Meta-Wiki. Retrieved 8 June 2023.

[earlyassets-1] 1.0 ^1.1 While the Wikimedia Foundation had not yet been founded as of 1 January 2003, what would become its initial assets existed and were housed within Bomis, Jimmy Wales's for-profit business at the time.

[2003projects-3] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2003projects

[wpsoftware-5] Until July 2003, the software which operated the Wikimedia sites was known as the Wikipedia software. As such, there was no MediaWiki code on 1 January 2003.

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