Past, current and projected breadth and depth of Wikipedia's coverage of all human knowledge

(English) This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikimedians but may not have wide support. This is not policy on Meta, but it may be a policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes.
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There are still many huge gaps, even if we take the current Wikipedia to be a gross coverage of all human knowledge. How soon will this problem be rectified? When will Wikipedia cover a good proportion of all human knowledge out there? What is the estimated size (in bytes, let's say) of all current human knowledge?

It would be absurd to try and quantify all current human knowledge, in any way imaginable. The amount is beyond calculation or use. -- User:Kwekubo

Wikipedia is not intended as a repository for all human knowledge. A significant proportion is reserved for its sister projects: Wikibooks, Wiktionary, etc. -- Tim Starling 10:23, 23 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that Wikipedia is not meant to be a one stop source for any information about anything (i think). Its futile, for example, to try and have articles for every piece of music by every composer. It should be sufficient to have articles for major works as well as a list of recordings and external links that deal with these subjects in more detail. This is perhaps a topic that must be dealt with separately. -- Robertoalencar 19:24, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)


Increasing market share will provide Wikipedia more human resources, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Market dominance will drive a move toward greater breadth and depth, with likely implementation of new graphic interfaces and with navigational aides to let readers and editors explore what is already in the database and what needs to be added. Automated systems of updating various informational data banks might be employed.
What Wikipedia becomes will likely be driven by what people use if for, and by technological capacity.
Some of these trends are summarized at WholeEarthWiki.
Bird 22:06, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)