Encyclopedia Virginia vs Wikipedia

Encyclopedia Virginia is a free multimedia and interactive web resource about Virginia’s history and culture. Its topical and biographical entries are written by scholars for general readers, then reviewed by contributors and editors, fact checkers, and copy editors. Articles can include primary documents, images, audio and video clips, and virtual tours; the wider media collection also contains podcasts and 3D objects. Readers can search or browse alphabetically, by biography, category, map, or media. The Encyclopedia Virginia Map App presents historical events through maps, distance-ordered lists, and category filters. Classroom-oriented versions are labeled for Grade 4, Grade 8, and Grades 11+. New entries continue to be published. Since 2012, the project has been digital publisher for the ongoing Dictionary of Virginia Biography with the Library of Virginia. Text uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. The site says it does not own copyrights to displayed media objects.

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia available on the web and through mobile apps, with editions in hundreds of languages, including editions with over one million articles. Volunteer editors create and revise content, check facts, cite sources, discuss entries, and moderate the encyclopedia. The Wikimedia Foundation hosts and protects Wikipedia, while editorial decisions are made by volunteers. The Foundation says the service is available without advertising or paywalls and is funded mainly by donations, not advertising, subscriptions, or sales of users’ personal data. The official Android app supports searching articles, changing languages, saving reading lists for offline use, and adjusting themes and text size. Its listing says the app has no ads, does not track or collect data, and encrypts data in transit. MediaWiki provides a REST API for interacting with installations including Wikipedia. The Foundation publishes a privacy policy, says it prioritizes speed, reliability, and availability during traffic spikes, and publishes transparency reports twice a year. Its financial statements are independently audited annually. Wikipedia is free at free.