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(Updated blog post)
(Updated blog post)
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;IPv6 enabled on Wikimedia UK’s websites
;Wikipedia and the Digital Enlightenment


[[File:World IPv6 launch badge.svg|right|thumb|200px|The logo used to launch IPv6]]
[[File:Peter_Murray-Rust_in_2008.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Peter Murray Rust]]


''This post was written by Tom Morton, Wikimedia UK developer''
''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Murray-Rust Peter Murray Rust] is a chemist at the University of Cambridge and a vocal campaigner for open knowledge. He will be speaking at this year’s [http://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikimania] conference which will take place in London on 8-10 August. He was recently awarded a fellowship by the Shuttleworth Foundation “to make a real difference to the world”. The following is adapted from a [https://blogs.ch.cam.ac.uk/pmr/2014/03/07/ive-been-invited-to-speak-at-wikimania-london-2014-huge-honour-and-opportunity-to-contribute-to-the-digital-enlightenment/ post on his personal blog] and is reproduced under its CC-BY licence.''


Wikimedia UK’s main websites are now available over IPv6. For most of our visitors this won’t have any effect, as this is still new technology. However, it is a big step toward future proofing our infrastructure for the years to come.
Wikipedia is one of the great and lasting achievements of this century and typifies the Digital Enlightenment. It epitomises so much – cooperation, democracy, meritocracy, innovation, challenge to authority. It represents the dream of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A9die Encyclopédie] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot Denis Diderot] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_le_Rond_d%27Alembert Jean le Rond d’Alembert]. [Note - I'm using "Wikipedia" to include Wikimedia, Wikispecies, Wikidata, etc.]


The internet relies on Internet Protocol (or IP) addresses to function – whenever you type a website into the browser address bar it is translated, silently, into a unique IP address for the server hosting the site. Currently, most of the internet use Internet Protocol Version 4. You may have seen an IPv4 address before, it looks like a long string of numbers. For example the IP address of the web server hosting this blog is 37.188.117.184.
Note, I’ve used Wikipedia to reference these people and their creation. They are massive. You should read the pages.


But in recent years there has been a growing problem! There are only a finite amount of IPv4 addresses – around 4.3 billion of them. That might sound a lot, but then the internet is an increasingly large place, and if *everyone* and *every server* needs a unique address then they can quickly disappear. This, and other problems with the protocol, meant that a replacement was needed.
'''I have. I now use Wikipedia as my primary source for much of my knowledge.'''


So to fix the impending disaster, Internet Protocol version 6 was developed (please don’t ask what happened to version 5!). This increased the available addresses to, well, bazillions.
What??? an academic relies on Wikipedia? Sacrilege! Disaster! You should use your library. You should buy textbooks. You should sweat to get your knowledge. Wikipedia isn’t written by academics but common people. It must be rubbish.
This was an almost universal reaction from academia when Wikipedia started. Lecturers banned students from using it and required them to read out-of-date textbooks instead. Only a few academics embraced the ideas. Here was the infrastructure for the Digital Enlightenment (I don’t know whether this phrase is in common use, but it should be).


<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/03/ipv6-enabled-on-wikimedia-uks-websites/<nowiki>[</nowiki>Post continues...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/03/wikipedia-and-the-digital-enlightenment/<nowiki>[</nowiki>Post continues...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


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Revision as of 11:14, 17 March 2014

Cymraeg | English

Wikimedia UK

Open knowledge for all

Our website

If you'd like to see what Wikimedia UK is working on, our website is the best place for our community of volunteers, donors and members to stay up to date.

About Wikimedia UK

The Wikimedia projects are special: they are written and curated by thousands of volunteers. They are also supported by voluntary donations, through Wikimedia UK, the Wikimedia Foundation and other international chapters.

Wikimedia UK is a charity registered in England and Wales that supports and promotes Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons. Our mission is to help people and organisations create and preserve open knowledge, and to help provide easy access for all. We do this by supporting volunteer editors and contributors ('Wikimedians'), by working in partnership with cultural and educational institutions, by hosting training sessions and editing events, and by acting to advocate the benefits of open knowledge generally.

There are several ways to get involved in the charity's work. You can become a member for just £5 per year. You can volunteer to work with us in a variety of ways, both online and offline. You can also make a donation (and if you're a UK taxpayer, we can claim Gift Aid). Subscribe to our Friends' Newsletter to stay in touch. Click the buttons below to learn more.

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We organise dozens of events each year, including meetups, editing events, "Backstage Pass" events at museums, workshops and conferences.

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Для української мови Вікіпедії ласка, відвідайте http://uk.wikipedia.org; для Вікімедіа Україна відвідайте http://ua.wikimedia.org
For the Ukrainian language Wikipedia please visit http://uk.wikipedia.org; for Wikimedia Ukraine please visit http://ua.wikimedia.org

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