Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. Based on an idea by Daniel Alston and implemented by Brion Vibber, the goal of the project is to produce collaboratively a vast reference of quotations from prominent people, books, films and proverbs, and to give details about them with appropriate attribution. Though there are many online collections of quotations, Wikiquote is distinguished by being among the few that provide an opportunity for visitors to contribute.[2] Wikiquote pages are cross-linked to articles about the notable personalities on Wikipedia.[3]
Initially, the project was created solely in English; a later expansion to include additional languages was started in July 2004.
In July 2004, about 70 subdomains were set up. As of 28 November 2010, twenty-five versions each have more than 1,000 articles. The largest Wikiquote is the English project with over 19,300 articles, followed by the Polish, Italian, German, Portuguese and Russian sites with over 5,000 articles each, and then by the Slovak, Spanish, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Turkish, Slovenian and French (which was restarted in December 2006). Fifty-three language versions have 100 or more articles.[4]