Lying drunk in a field outside the Austrian city of Innsbruck in 1971, inspiration struck Douglas Adams, a science-fiction writer. He looked at his copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe”, and then up at the stars, and came up with the idea for a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. It would be a (fictional) mixture of travel book and encyclopedia, but with an absurd-seeming twist: instead of being written by experts, anyone could contribute.
The Economist: Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher
The "Wikipedia" logo is seen on a tablet screen on Dec. 4, 2012 in Paris.
