ABSTRACT
Wikipedia is the largest free online encyclopaedia and a prominent feature of the emerging media landscape. The site has been viewed as one of the most successful instantiations of the participatory web and as a clear illustration of the potential of networked digital communication tools to enable mass collaboration between physically dispersed volunteers on an unprecedented scale. As a result, Wikipedia has attracted a wealth of scholarship from across the disciplines and, while the wiki admittedly remains an under-researched topic of study within our field, translation studies has certainly been no exception. This chapter aims to consolidate the findings of this growing collection of analyses of translation in Wikipedia and to provide a useful starting point for further investigations into these practices. Following a brief history of Wikipedia as a multilingual encyclopaedia, I explore the diverse ways in which translation has been shown to contribute to this platform’s production and highlight the complex motivations prompting the site’s translator-contributors to become involved. The chapter also considers the practical and ethical challenges associated with conducting research in this digital environment, and underlines the potential of a focus on Wikipedia for understanding the impact of new media on the world of translation today.
