Available in Spanish Alexa rank 19,798 | Website www.ecured.cu | |
Slogan(s) Conocimiento con todos y para todos
(English: Knowledge with everyone and for everyone) Registration Optional (required to edit pages) Launched August 2009 (Test phase)
14 December 2010 (Official launch) | ||
EcuRed is an online encyclopedia from Cuba built on MediaWiki software. Launched on 13 December 2010, the site, which hosts over 150,000 reference articles, biographies and academic works, aims to share Cuba's vision of the world.
Overview
EcuRed as a Cuban encyclopedia originated from the need to provide universal knowledge in the Internet domain ".cu" and make it accessible to the vast majority of Cubans, especially after in 2015 the Cuban government created 35 Wi Fi zones in the main cities of the country, and lowered the prices for the Nauta Service (provide by ETECSA, the public company for telecommunications).
The content is entwined with the Cuban Revolution and is written from a Cuban perspective. For example, EcuRed's article about United States said it had historically taken "by force territory and natural resources from other nations, to put at the service of its businesses and monopolies". The George W. Bush article says that he continues with a family tradition of corruption, government traps and intrigues. The name is an acronym from the Spanish words for the Spanish phrase Enciclopedia Cubana en la Red ("Cuban Encyclopedia online").
EcuRed announces on its webpage that its goal "is the accumulation and development of knowledge with a non-profit, pro-democracy aim from a decolonizing point of view".
Anyone with an email can register in the encyclopedia regardless of country of origin, but unlike some Wikis, not all of EcuRed's articles may be modified by the public. Pages can be "protected" for multiple reasons, including "to protect modifications of articles considered very valuable, with a high [degree of] consensus, or with an elevated repercussion".
The site is available to all Internet users in Cuba, which is estimated at 1.6 million out of a total population of 11.2 million.
The site is operated by Cuba's Youth Computer Club, a company of the Ministry of Communications of Cuba.