Dictionaries and encyclopedias
Speaking about the internet as a global source of information available for any person all around the world (well, except the cases of censorship restrictions in some countries) one of the most important roles is played by online dictionaries and encyclopedias. They provide people with free information about any sphere of human activity, from tips about how to cook eggs to information about building space rockets or bombs. The number of such sources of information is even hard to determine as new ones are being developed and put online every day. The most famous encyclopedia is, of course, the well-known Wikipedia. It is built entirely on the principle of freedom – free information is provided for everybody and can be used anywhere without the need to pay for the copyright. Moreover, the software is open source, which means it can be used by other websites. Wikipedia has many projects for educational, scientific, informational, and many other purposes. And what is the most important – its articles are created mainly by its audience, i.e. we can see the principle of web 2.0 working - the content is generated and edited by users themselves. The project exists thanks to charitable contributions made once in a while as the site is free of charge for everyone, and no user is required to pay for using it, although the work done is immense and money must be paid for resources, hosting, datacenters, as well as the salary must be paid to the workers. Besides encyclopedias there are numerous dictionaries, both explanatory (like the dictionary of acronyms) and bilingual.