User:Ukexpat/Termsdraft

Just as an aside for the new people, the terms can get confusing, so here is a brief explanation:
 * A wiki is a type of website that allows people to use the web for collaborative editing of documents. Wikipedia did not invent the term or the concept, and it was not the first wiki.  It happens to currently be the highest profile wiki in the world, but that would be like assuming that the Disney Corporation somehow invented the concept of animation simply because it makes a lot of well known movies.  Don't abbreviate Wikipedia as Wiki has more info.
 * Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia built on the wiki model. Despite its high profile, it is still just a specific type of reference work, that being an encyclopedia and there are lots of things that Wikipedia isn't, though its high profile leads people to assume that it is more than it is.  See What Wikipedia is not.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation (note the "m") (sometimes referred to as "Wikimedia" or just "The Foundation") is the umbrella organization that manages all of the various Wikipedias in existence (there are several hundred, each for different languages) as well as other reference works like Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikisource, etc. It also manages a file repository known as "Wikimedia Commons" (usually just called "Commons"). Decisions regarding an individual Wikipedia are managed almost completely "in house" at the Wikipedia itself, by the volunteers who edit it. Decisions regarding the entire enterprise of free knowledge managed by Wikimedia are handled at the Foundation level.
 * MediaWiki is the specific wiki-software that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites run on. It is not the only wiki software, indeed Wikipedia itself hasn't always used it.  It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, and is available under free license, so that anyone who complies with the license can use it free-of-charge (it is both "free as in speech" and also "free as in beer").  While all Foundation websites use MediaWiki, there are also lots of unrelated websites that use it too.
 * Wikia is a commercial service for developing and hosting Wikis. Think of it as something like "Geocities" or "Tripod.com", but for wikis.  It was founded by the same person who founded Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, but it is run as a completely separate entity (just like Steve Jobs founded both Apple and Pixar Animation, but ran them as separate entities).

I think that should clear up any possible confusion.