| MNopedia | |
| Type: | Internet encyclopedia project |
| Language: | English |
| Content License: |
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MNopedia: The Minnesota Encyclopedia is a free English-language encyclopedia project from the Minnesota Historical Society. Funded through a Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant, it is the first online encyclopedia about Minnesota,[1] a "resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history".[2] Approved by Minnesotans on November 4, 2008, planning took place in 2010, the site was built in 2011[3] and was online on August 15; initial funding for 2010 and 2011 was $215,000.[4] Many of the articles produced by the encyclopedia are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License as are some of its multimedia files.[5]
The Minnesota Historical Society had previously planned to produce a print encyclopedia, but opted for an online site for the sake of affordability and interactivity.[6] MNHS paid history scholars including Rhoda Gilman and Annette Atkins to compose essays for the site[7] and the historical society also awards grants for the creation of entries on select topics.[8]
MNopedia is queryable via API.[9] Online newspaper MinnPost publishes entries from MNopedia on a weekly basis as well as publishing bimonthly news articles that are later developed into entries for MNopedia.[10]
Linda Cameron is the Project Manager.[2] The article on the Wealthy Apple is a staff and internet favorite; under CC-By-SA attribution it was imported from MNopedia into Wikipedia in 2012.[11]