The Planet Thinks — Watch Wikipedia Being Edited Live on a 3D Globe
colour = language
signed-in anonymous bot
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The Planet Thinks
Every few seconds, somewhere on Earth, a Wikipedia article about a place is<br>edited. Each pulse is one such edit, shown where that place is on the globe.
Colour = language. Each of Wikipedia's<br>~300 language editions has its own hue.
Signed-in — an edit by a registered account.
Anonymous — a logged-out editor.
Bot — an automated edit, often maintenance or<br>mass updates.
Only edits to articles that have map coordinates appear — about a fifth of<br>Wikipedia. Articles about people, ideas, or events have no location, so they're counted in<br>the header but not shown on the globe.
How it works
The Planet Thinks listens to the public<br>Wikimedia<br>EventStreams feed — the same firehose of recent changes that powers Wikipedia's own<br>tooling. Every incoming edit to an article about a place is matched to that place's map<br>coordinates and drawn on a realistic day/night globe within seconds of the edit being<br>saved. Nothing is staged or replayed: if a spark lights up over Nairobi, someone just<br>changed a Wikipedia article about Nairobi.
Frequently asked questions
How often is Wikipedia edited? Across all its ~300 language editions, Wikipedia<br>typically receives a few hundred edits every minute — on the order of half a million edits<br>a day. The live counter at the top of the page shows the rate right now, and the<br>live statistics page breaks it down by language.
Who is editing? A mix of signed-in volunteers, anonymous readers, and maintenance<br>bots. The colour and legend distinguish them; clicking any spark shows the article and a<br>link to the actual edit.
Why don't I see every edit? Most Wikipedia articles — people, concepts, events —<br>have no location, so they can't be placed on a map. They are included in the counter but<br>not drawn.
Is this free? Yes — free, no sign-up, and<br>open source.<br>Globe imagery is NASA's Blue Marble and Black Marble, public domain.
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