This is a general, non-technical introduction to the WikiMedia software.
=== MediaWiki, Wikimedia, and Wikipedia ===
; ''MediaWiki'' : MediaWiki is the software program that runs Wikipedia [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia] and other Wikimedia projects [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia].
; ''Wikimedia'' : Wikimedia is the over-arching nonprofit foundation that coordinates all contributions to the growing GNU FDL text base assembled by the donors using the Wikipedia, Wiktionary and other projects managed by the foundation [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia].
; ''Wikipedia'' : Wikipedia is the Encyclopedia project, that initiated the development of the MediaWikiSoftware. For a project's description and its history see here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_basic_information] and here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia]. There are several more or less official Sister projects like Wiktionary [http://wiktionary.org/], Wikibooks, [http://wikibooks.org/], Wikinews [http://wikinews.org], and Wikiquote, [http://wikiquote.org/], as well as "unofficial" derivates, all of them using the MediaWiki software.
; ''Wikimedia Meta-Wiki'' : Wikimedia Meta-Wiki (formerly Meta-Wikimedia or MetaWikiPedia) is a wiki meant to work alongside the main Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Meta can be used for several Wikimedia-related purposes [http://meta.wikipedia.org/].
=== What is MediaWiki? ===