May 15, 2006, 14:41 GMT
Frankfurt - The German branch of the organization behind the Wikipedia do-it-yourself encyclopaedia is to open a permanently staffed office in the city of Frankfurt on October 1.
Wikimedia Germany, which is registered as a society under German law, said Monday it had appointed Arne Klempert, 34, as chief executive to professionalize the running of the various 'wiki' projects.
Germans, Austrians and other German speakers were enthusiastic early adopters of Wikipedia and have boosted their version of the online encyclopaedia to 400,000 articles, second in size only to the English version which has more than 1.1 million.
Anyone using the internet can add to or correct the articles.
Wikimedia Germany said the society had had to miss opportunities to promote open-source knowledge because its volunteer members often did not have the time to work on projects. Klempert has been on the board of Wikimedia Germany since it was established in June 2004.
Based in Florida, Wikimedia also has branches in France, Italy, Poland, Serbia-Montenegro, Britain and Switzerland, the website said Monday.
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