HandWiki: An Open-Source Alternative Knowledge Platform

December 2, 2025 - Reading time: 4 minutes

HandWiki is an online, open-source encyclopedia focusing on science, technology, mathematics, computing, and related scholarly fields. The platform hosts a large collection of articles derived from openly licensed sources and written by volunteers. HandWiki is operated by the ErmisLearn initiative, which supports open-knowledge and research-oriented educational projects.

Overview

HandWiki was developed as an alternative knowledge platform that emphasizes editorial independence, flexible content policies, and comprehensive preservation of source material. Although the platform incorporates content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license, it is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation and maintains its own governance structure, editorial guidelines, and community standards. As Wikipedia, Handwiki runs on the Mediawiki platform.

All HandWiki articles are substantially modified compared to their Wikipedia counterparts and are reorganized within clearly defined namespaces dedicated to each field of study. The encyclopedia structures