Larry Sanger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Lawrence Mark Sanger

Larry Sanger
Born July 16, 1968 (1968-07-16) (age 40)
Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Occupation Editor-in-Chief of Citizendium
Website
Larry Sanger

Lawrence Mark "Larry" Sanger (born July 16, 1968[1]) is an American philosopher, co-founder of Wikipedia, and the creator of encyclopedia Citizendium.[2][3][4]

He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska.[2] From an early age he has been interested in philosophy.[5] Sanger holds a B.A. in philosophy from Reed College in 1991 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Ohio State University in 2000.[6] Most of his philosophical work has focused on epistemology, the theory of knowledge.[5]

He has been involved with various online encyclopedia projects.[7] He is the former editor-in-chief of Nupedia,[8] chief organizer (2001-2002) of its successor, Wikipedia,[9] and editor-in-chief of Citizendium.[10] From his position at Nupedia, he assembled the process for article development.[11] During the early years of Wikipedia, he was the community leader[12] and established many of its original policies.[13] He spearheaded an alternative wiki-based project, Citizendium.[14]

After departing from Wikipedia in 2002, Sanger became critical of Wikipedia.[15] He articulated that despite the project's merits, the encyclopedia lacks credibility due to, among other things, its lack of respect for expertise.[16] In the interim, he taught philosophy at Ohio State University[5] and was an early strategist for the expert-authored Encyclopedia of Earth.[17] On September 15, 2006 he publicly announced Citizendium, first envisioned as a fork of Wikipedia.[18] It was launched on March 25, 2007.[19] Citizendium represents an effort to become a credible encyclopedia.[20] Sanger aims to bring more accountability to the internet encyclopedia model.[10]

He presently serves full-time as the volunteer editor-in-chief of Citizendium[10] and works part-time as a writer, speaker, and consultant on the topic of collaborative online communities.[21]

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Sanger was born in Bellevue, Washington, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska.[2] When he was seven years old, the family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where Sanger spent his formative years and excelled in the classroom.[22] At an early age, he was interested in philosophical topics.[5] In high school, Sanger was asked, "What are you ever going to do with philosophy?" He said, "Well, change the way the world thinks, for one thing."[23] He graduated from high school in 1986 and went off to Reed College, majoring in philosophy.[23] As a college student, he explored the understanding and sources of knowledge. He also became interested in the Internet and its publishing abilities. These interests helped him to realize the benefits of using a wiki for an online encyclopedia.[5] He set up an early attempt with a listserver as a medium for students and tutors to meet up for "expert tutoring" and "to act as a forum for discussion of tutorials, tutorial methods, and the possibility and merits of a voluntary, free network of individual tutors and students finding each other via the Internet for education outside the traditional university setting."[24] He started and moderated a philosophy discussion list. The Association for Systematic Philosophy, managed by Sanger, published a journal.[25] Dated March 22, 1994, Sanger wrote in his opening manifesto:

"The history of philosophy is full of disagreement and confusion. One reaction by philosophers to this state of things is to doubt whether the truth about philosophy can ever be known, or whether there is any such thing as the truth about philosophy. But there is another reaction: one may set out to think more carefully and methodically than one's intellectual forebears."[22]

He received a B.A. in philosophy from Reed College in 1991, an M.A. from Ohio State University in 1995, and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 2000.[6] His bachelor thesis is titled Descartes' methods and their theoretical background[26] and his doctoral thesis concerned Epistemic Circularity: An Essay on the Problem of Meta-Justification.[1] From 1998 to 2000 he ran a website called "Sanger's Review of Y2K News Reports" (formerly at sangersreview.com), a resource for Y2K watchers.[27]

[edit] Nupedia and Wikipedia

Further information: History of Wikipedia

Nupedia was a Web-based encyclopedia whose articles were written by experts and licensed as free content.[11] It was founded by Jimmy Wales and underwritten by Bomis, with Sanger hired as editor-in-chief.[28] He developed a review process for articles and recruited editors.[11] Articles were reviewed before being posted on the site.[29] Frustrated at the slow progress of Nupedia,[30] in January 2001 Sanger proposed a wiki be created to spur article development,[31][32] and the result of this proposal was Wikipedia,[33] officially launched on January 15, 2001.[34][35][36] By virtue of his position with Nupedia, Sanger spearheaded and named the project, and formulated much of the original policy, including "Ignore all rules"[37] and "Neutral point of view."[13][38] Sanger was the only paid editor of Wikipedia, a status he held from January 15, 2001, until March 1, 2002. Sanger worked on and promoted both the Nupedia and Wikipedia projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002;[13] Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as chief organizer of Wikipedia on March 1.[39] Sanger's stated reason for ending his participation in Wikipedia and Nupedia as a volunteer was that he could not do justice to the task as a part-time volunteer.[39] Nupedia shut down the following year in 2003,[40] shortly after Wikipedia's two year anniversary.[29]

[edit] Origins of Wikipedia

Wales, who is the current de facto leader of Wikipedia,[41] began to play down Sanger's role in the founding of the project in 2005, a few years after Sanger left Wikipedia.[42][43][44] Sanger was identified as a co-founder of Wikipedia at least as early as September 2001.[45] Sanger was introduced to wikis at a January 2, 2001 dinner with Ben Kovitz, a computer programmer and regular on Ward Cunningham's wiki.[7][9] Sanger thought a wiki would be a good platform to use and decided to present the idea to Jimmy Wales, at that time the head of Bomis.[46] Sanger initially proposed the wiki concept to Wales and suggested it be applied to Nupedia and, after some initial skepticism, Wales agreed to try it.[31] After sharing his wiki idea, Sanger formally proposed a "feeder" project for Nupedia titled "Let's make a wiki"[31] and created a new page on Ward's wiki named "WikiPedia."[47][48] Wales ascribed the broader idea of an encyclopedia that "non-experts" could contribute to, i.e., the Nupedia.[49] Wales mentioned that he heard of the wiki concept first from Jeremy Rosenfeld,[50] though he said earlier, in October 2001, that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software."[32] In fact, Sanger "came up with the name 'Wikipedia', a silly name for what was at first a very silly project."[49] In response to Wales' view of his role in Wikipedia, Sanger posted on his personal webpage a collection of links which seemingly confirms his co-founder honorary appellation.[12][51] For example, Sanger provided evidence that he is a co-founder of Wikipedia, by referencing earlier versions of Wikipedia pages,[52][53][54][55] citing press releases from Wikipedia in the years of 2002 - 2004,[56][57][58] and asserting that early media coverage articles[45][59][60] described Wales and Sanger as the co-founders.[12][51] In review, Sanger conceived of the wiki-based encyclopedia as an idea to assist with Nupedia's growth inefficiency, and spearheaded and guided the community as its leader in its first year.[12][49][61] Jimmy Wales identified himself in August 2002 as "co-founder" of Wikipedia.[62] During the time of Sanger's involvement in the project, he was routinely known (never disputed) as a co-founder.[12][45][51] Moreover, Sanger has been widely cited in the media as a co-founder.[63][64][65] Wikipedia became an accidental spin-off of Nupedia,[66] originally to allow collaboration on articles prior to the editorial review process.[33]

[edit] After Wikipedia

After Sanger parted ways with Wikipedia in 2002 he became critical of the project.[15] In December 2004, Sanger wrote a critical article for the website Kuro5hin, in which he admitted that there had existed "a certain poisonous social or political atmosphere in the project" that had also accounted for his departure.[16] While stating "to appreciate the merits of Wikipedia fully" and to know and support "the mission and broad policy outlines of Wikipedia very well," Sanger maintained that there are serious problems with the project. There was, he wrote, a lack of public perception of credibility, and the project put "difficult people, trolls, and their enablers" into too much prominence; these problems, he maintained, were a feature of the project's "anti-elitism, or lack of respect for expertise."[16] The article was the subject of much controversy in the blogosphere, and led to some reaction in the news media as well.[67][68]

Sanger, a philosophy instructor,[69] began work as a lecturer at Ohio State University, where he taught philosophy until June 2005.[5] His professional interests are epistemology (in particular), early modern philosophy, and ethics.[5][23] In his spare time, he plays and teaches Irish traditional music on the fiddle in Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, and also manages a site about the Donegal fiddle tradition.[70]

In December 2005, Digital Universe Foundation announced that Sanger had been hired as Director of Distributed Content Programs.[71] He would be a key organizer of the Digital Universe Encyclopedia web projects which was launched in early 2006.[72][73] The Digital Universe encyclopedia plans to recruit recognized experts to write articles, and to check user-submitted articles for accuracy. The first step in this effort is the expert-authored and edited Encyclopedia of Earth,[17] an electronic reference about the Earth.[74]

In April 2006, Sanger published "Text and Collaboration: A personal manifesto for the Text Outline Project" arguing for the importance of what he called "strong collaboration" (that is, collaboration in which people work on the parts they're interested and nobody gets to claim control), the possibility that strong collaboration could be more effective with a less anarchistic set of ground rules than Wikipedia, and the creation of a new Text Outline Project to create The Book of the World, featuring summaries of the arguments of the great philosophers, organized by topic and time, along with summaries of their debates.[75]

At the Wizards of OS conference in September 2006, Sanger announced Citizendium, a fork of Wikipedia. The objectives of the fork are to address various perceived flaws in the Wikipedia system. The main differences will be no anonymous editing — every author/editor will have to be identified by his/her real name, no "top-down" hierarchy of editors, and to aspire to be a "real encyclopedia."[76] More differences are discussed at the Citizendium website in the FAQ.[77] The initial fork is of the English language Wikipedia.[78] Prior to its March 2007 public launch, Citizendium favored an emphasis on its own original articles.[79] On September 27, 2006 Sanger announced that he would take a leave of absence from Digital Universe "in order to set up a fully independent Citizendium Foundation."[18] In 2007 Sanger examined the possibilities for education online. He explained, "Imagine that education were not delivered but organized and managed in a way that were fully digitized, decentralized, self-directed, asynchronous, and at-a-distance." He further stated, "There would be no bureaucracy to enforce anything beyond some very basic rules, and decision-making would be placed almost entirely in the hands of teachers and students."[80] In 2008, Sanger was at Oxford University to debate the proposition that "the internet is the future of knowledge." The discussion included whether the internet was democratising the creation and distribution of knowledge.[81]

[edit] Citizendium launched

Main article: Citizendium
The Citizendium homepage with default format on April 4, 2008.

On March 25, 2007, Citizendium ended its pilot phase, entering a live and publicly readable beta phase.[82] The launch coincided with a feature-length Associated Press article that ran widely, with a title in USA Today of "Citizendium aims to be better Wikipedia."[19] Unlike Wales, who has compared his role in Wikipedia with that of a British monarch,[83] Sanger said he would not head Citizendium indefinitely, and in 2007 announced his intention to step off the leadership team in two or three years.[84]

Two weeks after the launch of Citizendium, Sanger criticized Wikipedia, stating the latter was "broken beyond repair," and had a range of problems "from serious management problems, to an often dysfunctional community, to frequently unreliable content, and to a whole series of scandals."[85] Sanger stated in part:

"The work of the Wikipedians has astounded the world, but the amateur nature of Wikipedia's contributions, whose authors remain anonymous, is not for everyone. Some experts are hostile toward the idea of Wikipedia and many avoid Wikipedia altogether. We may take Wikipedia as an early prototype of the application of open source hacker principles to content rather than code. I want to argue that it is just that, an early prototype, rather than a mature model of how such principles should be applied to reference, scholarly and educational content. Where Wikipedia shares the culture of anonymity found in the broader Internet, the Citizendium will have a culture of real-world, personal responsibility."[64]

Citizendium has a form of peer-review, reviewed by experts.[86][87][88] In reference to creating a new encyclopedia project Sanger stated: "I think there is a need for a more reliable and free [online] encyclopedia. If we can create a more reliable and free encyclopedia, particularly if we adopt a different system than Wikipedia's, then we should."[20] Citizendium's editor-in-chief Sanger commented in late October 2007 about Citizendium's one-year anniversary from its initial private launch date of October 30, 2006.[89][90] According to Sanger, the Citizendium's readers have only just begun to see the power of the project's model:[91]

"Simply put, we've pioneered a new and better way to use wikis, and an interesting, dynamic way to build an online knowledge base. Increasingly, the Citizendium is looking like the next step in the evolution of the collaborative Internet.[91] The project's fundamentals are solid and growing stronger through motivated, diligent effort. Given enough time and enough people, the results would surely be amazing. If this possibility is amazing, it is even more amazing that it's within our grasp. What I do know is that if we do have a good chance to create something so stupefyingly useful for humanity, we must try."[92][93]

When asked in an interview with The Minnesota Daily: Do you see a role for Citizendium anywhere in academia? He responded: "Of course. The idea is it will be good enough for professors to be able to send their students and students to get reliable information from. I know a lot of students use Wikipedia as a place to start to learn about a subject. For that purpose it's fine. I actually think, as a place to start to get some information, it's a fine resource. Approved articles on Citizendium hopefully will be more reliable than articles on Wikipedia."[94]

[edit] Citizendium v. Wikipedia

Building on Sanger's experience from other collaborative encyclopedias,[7] Citizendium represents an effort to establish a scholarly and credible online encyclopedia.[20][84] Sanger aims to improve upon the wiki-based encyclopedia model by bringing more accountability and academic quality to articles.[10] In an interview with CNET News in 2007 Sanger explained the reasons for starting a Wikipedia alternative:

"I think we absolutely need another wiki--first of all, simply because Wikipedia lacks credibility, unfortunately. It's a good starting place, as people say--on some subjects anyway--but it isn't really what we want out of a reliable reference resource. And frankly, I don't think that the Wikipedia community is prepared to make the changes that I think need to be made in order to transform Wikipedia into something that's really reliable."[95]

While Citizendium is wiki-based, several aspects set it apart from Wikipedia.[41][96][97] Prospective contributors on Citizendium are required to sign in using real names.[98][99] In contrast, users to Wikipedia may contribute anonymously, or choose one or a series of user names that have no connection to their true names.[100][101] Experts in their field of expertise have a role in the Citizendium community to approve articles on the basis of accuracy,[84] as opposed to the Good Article and the Featured Article systems on Wikipedia that employs a review by editors.[102] While Wikipedia is perceived to promote consensus and not truth,[103] and verifiability is the inclusion criteria - reporting on what other sources have to say,[104] Citizendium experts have the final say for article content[78] and it is not necessary to cite a source for a content decision on Citizendium.[105] Finally, while vandalization of articles takes up time and effort on the part of Wikipedia's editors to uncover and revert,[106][107] Citizendium presumably aims to prevent vandalism.[108]

[edit] Selected writings

A partial list of academic work, essays, and presentations Sanger has written include:[109]

Academic work
  • Descartes' methods and their theoretical background - bachelor thesis.[26]
  • Epistemic Circularity: An Essay on the Problem of Meta-Justification - doctoral thesis.[1]
Essays
Presentations

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Sanger, Larry (2000). "Epistemic Circularity: An Essay on the Problem of Meta-Justification". Enlightenment: Objectivist Scholarship. http://enlightenment.supersaturated.com/essays/text/larrysanger/diss/preamble.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  2. ^ a b c Chillingworth, Mark (November 27, 2006). "Expert edition". Information World Review. http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/features/2171366/expert-edition. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger explains what his Citizendium project will bring to the wiki reference world." 
  3. ^ Anderson, Nate (November 21, 2007). "Larry Sanger says "tipping point" approaching for expert-guided Citizendium wiki". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071121-larry-sanger-says-tipping-point-approaching-for-expert-guided-citizendium-wiki.html?rel. Retrieved on 2007-11-21. 
  4. ^ Jay, Paul (April 19, 2007). "I, editor — The Wikipedia experiment". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Roush, Wade (January 2005). "Larry Sanger's Knowledge Free-for-All". Technology Review. http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/14071/?a=f. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  6. ^ a b Sanger, Larry. "Larry Sanger — Education". Larry Sanger. http://larrysanger.org/#Education. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  7. ^ a b c Sidener, Jonathan (September 23, 2006). "Wikipedia co-founder looks to add accountability, end anarchy". The San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "The origins of Wikipedia date to 2000, when Sanger was finishing his doctoral thesis in philosophy and had an idea for a Web site." 
  8. ^ Nauffts, Mitch (March 27, 2007). "5 Questions For...: Larry Sanger, Founder, Citizendium". Foundation Center (Philanthropy News Digest). http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/fivequestions/5q_item.jhtml?id=173900004. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. 
  9. ^ a b Moody, Glyn (July 13, 2006). "This time, it'll be a Wikipedia written by experts". The Guardian. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Larry Sanger seems to have a thing about free online encyclopedias. Although his main claim to fame is as the co-founder, along with Jimmy Wales, of Wikipedia, that is just one of several projects to produce large-scale, systematic stores of human knowledge he has been involved in. [Jimmy Wales] saw that I was essentially looking for employment online and he was looking for someone to lead Nupedia... Career: 1992-1996, 1997-1998 Graduate teaching associate, OSU; 2000-2002 Editor-in-chief, Nupedia; Co-founder and "chief organiser," Wikipedia." 
  10. ^ a b c d LeClaire, Jennifer (March 27, 2007). "Wikipedia Cofounder Launches Citizendium". NewsFactor Network. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13100C1ES8F1&full_skip=1. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. 
  11. ^ a b c Gouthro, Liane (March 14, 2000). "Building the world's biggest encyclopedia". PCWorld (CNN). http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/14/nupedia.idg/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  12. ^ a b c d e Bergstein, Brian (March 25, 2007). "Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia". MSNBC (Associated Press). http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17798723/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy Ph.D. who counts himself as a co-founder of Wikipedia, the site he now hopes to usurp. The claim doesn't seem particularly controversial - Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder. Yet the other founder, Jimmy Wales, isn't happy about it." 
  13. ^ a b c Schiff, Stacy (July 31, 2006). "Know It All". Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? (The New Yorker). http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  14. ^ Blakely, Rhys (September 7, 2007). "Wikipedia amateurs face backlash from the experts". The Times. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2407123.ece. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. 
  15. ^ a b "Wikipedia founder sets up rival". Australian IT. October 19, 2006. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,20605798-15336,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  16. ^ a b c Sanger, Larry (December 31, 2004). "Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism". Kuro5hin. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  17. ^ a b Terdiman, Daniel (December 19, 2005). "Wikipedia alternative aims to be 'PBS of the Web'". CNET. http://news.com.com/Wikipedia+alternative+aims+to+be+PBS+of+the+Web/2100-1038_3-5999200.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  18. ^ a b Sanger, Larry (September 27, 2006). "Citizendium launch plan as of September 26". Citizendium-l mail list. https://lists.purdue.edu/pipermail/citizendium-l/2006-September/000476.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  19. ^ a b Bergstein, Brian (March 25, 2007). "Citizendium aims to be better Wikipedia". USA Today (Associated Press). http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/2007-03-25-wikipedia-alternative_N.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "This week, Sanger takes the wraps off a Wikipedia alternative, Citizendium. His goal is to capture Wikipedia's bustle but this time, avoid the vandalism and inconsistency that are its pitfalls." 
  20. ^ a b c Dawson, Christopher (February 23, 2007). "Citizendium seeks to be the Wikipedia you can cite". ZDNet. http://education.zdnet.com/?p=870. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  21. ^ Sanger, Larry. "Consulting". Larry Sanger. http://larrysanger.org/consulting.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-10. 
  22. ^ a b Poe, Marshall (September 2006). "The Hive". The Atlantic Monthly. p. 2. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/2. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  23. ^ a b c Boraas, Alan (September 2, 2006). "Hometown kid an Internet revolutionary". Anchorage Daily News. http://www.adn.com/opinion/comment/boraas/story/8149406p-8041171c.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  24. ^ Sanger, Larry (August 30, 1995). "Tutor-L: Higher education outside the universities". Tutor-L. http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/PastProjects/NH/95-09/95-09-01/0018.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  25. ^ Sanger, Larry (March 22, 1994). "Association for Systematic Philosophy". Association for Systematic Philosophy. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/systemcharter. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  26. ^ a b "Larry Sanger — Works". Citizendium. February 5, 2008. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger/Works. Retrieved on 2009-03-03. 
  27. ^ Sanger, Larry. "Sanger's Review of Y2K News Reports". sangersreview.com. http://web.archive.org/web/20001025181634/http%3A//www.sangersreview.com/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  28. ^ Sidener, Jonathan (December 6, 2004). "Everyone's Encyclopedia". The San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  29. ^ a b Lanxon, Nate (2008-06-05). "The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters". CNET. p. 5. http://crave.cnet.co.uk/0,39029477,49296926-5,00.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-27. 
  30. ^ Betz, Lindsay (June 1, 2007). "Wikipedia formed by former Buckeye". The Lantern (The Ohio State University). http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2007/06/01/Campus/Wikipedia.Formed.By.Former.Buckeye-2911006.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-06-01. 
  31. ^ a b c Sanger, Larry (January 10, 2001). "Let's make a wiki" (Email). Nupedia-l mailing list (Nupedia). http://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  32. ^ a b Wales, Jimmy (October 30, 2001). "LinkBacks?" (Email). wikipedia-l archives (Bomis). http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  33. ^ a b Poe, Marshall (September 2006). "The Hive". The Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Wales and Sanger created the first Nupedia wiki on January 10, 2001. The initial purpose was to get the public to add entries that would then be "fed into the Nupedia process" of authorization. Most of Nupedia's expert volunteers, however, wanted nothing to do with this, so Sanger decided to launch a separate site called "Wikipedia." Neither Sanger nor Wales looked on Wikipedia as anything more than a lark. This is evident in Sanger's flip announcement of Wikipedia to the Nupedia discussion list. "Humor me," he wrote. "Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes." And, to Sanger's surprise, go they did. Within a few days, Wikipedia outstripped Nupedia in terms of quantity, if not quality, and a small community developed. In late January, Sanger created a Wikipedia discussion list (Wikipedia-L) to facilitate discussion of the project." 
  34. ^ Cohen, Noam (October 18, 2007). "Wikipedia". The New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/wikipedia/index.html?inline=nyt-org. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. 
  35. ^ Walker, Leslie (September 9, 2004). "Spreading knowledge, the Wiki way". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5430-2004Sep8.html/?nav=yb-te1. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. 
  36. ^ Long, Tony (January 15, 2008). "Jan. 15, 2001: Enter Wikipedia, for Better and Worse". Wired (Wired News). http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/dayintech_0115. Retrieved on 2008-02-05. 
  37. ^ "Rules To Consider". Ignore all rules (Internet Archive). http://web.archive.org/web/20010416035716/www.wikipedia.com/wiki/RulesToConsider. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  38. ^ "History of NPOV". Neutral point of view (Wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#History_of_NPOV. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  39. ^ a b Sanger, Larry (March 1, 2002). "My resignation--Larry Sanger". Meta-Wiki. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  40. ^ Youngwood, Susan (April 1, 2007). "Wikipedia: What do they know; when do they know it, and when can we trust it?". Vermont Sunday Magazine (Rutland Herald). http://vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070401/FEATURES/70330002. Retrieved on 2007-04-01. 
  41. ^ a b Frith, Holden (March 26, 2007). "Wikipedia founder launches rival online encyclopaedia". The Times. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1571519.ece. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. "Wikipedia's de facto leader, Jimmy Wales, stood by the site's format." 
  42. ^ Mitchell, Dan (December 24, 2005). "Insider Editing at Wikipedia". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/technology/24online.ready.html?ex=1293080400&en=431aff478b00239e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  43. ^ Hansen, Evan (December 19, 2005). "Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio". Wired (Wired News). http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "I must say I am amused," Sanger wrote in a posting on Wikipedia on Monday. "Having seen edits like this, it does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history. But this is a futile process because in our brave new world of transparent activity and maximum communication, the truth will out."
  44. ^ Finkelstein, Seth (February 12, 2009). "What's in a name? Everything, when you're talking wiki value". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/12/wiki-answers-wikia. Retrieved on 2009-02-12. 
  45. ^ a b c Meyers, Peter (September 20, 2001). "Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E5D6123BF933A1575AC0A9679C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fC%2fComputer%20Software. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "I can start an article that will consist of one paragraph, and then a real expert will come along and add three paragraphs and clean up my one paragraph," said Larry Sanger of Las Vegas, who founded Wikipedia with Mr. Wales.
  46. ^ "Ben Kovitz". WikiWikiWeb. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. Ben Kovitz wrote on his Wikipedia user page about his conversation in Pacific Beach, San Diego at the taco stand with Larry Sanger that led to the creation of Wikipedia, stating in part: "I suggested that he run Nupedia as a wiki: completely reverse the prior policy of careful review by credentialed experts before letting an article go live. I said, instead of trying to prevent error and bias, to openly invite error and bias and make it very easy for people to correct them. It's a rare thing to tell someone to do something exactly the opposite of what he's been doing and get a fair hearing. It almost never happens that someone actually takes the suggestion. But Larry is different. Larry listened to what I had to say, let his imagination engage, and ran with it. Back then, wikis were a very hard concept to "get," but Larry's mind began percolating immediately, and he got things started that very night."
  47. ^ "WikiPedia". WikiWikiWeb. http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiPedia. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  48. ^ Poe, Marshall (September 2006). "The Hive". The Atlantic Monthly. p. 3. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. Over tacos that night, Sanger explained his concerns about Nupedia's lack of progress, the root cause of which was its serial editorial system. As Nupedia was then structured, no stage of the editorial process could proceed before the previous stage was completed. Kovitz brought up the wiki and sketched out "wiki magic," the mysterious process by which communities with common interests work to improve wiki pages by incremental contributions. If it worked for the rambunctious hacker culture of programming, Kovitz said, it could work for any online collaborative project. The wiki could break the Nupedia bottleneck by permitting volunteers to work simultaneously all over the project. With Kovitz in tow, Sanger rushed back to his apartment and called Wales to share the idea. Over the next few days he wrote a formal proposal for Wales and started a page on Cunningham's wiki called "WikiPedia."
  49. ^ a b c Sanger, Larry (April 18, 2005). "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir". SourceForge (Slashdot). http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on. So I arrived in San Diego in early February, 2000, to get to work. One of the first things I asked Jimmy is how free a rein I had in designing the project. What were my constraints, and in what areas was I free to exercise my own creativity? He replied, as I clearly recall, that most of the decisions should be mine; and in most respects, as a manager, Jimmy was indeed very hands-off. Nevertheless, I always did consult with him about important decisions, and moreover, I wanted his advice. Now, Jimmy was quite clear that he wanted the project to be in principle open to everyone to develop, just as open source software is (to an extent). Beyond this, however, I believe I was given a pretty free rein. So I spent the first month or so thinking very broadly about different possibilities." —Larry Sanger.
     • Sanger, Larry (April 19, 2005). "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia, Part II". SourceForge (Slashdot). http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  50. ^ "Assignment Zero First Take: Wiki Innovators Rethink Openness". Wired (Wired News). May 3, 2007. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium. Retrieved on 2007-11-01. 
  51. ^ "History Version of the 'Wikipedia' Article". Wikipedia. June 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia&dir=prev&offset=20040119212409&limit=500&action=history. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  52. ^ "History Version of the 'History of Wikipedia' Article". Wikipedia. August 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Wikipedia&dir=prev&limit=500&action=history. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  53. ^ "History Version of the 'Larry Sanger' Article". Wikipedia. August 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Sanger&dir=prev&limit=500&action=history. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  54. ^ "History Version of the 'Jimmy Wales' Article". Wikipedia. September 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&offset=20040909053247&limit=500&action=history. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  55. ^ "Free Encyclopedia Project, Wikipedia, Creates 20,000 Articles in a Year (Wikipedia 2002 Press release)". describing Sanger and Wales as "co-founders" (Wikipedia). January 15, 2002. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_releases/January_2002. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  56. ^ "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, reaches its 100,000th article (Wikipedia 2003 Press release)". stating Sanger and Wales founded the site (Wikipedia). January 21, 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_releases/January_2003. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  57. ^ "Wikipedia publishes 500,000 articles in 50 languages (Wikipedia 2004 Press release)". describes Sanger as a founder (Wikipedia). February 25, 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_releases/February_2004. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  58. ^ Heim, Judy (September 4, 2001). "Free the Encyclopedias!". Technology Review. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/12586/?a=f. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  59. ^ Mayfield, Kendra (January 28, 2003). "Not Your Father's Encyclopedia". Wired (Wired News). http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/01/57364. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  60. ^ Singer, Michael (January 16, 2002). "Free Encyclopedia Project Celebrates Year One". Jupitermedia (Internet Archive). http://web.archive.org/web/20030316082912/siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/3531_956641. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Wales has supplied the financial backing and other support for the project, and Sanger, who earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Ohio State in 2000, has led the project." 
  61. ^ Wales, Jimmy (August 06, 2002). "3apes open content web directory". Yahoo! Tech Groups forum post (WebCite). Archived from the original on 2009-04-01. http://www.webcitation.org/5fhXjrexf. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. "I'm Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Nupedia and Wikipedia, the open content encyclopedias." 
  62. ^ Hammersley, Ben (January 30, 2003). "Common knowledge". The Guardian. http://web.archive.org/web/20030618043804/www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,884666,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
     • Olsen, Stefanie (October 16, 2006). "Wikipedia co-founder plans 'expert' rival". CNET. http://news.com.com/Wikipedia+co-founder+plans+expert+rival/2100-1038_3-6126469.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
     • Tally, Steve (March 20, 2006). "Wikipedia co-founder to speak on campus". Purdue University News Service. http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html3month/2006/060320.Matei.Sanger.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
     • Del Conte, Natali T (October 20, 2006). "Wikipedia Co-Founder Starting Rival Online 'Encyclopedia Project'". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,222922,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
     • Carvin, Andy (April 10, 2007). "Wikipedia’s New Competition: Citizendium". Public Broadcasting Service. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/04/wikipedias_new_competition_cit_1.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  63. ^ a b Lyman, Jay (September 20, 2006). "Wikipedia Co-Founder Planning New Expert-Authored Site". LinuxInsider (ECT News Network). http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/53137.html?wlc=1235722017. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  64. ^ Boran, Marie (July 16, 2007). "Wikipedia disrespects experts says co-founder". Silicon Republic. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8794. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. "Apart from advertising, Sanger and co-founder Wales also disagree about who actually founded Wikipedia in the first place. Wales has previously claimed to be the sole founder of the online collaborative encyclopedia. Maybe he should check his facts on Wikipedia which says that both men were identified as co-founders in 2001." 
  65. ^ Blundo, Joe (April 26, 2007). "Web encyclopedia won't include 'giving up'". The Columbus Dispatch. http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/life/stories/2007/04/26/1A_BLUN26.ART_ART_04-26-07_F1_IN6FBH8.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-26. 
  66. ^ Pink, Daniel H (March 2005). "The Book Stops Here". Wired (Wired News). http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  67. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (January 6, 2006). "Wikipedia's co-founder eyes a Digital Universe". CNET. http://news.com.com/Wikipedias+co-founder+eyes+a+Digital+Universe/2008-1082_3-6011487.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  68. ^ Aviv, Rachel (January 10, 2006). "Mondo Wikipedia". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/0602,aviv,71632,12.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  69. ^ "An Appreciation of the Donegal Fiddle". GeoCities. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6464/hmpg.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  70. ^ "Lawrence Sanger, Ph. D., Director of Distributed Content Programs". Digital Universe. http://www.dufoundation.org/foundation-bios.php#sanger. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  71. ^ "Digital Universe Seeks to Become Free 'PBS of the Web'". PR Newswire (Digital Universe). January 17, 2006. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-17-2006/0004262149&EDATE=. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  72. ^ "Contributor: Lawrence Sanger". Digital Universe (Encyclopedia of Earth). http://www.eoearth.org/contributor/Lsanger. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  73. ^ "About the EoE". Digital Universe (Encyclopedia of Earth). http://www.eoearth.org/eoe/about. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  74. ^ Sanger, Larry (April 2006). "Text and Collaboration: A personal manifesto for the Text Outline Project". The Text Outline Project. http://textop.org/TextAndCollaboration.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  75. ^ "Next Wikipedia, take a right". Wikipedia, Citizendium, and the politics of knowledge: An interview with Larry Sanger (Dossier Open Source). http://www.bpb.de/themen/KD5Y51,0,0,Next_Wikipedia_take_a_right.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  76. ^ "Citizendium FAQ". Citizendium. March 25, 2007. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:FAQ. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  77. ^ a b Fisher, Ken (September 19, 2006). "New Citizendium to correct Wikipedia's wrongs?". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060919-7775.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  78. ^ "Citizendium". Citizendium. March 25, 2007. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Citizendium. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  79. ^ Sanger, Larry (June 2007). "Education 2.0". Egon Zehnder International (The Focus Online). http://www.ezifocus.com/content/thefocus/issue/article.php/article/54300644. Retrieved on 2007-06-01. "The future of education could lie in a digital degree-granting institution that lives on the Internet." 
  80. ^ Keen, Andrew (June 2, 2008). "Andrew Keen on New Media". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/andrew-keen-on-new-media-837997.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 
  81. ^ Sanger, Larry (March 25, 2007). "We have launched". Citizendium Blog. http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/03/25/we-have-launched/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  82. ^ McNichol, Tom (March 1, 2007). "Building a Wiki World". Business 2.0 (CNN). http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/03/01/8401010/index.htm?postversion=2007022710. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "I'm sort of like a British monarch," Wales said, while smiling.
  83. ^ a b c Anderson, Nate (February 25, 2007). "Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia". Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Citizendium currently has over 500 participants, most of whom have been individually screened. Growth has been sometimes erratic; Sanger says that the site gained 50-75 contributors on a single day after being featured on Slashdot. Edits have now topped 500 per day, which Sanger says compares favorably with the earliest days of Wikipedia." 
  84. ^ Thomson, Iain (April 13, 2007). "Wikipedia 'broken beyond repair' says co-founder". Information World Review. http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2187709/wikipedia-broken-beyond-repair. Retrieved on 2007-04-15. 
  85. ^ Heater, Brian (January 26, 2007). "Q&A With Citizendium Creator Dr. Larry Sanger". AppScout (Ziff Davis). http://www.appscout.com/2007/01/qa_with_citizendium_creator_dr_1.php. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  86. ^ Orlowski, Andrew (September 18, 2006). "Wikipedia founder forks Wikipedia". More experts, less fiddling? (The Register). http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. "Larry Sanger describes the Citizendium project as a "progressive or gradual fork," with the major difference that experts have the final say over edits." 
  87. ^ "Use with caution: The perils of Wikipedia". Associated Press (CNN). November 4, 2007. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/02/perils.wikipedia/. Retrieved on 2007-11-04. 
  88. ^ Waters, Richard (November 5, 2007). "Citizendium vs Wikipedia". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae382288-8b41-11dc-95f7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 
  89. ^ "Citizendium After One Year". Slashdot. October 30, 2007. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/30/2151242&from=rss. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. 
  90. ^ a b "Citizendium Wiki Celebrates One Year Online New Knowledge Society Takes Root, Flourishes". Citizendium Press Release — October 30, 2007 (Citizendium). October 30, 2007. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Oct302007. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. It has been one year since the private launch of the Citizendium (http://www.citizendium.org/) wiki, an online reference source aiming to create "the world's most trusted knowledge base." The innovative non-profit project combines free-wheeling, open wiki collaboration with real names and guidance by expert editors.
  91. ^ Sanger, Larry (October 30, 2007). "The Citizendium one year on: a strong start and an amazing future". Citizendium. http://www.citizendium.org/oneyearandthriving.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. 
  92. ^ Sanger, Larry (October 30, 2007). "The coming explosion of growth". Citizendium. http://www.citizendium.org/oneyearandthriving.html#explosion. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. 
  93. ^ Leider, JP (October 17, 2006). "Wiki and the U student". The Minnesota Daily. http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/10/17/69425. Retrieved on 2007-03-25. 
  94. ^ Tiwari, Neha (April 5, 2007). "Wikipedia today, Citizendium tomorrow". CNET. http://news.com.com/Wikipedia+today%2C+Citizendium+tomorrow/2008-1082_3-6173499.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. "Sanger now believes that the world deserves something better than his former start-up when it comes to online research." 
  95. ^ Appel, Justin (February 23, 2007). "More 'reliable' Wikipedia soon to launch". eSchool News. http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=45496&CFID=6060388&CFTOKEN=40911340. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. 
  96. ^ Cohen, Jason Z (March 3, 2008). "Citizendium's Larry Sanger: Experts Make It Better". LinuxInsider (ECT News Network). http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61983.html?welcome=1205003304&welcome=1205003861&wlc=1234584689&wlc=1235641480. Retrieved on 2008-03-08. 
  97. ^ Lombardi, Candace (March 26, 2007). "Wikipedia rival makes its debut". ZDNet. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6170405.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  98. ^ Read, Brock (April 5, 2007). "Citizendium's Creator in His Own Words". The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/1980/citizendiums-creator-in-his-own-words. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. 
  99. ^ Thompson, Bill (December 16, 2005). "What is it with Wikipedia?". BBC News Online. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4534712.stm. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  100. ^ Maxcer, Chris (March 9, 2007). "Wikipedia Ain't Broke, but Needs Fixing". LinuxInsider (ECT News Network). http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/56193.html?wlc=1234586871. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  101. ^ Fuchs, David (January 15, 2009). "What You Didn't Know About Wikipedia". Associated Content. 
  102. ^ Kamm, Oliver (August 16, 2007). "Wisdom? More like dumbness of the crowds". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2267665.ece. Retrieved on 2007-08-16. "Wikipedia seeks not truth but consensus, and like an interminable political meeting the end result will be dominated by the loudest and most persistent voices" 
  103. ^ Hendry, Andrew (June 6, 2007). "Who's behind Wikipedia?". Computer World. http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/205180/who_behind_wikipedia?pp=1. Retrieved on 2009-02-13. 
  104. ^ Sanger, Larry. "CZ:We aren't Wikipedia". Citizendium. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:We_aren%27t_Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  105. ^ Kleeman, Jenny (March 25, 2007). "Wiki wars". The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2042231,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  106. ^ Davis, Jim (May 14, 2007). "Left in Control of Wikipedia". NewsMax. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/5/13/212015.shtml?s=lh. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  107. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (January 23, 2007). "Citizendium: Wikipedia co-founder Sanger's Wikipedia rival". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9680301-2.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. 
  108. ^ Sanger, Larry. "Larry Sanger". Welcome to my personal site! (Larry Sanger). http://larrysanger.org/. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikinews has related news: Larry Sanger announces Wikipedia fork
v • d • e
Wikipedia
Main articles
People
Events
Related projects and forks
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger"
Personal tools