Larry Sanger - Nupedia and Wikipedia

Nupedia and Wikipedia

Nupedia was a Web-based encyclopedia whose articles were written by experts and licensed as free content. It was co-founded by Jimmy Wales and underwritten by Bomis, with Sanger hired as editor-in-chief. He developed a review process for articles and recruited editors. Articles were reviewed before being posted on the site. Frustrated at the slow progress of Nupedia, in January 2001, Sanger proposed a wiki be created to spur article development, and the result of this proposal was Wikipedia, officially launched on January 15, 2001. It was initially intended as a collaborative wiki for the public to write entries that would then be fed into the Nupedia review process of expertise. The majority of Nupedia's experts wanted little to do with this project, so Sanger initiated a separate site named Wikipedia.

To the surprise of Sanger and Wales, within a few days of launching, Wikipedia had outgrown Nupedia, and a small community of editors gathered. By virtue of his position with Nupedia, Sanger spearheaded and named the project, and formulated much of the original policy, including "Ignore all rules," "Neutral point of view", and "Verifiability". Wikipedia quickly took off, but just months after it was launched, things started to go off the rails and by the summer of 2001, Sanger says, the new online community was being overrun by what he described as "trolls" and "anarchist-types", who were "opposed to the idea that anyone should have any kind of authority that others do not". Sanger responded by proposing a stronger emphasis for expert editors, individuals with the authority to resolve disputes and enforce the rules.

Tired of endless content battles and feeling he had a lack of support from Wales, Sanger eventually left the project. 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 after the collapse in Internet advertising spending; Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as chief organizer of Wikipedia on March 1. 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. Nupedia shut down in 2003, shortly after Wikipedia's second anniversary.