wikipedia

Fletcher, Dan. "A Brief History of Wikipedia." Time 18 Aug. 2009: n. pag. Web.

In 2001, Lawrence Sanger and James Whales conceived Nupedia, a kind of online encyclopedia

that would feature articles by experts, which would then be reviewed by users. However, the

process of writing articles took so long that after 6 months in operation, there were only 2 articles

on the entire site. So, at the suggestion of Sanger, the duo reformatted the website to include a

section for user-created articles, which quickly surpassed Nupedia in popularity. In 2002, Sanger

left Wikipedia because he was unsure of the legitimacy of the project, and although a study by

Nature found the content similarly accurate with The Encyclopedia Britannica, critics often

complain about bad writing, obvious bias, and the promotion of pet projects. (The site’s list of

star wars characters is 50% longer than the article on World War II) Still, Jimmy Whales (who is

still in charge of the non-profit, ad free site) hopes that the site will one day contain “the sum of

human knowledge.”

Before reading this article I had no idea Wikipedia stemmed from an older website. I also learned

that critics have complaints other than accuracy about Wikipedia’s content. I found it very

surprising that the founder of the website’s user-edited content left because of a feeling of

illegitimacy, however, he left very early, before the site really took off.

“Not bad for a service originally conceived as an afterthought to Nupedia”

“In May, Wikipedia banned IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology on the

grounds that Scientologists were making edits that didn't suggest a "neutral point of

view" — the encyclopedia's golden rule.”