Skip to Content
Open Sources 2.0
book

Open Sources 2.0

by Chris DiBona, Mark Stone, Danese Cooper
October 2005
Intermediate to advanced
488 pages
17h 4m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Open Sources 2.0

Chapter 20. The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir

Larry Sanger

An impassioned debate has been raging, particularly since about the summer of 2004, concerning the merits of Wikipedia and the future of free online encyclopedias. This discussion has not benefited by much detailed, accurate consideration of the origins of Wikipedia and of its parent project, Nupedia. Yet those origins are crucial to forming a proper judgment of the current state and best future direction of free encyclopedias.

Wikipedia as it stands is a fantastic project; it has produced enormous amounts of content and thousands of excellent articles, and now, after just four years, it is getting high-profile, international recognition as a new way of obtaining at least a rough and ready idea about many topics. Its surprising success may be attributed, briefly, to its free, open, and collaborative nature.

This has been my attitude toward Wikipedia practically since its founding. But in late 2004, I wrote an article critical of certain aspects of the Wikipedia project, “Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism,”[1] which occasioned much debate. I have also been quoted, as co-founder of Wikipedia, in many recent news articles about the project, making various other critical remarks. I am afraid I am getting an undeserved reputation as someone who is opposed to everything Wikipedia stands for. This is completely incorrect. In fact, I am one of Wikipedia’s strongest supporters. I am partly responsible ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Open Sources

Open Sources

Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman
The Human Factor in AI-Based Decision-Making

The Human Factor in AI-Based Decision-Making

Philip Meissner, Christoph Keding
What Successful Project Managers Do

What Successful Project Managers Do

W. Scott Cameron, Jeffrey S. Russell, Edward J. Hoffman, Alexander Laufer

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596008023Errata Page