Larry Sanger

Larry Sanger helps people learn.

He helped start a big online book. It is called Wikipedia. He helped name it, too.

Before Wikipedia, he worked on a site called Nupedia. Nupedia was very slow. It took a long time to write stories.

Sanger wanted to make things faster. He suggested using a new way to write.

This new way was a wiki. It helped people work together. This led to the start of Wikipedia in 2001. Larry helped make the first pages. He also made the first rules.

Larry studied big ideas in school. He studied a subject called philosophy. He also taught this at a college. He likes to think about how we know things.

Now, Larry works on other projects. He wants to make sure facts are right. He still works to help people find truth.

Do you like to read online books?

Larry Sanger is a man who works with big ideas.

He is a philosopher. This is someone who studies how we think and what is true. He also helps build sites on the internet.

In the year 2000, Larry worked for a site called Nupedia. Nupedia was an online encyclopedia. An encyclopedia is a book of facts. Nupedia was very slow at making new articles. To fix this, Larry suggested a new way. He wanted to use a wiki. A wiki is a site where many people can edit pages together.

This idea led to Wikipedia in 2001. Larry even came up with the name Wikipedia.

Larry helped write the first rules for Wikipedia. He wanted the site to be neutral. This means it should not take sides. Later, Larry left the project. He felt Wikipedia was not accurate enough. He thought it needed more experts to check the facts.

Since then, he has started other projects like Citizendium. He still works to help people find good information online.

Larry Sanger is an American philosopher and internet developer.

He is best known for helping start Wikipedia. He was born on July 16, 1968, in Bellevue, Washington. His father, Gerry, was a marine biologist. Sanger grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, after his family moved there. At age 16, he decided to make philosophy his life's work. He later earned a PhD from Ohio State University in 2000. His doctoral work focused on epistemology, which is the study of how we know things.

In 2000, Sanger worked as the editor-in-chief for Nupedia.

Nupedia was an online encyclopedia that used experts to check every article. This process was very slow and caused many delays. To fix this, Sanger suggested using a wiki to gather information. A wiki is a type of website that many people can edit together. This new idea led to the launch of Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. Sanger even came up with the name Wikipedia himself.

During the first year of Wikipedia, Sanger acted as the chief organizer. He helped write the very first rules for the site. These rules included ideas like "Neutral point of view" and "Verifiability." He wanted the site to be a place for high-quality writing. He even created a concept called "Brilliant prose" to show off the best articles. However, Sanger soon felt that the community was changing too much. He worried that the site was being taken over by people who did not want rules.

Sanger left the Wikipedia project in March 2002.

He left because he was laid off after a financial crash. Since then, he has been a strong critic of Wikipedia. He argues that the site lacks credibility because it does not rely enough on experts. In 2006, he started a new project called Citizendium to compete with Wikipedia. He also worked with other sites like Everipedia and the Encyclopedia of Earth. He even served as an advisor for the political site Ballotpedia.

Sanger's work shows how much the internet can change how we learn.

He moved from studying books to building digital tools for everyone. His ideas about how to organize knowledge are still used today. Even though he and Jimmy Wales have disagreed about the past, Sanger's impact is clear. He continues to work on the "encyclosphere," which is his term for the world of online knowledge. His life's work remains focused on how we share truth with the world.

Lawrence Mark Sanger is an American philosopher and internet project developer.

He is most famous for his role as a co-founder of Wikipedia. Sanger was born on July 16, 1968, in Bellevue, Washington. His father, Gerry, worked as a marine biologist. Sanger grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, after his family moved there when he was seven. At age 16, he decided to dedicate his life to the study of philosophy. This academic focus shaped his views on how knowledge is organized and shared.

Sanger's academic journey led him to earn several degrees. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Reed College in 1991. He then earned a Master of Arts from Ohio State University in 1995. In 2000, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy at the same university. His doctoral dissertation focused on epistemology, which is the study of how we know things. Specifically, he wrote about epistemic circularity and the problem of meta-justification. This deep study of truth and evidence would later influence his work on the internet.

In the year 2000, Sanger became the editor-in-chief of Nupedia.

Nupedia was an online encyclopedia created by Jimmy Wales and his company, Bomis. The project relied on volunteer experts to write articles. These articles then went through a strict peer-review process before being published. While the quality was high, the process was extremely slow. By the summer of 2000, Nupedia had reached a standstill due to these delays. Sanger wanted a way to speed up the creation of content.

To solve this problem, Sanger proposed using a wiki. He learned about wiki software during a dinner with his friend Ben Kovitz in early 2001. A wiki is a website that allows many people to edit content collaboratively. On January 15, 2001, this idea resulted in the launch of Wikipedia. Sanger actually coined the name "Wikipedia" from a long list of potential names. He also created the first home pages and drafted the site's early policies. These included "Neutral point of view," "Verifiability," and "No original research."

During Wikipedia's first year, Sanger served as the "chief organizer."

He even created a concept called "Brilliant prose" to highlight the highest-quality articles. However, Sanger soon became frustrated with the growing community. He felt the site was being overrun by "trolls" and people who opposed any form of authority. He clashed with other early editors over how to organize the project. Sanger argued for more respect for expert editors to resolve disputes. These tensions grew as the project became more independent from Nupedia.

Sanger left the Wikipedia project in March 2002. This happened after his employer, Bomis, lost a grant during the Dot-com crash. As a result, Sanger was laid off from his position.

Since his departure, he has been a vocal critic of Wikipedia. He has argued that the site lacks credibility because it does not require enough expertise. In 2007, he even described the project as "broken beyond repair." He also accused the site of having a left-wing ideological bias starting in 2020. These criticisms have sometimes been viewed as part of a right-wing attack on the site.

Sanger has continued to work on many other encyclopedic projects. In 2006, he founded Citizendium to compete with Wikipedia's model. He later joined Everipedia as the chief information officer in 2017. He also advised the political encyclopedia Ballotpedia and worked with the Encyclopedia of Earth. In 2019, he resigned from Everipedia to start the Knowledge Standards Foundation. He now works to promote the "encyclosphere," a term for the interconnected world of online knowledge. His career shows a lifelong effort to balance speed and expertise in sharing information.