Misplaced Pages

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Lawrence Mark Sanger
Larry Sanger
Born	Bellevue, Washington, USA
Occupation	Editor-in-Chief of Citizendium
Website	Larry Sanger

Lawrence Mark "Larry" Sanger (born July 16, 1968) was Editor-in-Chief of Nupedia and a co-founder and the first paid editor of its successor, Misplaced Pages. After his resignation from Misplaced Pages in 2002, he was an early strategist for the expert-authored and edited Encyclopedia of Earth. On September 15, 2006, he proposed a new fork of Misplaced Pages, called Citizendium.

Sanger was born in Bellevue, Washington, and reared in Anchorage, Alaska. He received his B.A. in philosophy from Reed College in 1991 and Ph.D. in philosophy from Ohio State University in 2000. His bachelor thesis is titled Descartes' methods and their theoretical background and his doctoral thesis concerned Epistemic Circularity: An Essay on the Problem of Meta-Justification. 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.

Nupedia and Misplaced Pages

Sanger was employed by Jimmy Wales' Bomis company as Editor-in-Chief of Nupedia. Responding to frustrations with the slow progress of Nupedia, in January 2001 Sanger proposed the creation of a wiki to spur the development of articles, and the result of this proposal was Misplaced Pages. By virtue of his position with Nupedia, Sanger spearheaded and named the project, and formulated much of the original policy. Sanger was the only paid editor of Misplaced Pages, a status he held from January 15 2001, until March 1 2002. Sanger worked on and promoted both the Nupedia and Misplaced Pages projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002; Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as "chief organizer" of Misplaced Pages (he never claimed an official title) on March 1. Sanger's stated reason for ending his participation in Misplaced Pages and Nupedia as a volunteer was that he could not do justice to the task as a part-time volunteer. Nupedia shut down the following year.

Later, 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. While claiming "to appreciate the merits of Misplaced Pages fully" and to know and support "the mission and broad policy outlines of Misplaced Pages 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". The article was the subject of much controversy in the blogosphere, and led to some reaction in the news media as well.

Wales disputes that Sanger is a co-founder of Misplaced Pages, describing Sanger as having been merely a subordinate employee. There is no evidence from before 2004 of Jimmy Wales, who is the current Wikimedia Foundation Chairman Emeritus, disputing Sanger's status as co-founder. Sanger concedes that it was Wales alone who conceived of an encyclopedia that non-experts could contribute to, i.e., the Nupedia. However, Sanger maintains that it was he who brought the wiki concept to Wales and suggested it be applied to Nupedia and that, after some initial skepticism, Wales agreed to try it. (Wales has claimed that one Jeremy Rosenfeld first suggested the idea of a wiki to him, though he claimed earlier, in October 2001, that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software" .) Sanger also maintains that he "came up with the name 'Misplaced Pages', a silly name for what was at first a very silly project." In response to Wales' view of his role in Misplaced Pages, Sanger posted on his personal webpage a collection of links which he claimed confirmed his co-founder role. Sanger has also provided evidence that he is the co-founder of Misplaced Pages, by referencing earlier versions of Misplaced Pages pages, citing press releases from Misplaced Pages in the years of 2002 - 2004, and asserting that media coverage articles stated Wales and Sanger are the co-founders. In review, Larry Sanger conceived of the wiki-based encyclopedia as a strategic solution to Nupedia's inefficiency problems, and spearheaded and pursued the project as its leader in its first year. Further, Sanger has been widely described in the media as a co-founder.

After Misplaced Pages

Sanger returned to the academic world as a lecturer at Ohio State University, where he taught philosophy until June 2005. His professional interests are epistemology (in particular), early modern philosophy, and ethics. 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.

In December 2005, Digital Universe Foundation announced that Sanger had been hired as Director of Distributed Content Programs, where he would lead the Digital Universe Encyclopedia content resource of the larger web project launched in early 2006. Unlike Misplaced Pages, the Digital Universe encyclopedia plans to bring in recognized experts to certify the accuracy of user-submitted articles as well as to write articles themselves. The first step in this effort is the Encyclopedia of Earth.

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 Misplaced Pages, 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.

At the Wizards of OS conference in September 2006, Sanger announced a fork of Misplaced Pages, named Citizendium. The objectives of the fork are to address various perceived flaws in the Misplaced Pages 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." More differences are discussed in the FAQ. The initial fork will be only of the English language Misplaced Pages.

Sanger took a "leave of absence" from Digital Universe, announced on 27 September 2006, "in order to set up a fully independent Citizendium Foundation".

Citizendium launched

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On March 25, 2007, Citizendium ended its pilot phase and went live, into its beta phase, and the site became publicly readable. 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 Misplaced Pages". Unlike Wales, who has compared his role in Misplaced Pages with that of a British monarch, Sanger said he would not head Citizendium indefinitely, and has already announced his planning to step off the leadership team in two or three years.

References

1. ^ Bergstein, Brian (March 25, 2007). "Sanger says he co-started Misplaced Pages". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
2. ^ Larry Sanger. "My role in Misplaced Pages (links)". larrysanger.org. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
3. ^ David Mehegan (February 12, 2006). "Bias, sabotage haunt Misplaced Pages's free world". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
4. Sanger's Review of Y2K News Reports Retrieved on March 28, 2007.
5. ^ Jimmy Wales (2001-10-30). "LinkBacks?". wikipedia-l archives. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. My resignation — Larry Sanger, March 1 2002
7. Larry Sanger (Dec 31, 2004). "Why Misplaced Pages Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism". Kuro5hin. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
8. Mitchell, Dan (December 24, 2005). "Insider Editing at Misplaced Pages". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-26. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |quotes= (help)
9. "Misplaced Pages to Fight Vandals in Germany". CIO News Alerts. September 26 2006. He used to work for me. I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. ^ Larry Sanger (April 19, 2005). "The Early History of Nupedia and Misplaced Pages: A Memoir". Slashdot. Retrieved 2007-03-19. To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine (emphasis in original text)
11. The Early History of Nupedia and Misplaced Pages: A Memoir Part 1 and Part 2 from Slashdot Retrieved on March 29, 2007.
12. Larry Sanger (January 10, 2001). "Let's make a wiki" (Email). Nupedia-l mailing list. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
13. Ben Hammersley (January 30, 2003). "Common knowledge". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
14. Press Release, Kintera Inc. (January 10, 2007). "Kintera Announces Larry Sanger, Co-Founder of Misplaced Pages, as Keynote Speaker for Annual User Conference". Yahoo. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
15. Stefanie Olsen (October 16, 2006). "Misplaced Pages co-founder plans 'expert' rival". news.com. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
16. Jay Lyman, LinuxInsider (September 20, 2006). "Misplaced Pages Co-Founder Planning New Expert-Authored Site". Retrieved 2007-03-19.
17. Steve Tally (March 20, 2006). "Misplaced Pages co-founder to speak on campus". Purdue University News Service. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
18. Natali T. Del Conte (October 20, 2006). "Misplaced Pages Co-Founder Starting Rival Online 'Encyclopedia Project'". Fox News. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
19. "Lawrence Sanger, Ph. D., Director of Distributed Content Programs". Digital Universe. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
20. "Digital Universe Seeks to Become Free 'PBS of the Web'". Rress Release, Digital Universe. January 17, 2006 accessdate = 2007-03-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |date= (help)
21. Larry Sanger (April, 2006). "Text and Collaboration: A personal manifesto for the Text Outline Project". textop.org. Retrieved 2007-03-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
22. Larry Sanger (Sepember 27, 2006). Citizendium-l "Citizendium launch plan as of September 26". Citizendium-l mailing list. Retrieved 2007-03-19. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
23. Larry Sanger. "We have launched", Citizendium blog, March 25, 2007
24. Bergstein, Brian (March 25, 2007). "Citizendium aims to be better Misplaced Pages". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-03-26. This week, Sanger takes the wraps off a Misplaced Pages alternative, Citizendium. His goal is to capture Misplaced Pages's bustle but this time, avoid the vandalism and inconsistency that are its pitfalls. — Brian Bergstein.
25. McNicho, Tom (February 27, 2007). "Misplaced Pages founder hunts for gold". Business 2.0. CNN. Retrieved 2007-03-26. "I'm sort of like a British monarch," Wales said, while smiling.
26. Anderson, Nate (February 25, 2007). "Citizendium: building a better Misplaced Pages". ars techinca. Retrieved 2007-03-26. 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 Misplaced Pages.

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