Now you rarely see a person who has no idea what Wikipedia is. And these exceptions are due either to old age, or to a location suggesting a lack of internet.
And 29 years ago, the ideological inspirer hardly assumed that his project would gain widespread love and trust. Since the creation of Wikipedia, its principles have not changed. Anyone can choose a topic, create and edit an article. And yet, not many people know the name of the person who created Wikipedia.
Background to the creation of Wikipedia
In the 90s, the Internet was meant as a huge information field and a limitless repository of information and data. The first pebble of the future digital library was laid when in 95 there was the possibility of collective access to change information, as a result of which the name wiki-technology appeared (means quickly in the lane from Hawaiian).
Wikipedia Development
The history of Wikipedia takes in the bowels of another more serious encyclopedia. In 2000, the Nupedia project was launched, the founders of which can be considered Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales. The idea to create an encyclopedia came from Wales, but the fundamental difference from the modern version of Wikipedia was that the articles were written by volunteer scientists who carefully edited the content before posting the material.
2001 can be considered the year of creation of Wikipedia, it was then that it arose as a less bureaucratic branch of Nupedii.
Nupedia turned out to be an unprofitable project, which entailed the removal of Larry Sanger. It is believed that this is the only person working on Wikipedia and received a fee for it. But, unfortunately, Sanger often reacts very sharply about the library in the question of who created Wikipedia.
Further development and distribution
A breakthrough idea for the popularization and distribution of the resource was the ability to edit articles in their native language, that is, the introduction of international sections into everyday life. At first, the project barely kept afloat, but pretty soon there was support from sponsors, patrons and just volunteers. To consolidate his success, Wales created other branches: wiki-news, wiki-quote, etc. Then it could be said that nothing threatens the development of the directory. In the history of Wikipedia, there have been several rounds that have influenced the way we know it today.
Jimmy Wales and his brainchild
Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia are inextricably linked, like Steve Jobs and Apple.
Jimmy grew up in an intelligent family: mother and grandmother ran a private school. Since childhood, the boy loved to read encyclopedias. Behind him, studying at 3 universities: Indian, Alabama, Auburn. Jimmy earned good capital on securities trading. Closer to 95, Jim Wales and Tim Shell created a search engine with male-centered content. A little later, Jimmy launched a resource with paid access to content with pornographic content. This later began to bring him a good income.
In 2000, Jimmy hired Larry Sanger to act as editor-in-chief, and Nupedia was launched. Sanger was engaged in both projects. But the growth of incomes and the interest of the masses on Wikipedia led to the fact that Lars was asked to vacate the workplace - from now on, everyone could be the chief editor. And they did not need to pay at all. Since the financial side of both projects was tied to Wales, the answer to the question: who created Wikipedia, is unequivocal. At the same time, Larry disputes the leveling of his work and calls himself the co-founder of the resource.
Wales received many awards for his contribution to the development of the Internet. And Jimmy Wales has repeatedly spoken about his unprofitable Wikipedia project in the format of whether the project is smart or dumb.
Fraternal wiki resources
Today, Wikipedia has quietly grown. The wiki prefix is added to many categories of life, which, according to the aksakals from the Wikimedia Foundation, decide to illuminate and form a resource. Today there are Wikiversity, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wikivids and more.
Fixed Wikipedia Rules
Wikipedia writes articles in 300 different languages. It is preferable to create an article in the native language. The editor of articles, which anyone can become, does not have to register in order to make an edit. And this is not always good, because you can easily run into an article ruined for the sake of vandal fun. One of the important principles remains the bilateral coverage of the topic of the article. The author needs to show the same thing from different perspectives and points of view.
Today Wikipedia continues to grow and develop in all directions.
The answer to the question of who created Wikipedia, Google and numerous resources give out the name of Jimmy Wales. However, do not forget about the contribution of those who at the very beginning presented ideas, realized collective access and made efforts when the foundations were just laid.