Atlantic Monthly

Early history of Wikipedia reviewed

The prelude to Wikipedia and the history of its first year were the subject of a feature in the Atlantic Monthly that came out last week.

The article, by historian Marshall Poe, appeared in the magazine's September issue. Its online version included links throughout the text to Wikipedia articles about some of the concepts discussed. Accompanying the feature were an exploration of neutral point of view in the context of abortion, along with an interview with Poe himself.

In particular, Poe considered in depth the backgrounds of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Going back before Wikipedia and even Nupedia, the article discussed their business and academic experience, as well as their Internet activity on mailing lists and elsewhere.

The debate over whom to identify as the "founder" of Wikipedia was not explicitly covered, but did figure indirectly. Poe related Sanger's story about having dinner with a friend that inspired the Wikipedia proposal. Regarding their respective roles in the project, Poe wrote, "Wales's part in it was clear; he owned Wikipedia. Sanger's role was murkier."

The murkiness was partly due to Sanger's decision not to import his Nupedia title of editor-in-chief, but simply call himself "chief organizer". The authority issues manifested in the description of Sanger's disputes with The Cunctator and his eventual departure from the project.

In his separate interview, Poe explained his methods for reconstructing this history. As befits his field of expertise (early modern Russian history), Poe focused mostly on the documentary record, such as mailing lists and talk page discussion.

The interviewer noted that the article never quoted Sanger and Wales as primary sources (although it does quote their words). Poe said that he emphasized the documents, although he did interview both Wales and Sanger, because people's stories about events 5-10 years ago are often inaccurate. He commented that he was fortunate that Wikipedia has "a remarkably complete record of what had been done."


+ Add a comment

Discuss this story

These comments are automatically transcluded from this article's talk page. To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try purging the cache.
Why no links? -- Zanimum 17:03, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Because I actually wrote this story on paper first, working from a print copy, so I didn't have the URLs handy. I then typed it up on a borrowed laptop while at Wikimania, but didn't have time to do more. --Michael Snow 05:29, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Good work. --Bhadani 15:21, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-08-07/Atlantic_Monthly