Larry Sanger
American Internet project developer and Wikipedia co-founder / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lawrence Mark Sanger (/ˈsæŋər/;[1] born July 16, 1968) is an American Internet project developer and philosopher who was the editor-in-chief of Nupedia, an online encyclopedia, and co-founded its successor Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales. He coined Wikipedia's name, and wrote many of its early guidelines, including the "Neutral point of view" and "Ignore all rules" policies. He later worked on other encyclopedic projects, including Encyclopedia of Earth, Citizendium, and Everipedia, and advised the nonprofit American political encyclopedia Ballotpedia.[2]
Larry Sanger | |
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 Sanger in 2006 | |
| Born | Lawrence Mark Sanger (1968-07-16) July 16, 1968 (age 55) Bellevue, Washington, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupation(s) | Internet project developer, philosopher |
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| Children | 2 |
| Website | LarrySanger.org |
While in college, Sanger began using the Internet for educational purposes and joined the online encyclopedia Nupedia as editor-in-chief in 2000. Disappointed with the slow progress of Nupedia, Sanger proposed using a wiki to solicit and receive articles to put through Nupedia's peer-review process; this change led to the development and launch of Wikipedia in 2001. Sanger continued to serve as Nupedia's editor-in-chief and as an active contributor to Wikipedia in its first year, but he was laid off and left the projects in March 2002. Sanger's status as a co-founder of Wikipedia has been questioned by Wales[3] but is generally accepted.[4][5]
Since Sanger's departure from Wikipedia, he has been critical of the project, describing it in 2007 as being "broken beyond repair".[6] He has argued that, despite its merits, Wikipedia lacks credibility and accuracy due to a lack of respect for expertise and authority. Since 2020, he has criticized Wikipedia for what he perceives as a left-wing and liberal ideological bias in its articles.[7][8]
In 2006, he founded Citizendium to compete with Wikipedia. In 2010, he stepped down as editor-in-chief. In 2020, he left Citizendium entirely. In 2017, he joined Everipedia as chief information officer (CTO). He resigned in 2019, to establish a Knowledge Standards Foundation and the "encyclosphere". As of 2023[update], Sanger was serving as the executive director of the Knowledge Standards Foundation.[2][9][10]
Sanger's other interests include a focus on philosophy–in particular epistemology, early modern philosophy, and ethics. He taught philosophy at his alma mater, Ohio State University.[11]