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Jimmy Wales (November 2004)

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born August 7, 1966) is the founder and President of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit corporation which operates Wikipedia and several other wiki projects. Wales is also founder of the for-profit company Wikia (unrelated to Wikimedia), within which he co-founded the Wikicities project.

Life before Wikipedia

Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama. His father, now retired, was a grocery store manager while Wales was growing up. Wales's mother Doris and grandmother Erma ran a small private school, "in the tradition of the one-room schoolhouse," where he also went to school. There were four children in his grade most of the time, so the school grouped together first through fourth grades and fifth through eighth grades. A May 2005 Time magazine article incorrectly reported that Wales was home schooled.^[1] Strictly speaking Wales was not, but he did note that his schooling experience was "in a sense similar" since his mother and grandmother were his primary teachers. Students had a fair amount of freedom to study whatever they liked; the school's philosophy of education was significantly influenced by Montessori. Wales spent many hours poring over the World Book Encyclopedia during this time. After eighth grade, Wales went to Randolph School, a college prep school, which was and is an early adopter of computer labs and other technology for direct student use. This prep school was expensive for the family, since they had few means, but Wales reports that his family believed education was very important: "Education was always a passion in my household ... you know, the very traditional approach to knowledge and learning and establishing that as a base for a good life."

He received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his masters from the University of Alabama. Later, he took courses offered in the Ph.D. finance programs at the University of Alabama and Indiana University. He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies, but he did not write the doctoral dissertation required to earn a postgraduate degree at these institutions. Wales went on to become a futures and options trader in Chicago, and within a few years had earned enough to "support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives." ^[2]

In 1996, Wales founded a search portal called Bomis, which also sold photographs of softcore pornography until mid-2005. Because of his past position with Bomis, Wales was asked in a September 2005 C-SPAN interview about his involvement with what the interviewer, Brian Lamb, called "dirty pictures." In response, Wales described Bomis as a "guy-oriented search engine."^[3] In an interview with Wired, he also explained that he disputed the categorization of Bomis content as "soft-core pornography": "If R-rated movies are porn, it was porn. In other words, no, it was not." ^[4] Wales is no longer actively involved in the company.

In March 2000, he started a peer-reviewed, open-content encyclopedia, Nupedia.com ("the free encyclopedia"), and hired Larry Sanger to be its editor-in-chief. While Wales was CEO, Bomis donated over $100,000 (primarily through salaries and providing free Internet access) to Nupedia and Wikipedia, and continued supporting them into 2002.

Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation

Using a wiki to create encyclopedic content was publicly proposed by Larry Sanger on January 10, 2001. The wiki was set up by Wales and started on January 15, 2001. Wikipedia was at that point a wiki-based site intended for collaboration on early encyclopedic content before submitting it to Nupedia for peer review. Wikipedia's rapid growth soon made it the dominant project and Nupedia was mothballed.

Sanger dropped out of the project in 2002, posting a resignation on his Wikipedia user page. He has since criticized Wales's approach to the project^[5], describing Wales as being "decidedly anti-elitist". Wales took issue with this description in the above-mentioned C-SPAN interview, describing himself as not anti-elitist, but "perhaps anti-credentialist. To me the key thing is getting it right. And if a person's really smart and they're doing fantastic work, I don't care if they're a high school kid or a Harvard professor; it's the work that matters.... You can't coast on your credentials on Wikipedia.... You have to enter the marketplace of ideas and engage with people."^[3]

Though Wales and Sanger had previously been known as the "co-founders" of Wikipedia, in 2004 Wales began to refer to himself (especially when talking to the press) as the (implicitly) sole "founder" of Wikipedia, as in a 2004 Newsweek magazine article.^[6] In 2006 he even told the Boston Globe that "it's preposterous" to call Sanger the co-founder. [2] Sanger has strongly contested this assertion, claiming that he had the idea of applying the wiki concept to the building of a free encyclopedia. He has said: "I remember very clearly the evening when I got the idea for Wikipedia." He nevertheless ascribed the broader idea to Wales: "To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. (...) The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on."^[7]

Jimmy Wales standing at the Hohlbeinsteg bridge in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, during a shooting break of a documentary film on Wikipedia created by French-German TV station Arte.

One Jeremy Rosenfeld - whose name was not previously known to Sanger or the Wikipedia community - has been credited by Wales as the originator of the idea for a wiki-model encyclopedia^[8]^[9] When a Wikipedia article about Rosenfeld was created, Wales himself deleted it, calling him non-notable.^[10]

Meanwhile, in mid-2003, Wales had set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based non-profit organization, to support Wikipedia and its younger sibling projects. He appointed himself and two business partners who are not active Wikipedians to the five-member board; the remaining two members are elected community representatives. This move relieved him and Bomis from the increasing financial burden of supporting Wikipedia while keeping his leadership position, which he holds for life, not subject to any elections.

Wales has since become increasingly involved with promoting and speaking about the foundation's projects. To this end, he travels the world (on the Foundation's "Travel" budget - $25,000 in 2005 [3]), both to conferences and Wikimedia functions (like "Wikimeets" and Wikimania). He has frequently been engaged as a speaker.

In 2004, Wales was quoted as saying that he had spent around US$500,000 on the establishment and operations of his Wiki projects. By the end of the foundation's February 2005 fund drive, the Wikimedia Foundation was being supported entirely by grants and donations.

In late 2005, a controversy arose regarding Wales and the related Wikipedia entry on himself. After Wired Magazine picked up on work from Rogers Cadenhead, Wales confirmed that he had (visibly and under his own name) edited his own biography on Wikipedia, a practice generally frowned upon within the Wikipedia community and even by Wales himself. ^[11] Wales's edits ^[12] were in line with his view that former editor Larry Sanger should not be considered a co-founder of Wikipedia. When some other editors undid his edits, Wales repeated them twice. His edits changed specific references to Wikipedia's origins as well as the description of Bomis. Wales said in the Wired interview, "People shouldn't do it, including me. I wish I hadn't done it." ^[13]

Other activities

File:DSC02502 modified.jpg

Wales in May 2005

Wales has been a passionate adherent of Objectivism, a philosophical system developed by author Ayn Rand. From 1992 to 1996 he ran the electronic mailing list "Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy"^[14], and in 2002, he began moderating Atlantis, an Objectivism-related mailing list on the Objectivist community site We the Living.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Wikipedia, Wales has founded the for-profit company Wikia (unrelated to Wikimedia), which hosts various wikis and manages the Wikicities project.

Wales was appointed a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School in 2005. Later that year, on October 3, according to a press release^{[citation needed]}, Wales joined the Board of Directors of Socialtext, a provider of wiki technology to businesses.

Wales lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Christine and daughter Kira. He has traveled to many countries, including the United Kingdom, Belgium, and France. He is protective about his personal life, and his interests and hobbies outside of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation are mostly unknown to the general public.

Published works

Robert Brooks, Jon Corson and J. Donal Wales, "The Pricing of Index Options When the Underlying Assets All Follow a Lognormal Diffusion," in Advances in Futures and Options Research, volume 7, 1994. Abstract available online from the Social Science Research Network. See also Log-normal distribution.

End material

Footnotes

^ Taylor, Chris (29 May). "It's a Wiki, Wiki World". Time Magazine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Pink, Daniel H (March). "The Book Stops Here". Wired Magazine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ ^a ^b [1]
^ Cadenhead, Rogers (19 December). "Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Sanger, Larry (31 December). "Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism". Kuro5hin. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Stone, Brad. "It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki". Newsweek.
^ Lord, Timothy (18 April). "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir". Slashdot. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Wales, Jimbo (2 December). "Edit to Wikipedia article "Jimbo Wales"". Wikipedia. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^
- Sanger, Larry M (20 April). "Re: Sanger's memoirs". Wikipedia-l mailing list. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
- Sanger, Larry M (20 April). "Re: Sanger's memoirs". Wikipedia-l mailing list. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Wales, Jimbo (20 January). "Wikipedia deletion log". Wikipedia. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Wales, Jimbo (4 August). "Re: [WikiEN-l] Daniel C. Boyer on wikipedia". wikien-l mailing list. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ See Jimbo Wales's edits of 28 October, 9 November, and 2 December, 2005.
^ Hansen, Evan (14 February). "Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio". Wired News. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
^ Template:Newsgroup reference Google

External links

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Interview with Jimbo Wales

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Audio/Video

Open Source - The Wikipedia May 19th, 2005 - hosted by Christopher Lydon
“The Intelligence of Wikipedia" Talk Video of Jimmy Wales talk given at the Oxford Internet Institute - recorded 11 July 2005.
Video of Jimmy Wales discussing Wikipedia 40 minutes from a talk Jimmy held at Stanford on 2 September 2005 available as an avi in torrent form and licensed under the Creative Commons (Quicktime: 200 MB, 70 MB)
IT Conversations interview with Jimbo - recorded 3 September 2005
"Q and A" interview September 25, 2005 by C-SPAN's Brian Lamb
Speech on Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Video of Jimmy Wales interview by Irene McGee of NoOne's Listening 9 minutes, from Media Alliance event held in San Francisco on 10 October 2005
Talk of the Nation - Wikipedia, Open Source and the Future of the Web, November 2, 2005
Audio of Jimmy Wales talk at the iSchool, UC Berkeley about Community & politics & future plans & other things, November 3, 2005
Jimmy Wales Talks Wikipedia on The Writing Show recorded 5 December 2005, posted 1 January 2006
Jimmy Wales Keynote Speech on Wikipedia, Mass Tech Leadership Council meeting, February 8, 2006. Podcast by Dan Bricklin Podcast description.

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@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 [[Image:Wales wikimania.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Jimmy Wales speaking at [[Wikimania]] 2005]]
 {{main|History of Wikipedia}}
-Using a wiki to create encyclopedic content was publicly proposed by [[Larry Sanger]] on [[January 10]], [[2001]]. The wiki was set up by Wales and started on [[January 15]], [[2001]].  Wikipedia was at that point a [[wiki]]-based site intended for collaboration on early encyclopedic content before submitting it to [[Nupedia]] for peer review. Wikipedia's rapid growth soon made it the dominant project and Nupedia was mothballed.
+Using a wiki to create encyclopedic content was publicly proposed by [[Larry Sanger]] on [[January 10]], [[2001]]. The wiki was set up by Wales and started on [[January 15]], [[2001]]. Wikipedia was at that point a [[wiki]]-based site intended for collaboration on early encyclopedic content before submitting it to [[Nupedia]] for peer review. Wikipedia's rapid growth soon made it the dominant project and Nupedia was mothballed.
+Sanger dropped out of the project in 2002, posting a resignation on his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Larry_Sanger Wikipedia user page]. He has since criticized Wales's approach to the project<ref>{{Web reference | author=Sanger, Larry | title=Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism | work=[[Kuro5hin]] | url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25 | date=31 December | year=2004}}</ref>, describing Wales as being "decidedly anti-elitist". Wales took issue with this description in the above-mentioned C-SPAN interview, describing himself as not anti-elitist, but "perhaps anti-credentialist. To me the key thing is getting it right. And if a person's really smart and they're doing fantastic work, I don't care if they're a high school kid or a Harvard professor; it's the work that matters.... You can't coast on your credentials on Wikipedia.... You have to enter the marketplace of ideas and engage with people."<ref name="qanda" />
-Wales has sometimes been referred to in the press as the (implicitly) sole "founder" of Wikipedia, including in a 2004 ''[[Newsweek Magazine|Newsweek]]'' magazine article.<ref>{{Web reference | author=Stone, Brad | title=It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki | work=[[Newsweek]] | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6298340/site/newsweek/ <!-- I can't find the date? -->}}</ref> Sanger has strongly contested this assertion, considering himself a co-founder along with Wales, and criticizing reports that have suggested otherwise. Sanger claims to have had the idea of applying the wiki concept to the building of a free encyclopedia. He has said: "I remember very clearly the evening when I got the idea for Wikipedia." However, he has also stated: "To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. (...) The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on."<ref>{{Web reference | author=Lord, Timothy| title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir | work=[[Slashdot]] | url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213 | date=18 April | year=2005}}</ref>
+Though Wales and Sanger had previously been known as the "co-founders" of Wikipedia, in 2004 Wales began to refer to himself (especially when talking to the press) as the (implicitly) sole "founder" of Wikipedia, as in a 2004 ''[[Newsweek Magazine|Newsweek]]'' magazine article.<ref>{{Web reference | author=Stone, Brad | title=It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki | work=[[Newsweek]] | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6298340/site/newsweek/ <!-- I can't find the date? -->}}</ref> In 2006 he even told the ''Boston Globe'' that "it's preposterous" to call Sanger the co-founder. [http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=4] Sanger has strongly contested this assertion, claiming that he had the idea of applying the wiki concept to the building of a free encyclopedia. He has said: "I remember very clearly the evening when I got the idea for Wikipedia." He nevertheless ascribed the broader idea to Wales: "To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. (...) The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on."<ref>{{Web reference | author=Lord, Timothy| title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir | work=[[Slashdot]] | url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213 | date=18 April | year=2005}}</ref>
 [[Image:Jimbo-Frankfurt-skyline.jpeg|thumb|250px|right|Jimmy Wales standing at the Hohlbeinsteg bridge in [[Frankfurt|Frankfurt am Main]], [[Germany]], during a shooting break of a documentary film on Wikipedia created by French-German TV station Arte.]]
-One [[Jeremy Rosenfeld]] has been credited by Wales as the originator of the idea for a [[wiki]]-model encyclopedia<ref>{{Web reference | author=Wales, Jimbo| title=Edit to Wikipedia article "Jimbo Wales" | work=[[Wikipedia]] | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 | date=2 December | year=2005}}</ref>, although the details of this are the subject of controversy between Wales and Sanger, who could not remember that name. <ref>
+One [[Jeremy Rosenfeld]] - whose name was not previously known to Sanger or the Wikipedia community - has been credited by Wales as the originator of the idea for a [[wiki]]-model encyclopedia<ref>{{Web reference | author=Wales, Jimbo| title=Edit to Wikipedia article "Jimbo Wales" | work=[[Wikipedia]] | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 | date=2 December | year=2005}}</ref><ref>
 *{{Web reference | author=Sanger, Larry M | title=Re: Sanger's memoirs | work=Wikipedia-l mailing list | url=http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-April/039085.html | date=20 April | year=2005}}
 *{{Web reference | author=Sanger, Larry M | title=Re: Sanger's memoirs | work=Wikipedia-l mailing list | url=http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-April/039102.html | date=20 April | year=2005}}</ref> When a Wikipedia article about Rosenfeld was created, Wales himself deleted it, calling him non-notable.<ref>{{Web reference | author=Wales, Jimbo | title=Wikipedia deletion log | work=[[Wikipedia]] | url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete&user=Jimbo+Wales&page=Jeremy+Rosenfeld | date=20 January | year=2006}}</ref>
+Meanwhile, in mid-2003, Wales had set up the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], a [[St. Petersburg, Florida]]-based [[non-profit organization]], to support Wikipedia and its younger sibling projects. He appointed himself and two business partners who are not active Wikipedians to the five-member board; the remaining two members are elected community representatives. This move relieved him and Bomis from the increasing financial burden of supporting Wikipedia while keeping his leadership position, which he holds for life, not subject to any elections.
-Sanger later dropped out of the project, posting a resignation on his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Larry_Sanger Wikipedia user page]. Sanger has since criticized Wales's approach to the project<ref>{{Web reference | author=Sanger, Larry | title=Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism | work=[[Kuro5hin]] | url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25 | date=31 December | year=2004}}</ref>, describing Wales as being "decidedly anti-elitist". Wales took issue with this description in the above-mentioned C-SPAN interview, describing himself as not anti-elitist, but "perhaps anti-credentialist. To me the key thing is getting it right. And if a person's really smart and they're doing fantastic work, I don't care if they're a high school kid or a Harvard professor; it's the work that matters.... You can't coast on your credentials on Wikipedia.... You have to enter the marketplace of ideas and engage with people."<ref name="qanda" />
+Wales has since become increasingly involved with promoting and speaking about the foundation's projects. To this end, he travels the world (on the Foundation's "Travel" budget - $25,000 in 2005 [http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Budget/2005]), both to conferences and Wikimedia functions (like "Wikimeets" and [[Wikimania]]). He has frequently been engaged as a speaker.
-In mid-2003, Wales set up the [[Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]], a [[St. Petersburg, Florida]]-based [[non-profit organization]], to support Wikipedia and its younger sibling projects. He appointed himself and two business partners who are not Wikipedians to the five-member board; the remaining two members are elected community representatives.
+In 2004, Wales was quoted as saying that he had spent around US$500,000 on the establishment and operations of his Wiki projects. By the end of the foundation's February 2005 fund drive, the Wikimedia Foundation was being supported entirely by grants and donations.
-Wales has since become increasingly involved with promoting and speaking about the foundation's projects. To this end, he travels the world, both to conferences and Wikimedia functions (like "Wikimeets" and [[Wikimania]]). He has frequently been engaged as a speaker.
-In 2004, Wales was quoted as saying that he spent around US$500,000 on the establishment and operations of his Wiki projects. By the end of the foundation's February 2005 fund drive, the Wikimedia Foundation was being supported entirely by grants and donations.
-Perhaps inspired by the success of Wikipedia, Wales has founded the for-profit company [[Wikia]] (unrelated to [[Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia]]), which hosts various wikis and manages the [[Wikicities]] project.
-Wales was appointed a fellow of the [[Berkman Center for Internet and Society]] at [[Harvard Law School]] in 2005. Later that year, on October 3, according to a press release{{citation needed}}, Wales joined the [[Board of Directors]] of [[Socialtext]], a provider of [[wiki]] technology to businesses.
-==Controversy==
 In late 2005, a controversy arose regarding Wales and the related Wikipedia entry on himself. After ''Wired'' Magazine picked up on work from [[Rogers Cadenhead]], Wales confirmed that he had (visibly and under his own name) edited his own biography on Wikipedia, a practice generally frowned upon within the Wikipedia community and even by Wales himself.
 <ref>{{Web reference | author=Wales, Jimbo | title=Re: [WikiEN-l] Daniel C. Boyer on wikipedia | work=wikien-l mailing list | url=http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=wikien-l&m=105999934110753&w=2 | date=4 August | year=2003}}</ref>
@@ Line 48: / Line 43: @@
 were in line with his view that former editor Larry Sanger should not be considered a co-founder of Wikipedia. When some other editors undid his edits, Wales repeated them twice. His edits changed specific references to Wikipedia's origins as well as the description of Bomis. Wales said in the ''Wired'' interview, "People shouldn't do it, including me. I wish I hadn't done it."
 <ref>{{Web reference | author=Hansen, Evan | title=Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio | work=Wired News | url=http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html | date=14 February | year=2006}}</ref>
 ==Other activities==
 [[Image:DSC02502 modified.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Wales in May 2005]]
 Wales has been a passionate adherent of [[Objectivist philosophy|Objectivism]], a philosophical system developed by author [[Ayn Rand]]. From 1992 to 1996 he ran the electronic mailing list "Moderated Discussion of [[Objectivist philosophy|Objectivist Philosophy]]"<ref>{{newsgroup reference Google | Author=Wales, Jimbo | Title=Re: Objectivism of Ayn Rand | Date=[[23 September]] [[1992]] | Newsgroup=talk.philosophy.misc | ID=Bv1u8x.Bnv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu | URL=http://groups.google.com/group/talk.philosophy.misc/msg/8c5e626c70a213f8?dmode=source }}</ref>, and in 2002, he began moderating [http://web.archive.org/web/20050207071329/www.wetheliving.com/mailman/listinfo/atlantis ''Atlantis''], an Objectivism-related mailing list on the Objectivist community site ''We the Living''.
+Perhaps inspired by the success of Wikipedia, Wales has founded the for-profit company [[Wikia]] (unrelated to [[Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia]]), which hosts various wikis and manages the [[Wikicities]] project.
+Wales was appointed a fellow of the [[Berkman Center for Internet and Society]] at [[Harvard Law School]] in 2005. Later that year, on October 3, according to a press release{{citation needed}}, Wales joined the [[Board of Directors]] of [[Socialtext]], a provider of [[wiki]] technology to businesses.
 Wales lives in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], with his wife Christine and daughter Kira. He has traveled to many countries, including the [[United Kingdom]], [[Belgium]], and [[France]]. He is protective about his personal life, and his interests and hobbies outside of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation are mostly unknown to the general public.
@@ Line 71: / Line 69: @@
 *[http://blog.jimmywales.com/ Wales's blog]
 *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jimbo_Wales Wales's Wikipedia user page] <!-- please do not make this an internal link; see [[Wikipedia:Avoid self-references]] and this article's talk page for reasons -->
+*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Larry_Sanger/Origins_of_Wikipedia Larry Sanger about the origins of Wikipedia]
 ====News media====