From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Larry Sanger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Larry Sanger Sanger in 2006 Born Lawrence Mark Sanger July 16, 1968 (age 53) Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Education Reed College (BA) Ohio State University (MA, PhD) Occupation Internet project developer, philosopher Known for Co-founding Nupedia, Co-founding Wikipedia, and founding Citizendium Board member of Phunware (advisory board) Children 2 sons Website LarryS Lawrence Mark Sanger (/ˈsæŋər/; [1] born July 16, 1968) is an American Internet project developer and philosopher who co-founded the online encyclopedia Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales. Sanger coined the name and wrote much of Wikipedia's original governing policy. Sanger has worked on other online projects, including Nupedia, Encyclopedia of Earth, Citizendium, WatchKnowLearn, Reading Bear, Infobitt and Everipedia. He has also advised blockchain company Phunware and advised the nonprofit online American political encyclopedia Ballotpedia. [2] While studying at college, Sanger developed an interest in 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 served as Wikipedia's community leader in Wikipedia's early stages but became increasingly disillusioned with the project and left it in 2002. Sanger's status as a co-founder of Wikipedia has been questioned by fellow co-founder Jimmy Wales but is generally accepted. Since Sanger's departure from Wikipedia, he has been critical of the project, describing it in 2007 as being "broken beyond repair".[3] 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.[4][5] He founded Citizendium in 2006 to compete with Wikipedia, but stepped down as editor-in-chief in 2010, and left Citizendium entirely in 2020. In 2017, he joined Everipedia as chief information officer (CTO), but resigned from this position in 2019 to establish the Knowledge Standards Foundation and the encyclosphere. Sanger currently serves as the President and Executive Director of the Knowledge Standards Foundation.[2][6][7] 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. Early life and education Lawrence Mark Sanger was born in Bellevue, Washington, on July 16, 1968.[8] His father Gerry was a marine biologist who studied seabirds and his mother raised the children.[6][9] When he was seven years old, his family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where he grew up.[8][10] He was interested in philosophical topics at an early age. [11][12] Sanger graduated from high school in 1986 and attended Reed College, majoring in philosophy. [12] In college he became interested in the Internet and its potential as a publishing outlet.[11] Sanger set up a listserver as a medium for students and tutors to meet for tutoring and "to act as a forum for discussion of tutorials, tutorial methods, and the possibility and merits of a voluntary, free network of individual tutors and students finding each other via the Internet for education outside the traditional university setting".[13] He started and moderated a philosophy discussion list, the Association for Systematic Philosophy. [10] In 1994, Sanger wrote a manifesto for the discussion group: The history of philosophy is full of disagreement and confusion. One reaction by philosophers to this state of things is to doubt whether the truth about philosophy can ever be known, or whether there is any such thing as the truth about philosophy. But there is another reaction: one may set out to think more carefully and methodically than one's intellectual forebears.[10] Around 1994, Sanger met Jimmy Wales after subscribing to Wales’ mailing list titled Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy (MDOP).[14] Sanger received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Reed in 1991, a Master of Arts from Ohio State University in 1995, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Ohio State University in 2000.[15] Beginning in 1998, he and a friend ran a website called "Sanger and Shannon's Review of Y2K News Reports", a resource for people such as managers of computer systems who were concerned about the year 2000 problem. [10][16]