Larry Sanger is an online project developer from the United States who co-founded Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales. He is also the founder of Citizendium, a wiki-based free encyclopedia project that began in 2007. Sanger, a professional philosopher who specializes in epistemology (the study of knowledge), has worked on a number of online encyclopedia projects. Sanger, the son of a marine biologist, developed an early interest in philosophy and went on to Reed College to study the subject before going on to Ohio State University to get his doctorate in the same field. He grew enamored with the internet as a college student and saw the potential of its publishing capabilities. He even set up a listserver to facilitate tutoring sessions between students and teachers. Sanger was brainstorming website ideas when one of his acquaintances, Jimmy Wales, suggested an online encyclopedia. Thus was established Nupedia, the forerunner of Wikipedia. However, disagreements between Wales and Sanger over content management led to Sanger’s departure from the project. Over the next few years, he started his own internet ventures, including Citizendium and Reading Bear. Sanger also taught philosophy at the University of Ohio.
Childhood and Adolescence
Lawrence Mark “Larry” Sanger was born in Bellevue, Washington, on July 16, 1968. His father worked as a marine biologist, and his mother worked as a housewife.
In 1986, he completed secondary school. He showed an early interest in philosophical themes and went on to Reed College to study philosophy, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1991. He was exposed to the internet while in college and quickly understood its enormous potential as a means of information transmission.
He created a listserver for students and tutors to gather for tutorial sessions and to debate the prospect of forming a volunteer network where students and teachers could find each other over the internet. He also founded and moderated the Association for Systematic Philosophy, a philosophy discussion list.
In 1995, he received his Master of Arts in philosophy from Ohio State University. His dissertation, ‘Epistemic Circularity: An Essay on the Problem of Meta-Justification,’ earned him a Ph.D. from the same university in 2000.
Larry Sanger’s Career
Jimmy Wales introduced the notion of an online encyclopedia while Sanger was discussing possible ideas with his internet pals. Wales had already registered Nupedia as a domain name, so the two men partnered up. Sanger was hired as Nupedia’s editor-in-chief.
Nupedia, an English-language Web-based encyclopedia, was established in March 2000. Volunteer contributors with relevant competence in the subjects they wrote about contributed articles to the encyclopedia. Before being published, the content went through a seven-step approval process and was reviewed by qualified editors.
Nupedia was founded on the concept of producing content that was equivalent to that of professional encyclopedias. Sanger wanted researchers to volunteer as writers in order to maintain control over the content’s quality.
Progress at Nupedia was slow due to the strict control method, which upset both Sanger and Wales. The idea for Wikipedia was conceived when Sanger suggested that they construct a wiki to encourage article development.
Wikipedia became operational in January 2001. During the early months of the project, Sanger was in charge, and the rapid expansion of Wikipedia astounded both founders. However, problems with material quality arose between Wales and Sanger within months after its inception.
Sanger quit as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and chief organizer of Wikipedia in March 2002, after ongoing content conflicts. He then went on to teach philosophy as a lecturer at Ohio State University until June 2005.
In December 2005, he joined the Digital Universe Foundation as a Director of Distributed Content Programs.
In 2007, he founded Citizendium, a wiki-based free encyclopedia with the goal of providing users with high-quality, trustworthy content. Even though the articles are authored by volunteers, they are subjected to rigorous moderation and expert evaluation before publication. Sanger had stated at the start of the project that he would not be the editor-in-chief indefinitely, and he stepped down in 2010.
He has worked for the WatchKnowLearn project, a non-profit organization dedicated to using online technologies to educate young children. From 2008 to 2010, he oversaw the project’s development and served as the system’s executive director.
From 2010-to 11, Sanger worked on a web-based reading-tutorial tool for beginning readers called Reading Bear, which was released in 2012. To help children learn to read, the system employs multimedia presentations such as movies, PowerPoint presentations, and ebooks.
Larry’s Major Projects
Larry Sanger was a co-founder of Wikipedia, the hugely successful free-content Internet encyclopedia that debuted in 2001. Sanger came up with the name and drafted much of the organization’s initial philosophy.
He is the founder of Citizendium, a wiki-based free encyclopedia project that he began in 2007. The project, which is based on the Wikipedia concept, intends to boost reputation by tightly regulating information for increased reliability.
Achievements and Awards
In 2015, the Erasmus Prize was given to the Wikipedia community, of which Sanger is a member, for spreading knowledge through a comprehensive and universally accessible encyclopedia.
Personal History and Legacy
Larry Sanger is the father of two children.
Estimated Net worth
Wales’s overall net worth is estimated to be a little over $1 million, including shares from his for-profit wiki-hosting firm Wikia. His earnings are a perennial source of intrigue.