Wikipedia paternity controversy

Larry Senger, who is often called by the press as a co-founder of Wikipedia on a par with Jimmy Wales, began a campaign to popularize his role in creating the largest online encyclopedia. Enlisting the support of the largest possible part of the community of its users, he intends to regain glory and restore justice.

The fact is that for many years Wales, who formally stood and stands at the head of the company managing Wikipedia, did his best to minimize Sanger’s contribution to her birth in the eyes of the public. Without concealing his irritation at the fact that Larry allegedly appropriated the “title” of the co-founder, he even resorted to editing his own biography in order to exclude from it references to Sanger.

True, he had to apologize to the audience afterwards, but still Wales stayed his way: Sanger was just an editor, subordinate to Jimmy, along with 20 other employees of Bomis, who at the turn of the century worked with several projects of the social knowledge collector. With the same success, as he believes, can be called the founding fathers of all these employees. In a detailed conversation with his opponent, he asked him to stop making such statements.
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However, now Sanger seems to have seriously decided to overthrow the “regime” of Wales, relying on the facts that he gathered on the page of his personal website, entitled “My Wikipedia Role”. There we see links to publications in chronological order, in which Larry clearly establishes the authorship of the most important idea of ​​creating an encyclopedia on an open Wiki engine, as well as articles, presentations and press releases, where he is called the chief editor, the organizer and, along with Wales, the creator of Wikipedia.

After Sanger left Wikipedia leadership in 2002, the active members of her community welcomed Wales as a replacement for Larry and his successor as manager, although by then there was no need for active management of the “sherkhu” self-organization.

When Sanger's role began to be forgotten little by little by the new encyclopedia activists, Wales was gradually referred to as the only driving force behind her birth. But this, as one of the most powerful veterans of the site, Manning Bartlett (Manning Bartlett) writes, is “an obvious absurdity.” Yes, Jimmy was the one who first put forward and implemented the idea of ​​an online encyclopedia, which Nupedia has become. But this “old woman”, who has not found a way to great popularity, completely surrendered in the face of her sister Wikipedia, to the idea of ​​which Wales has no direct relationship.

Wales's answer to Sanger's arguments is simple. He claims that all the publications on his list are written mostly by Larry or with his active participation. Without thinking at that time that Wikipedia would have to be divided and without seeing the emerging cult of Larry's personality, Jimbo approved all these releases and articles, which he regretted now. But he does not intend to give up, and he can also be understood.

Such disputes between brilliant ambitious people are not new in world history. Sir Newton, becoming the head of the Royal Scientific Society, did everything to erase from history all references to his competitors. Also did Mr. Edison sometime. Detailed descriptions of these stories are on Wikipedia. But how the current story will end, we just have to find out.