Wikipedia Opens as a Free Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit

On January 15, 2001, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched an experimental online project known as Wikipedia. The enterprise originated as an auxiliary component of Nupedia, an online reference work founded in March 2000 under the portal firm Bomis. While Nupedia relied upon written contributions from credentialed scholars subjected to an elaborate peer review mechanism, its progress proved remarkably slow. Sanger proposed the deployment of wiki software to create an open platform where volunteer contributors could rapidly compile drafts that might later feed into the formal publication pipeline.

The new platform operated under an entirely different editorial model. Anyone with an internet connection could freely create or edit text, bypassing traditional academic gatekeeping. Wales is often credited with defining the goal of a publicly editable encyclopedia, while Sanger is credited with the strategy of utilizing wiki architecture and coined the compound title from the words wiki and encyclopedia. The project grew rapidly, reaching some 20,000 articles in 18 languages within its first year and swiftly eclipsing Nupedia, which was terminated in 2003 with its articles moved into Wikipedia.