Andreas,
It's important to understand that Jimmy Wales
didn't accomplish the things
you speak of alone.
Yes, I'm aware of this. Perhaps I should have been more clear. I was
pointing to the fact that Jimmy did not mess it up. I don't ever
underestimate that. Jimmy could have not allowed that to happen, he could
have charged money, he could have done a lot of other things, and he did
not. He did not mess it up and that is really saying something.
Warmly,
/a
On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 6:16 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 27, 2016 at 8:44 PM, Anna Stillwell <astillwell(a)wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
> > Jimmy,
> >
> > I have a ridiculous amount of respect for you and what you have
> > accomplished. I have watched from afar (I was living a lot in other
> > countries) as this radical experiment in trust *exploded* on to the
> world.
> > It blew my mind. And some of the early rules that were set were nothing
> > short of genius (e.g. NPOV, AGF and due weight come to mind). It was an
> > ideal experiment: an open frontier with simple, limited rule sets. And
> the
> > icing on the cake is that "citation needed" ended up not just
influencing
> > how I thought about an encyclopedic text, but how I thought about
> > discussing ideas.
> >
>
> Anna,
>
> Hold on just a moment. :)
>
It's important to understand that Jimmy Wales
didn't accomplish the things
> you speak of alone.
>
> First of all, the person who originally had the idea for Wikipedia was
> Larry Sanger.[1] Jimmy Wales reportedly thought at the time people would
> find the idea of an encyclopedia anyone can edit "objectionable".[2]
>
> But he let Sanger try it. That it "took off" was a surprise to everyone at
> the time!
>
> Sanger coined the name "Wikipedia"[3] and invited the first
> contributors.[4] Sanger wrote Nupedia's Non-bias policy, the precursor to
> NPOV, but Jimmy Wales made important input to the NPOV policy later on, in
> particular the "due weight" principle.[5]
>
> Sanger was Wikipedia's editor-in-chief in its early days, and had far more
> hands-on involvement in guiding the development of the project in its
> childhood. (Jimmy Wales made just 21 edits to Wikipedia in the year 2002,
> according to his edit history, while Sanger made hundreds.)
>
> "Assume good faith" was created by Morwen in March 2004. I'm not aware
that
> Jimmy Wales had any role in its creation (he was hardly around on-wiki in
> the months prior to March 2004).
>
> So let's not forget that Wikipedia has always been the work of many people.
> :) That includes its fundamental policies.
>
>
>
> > So it is from that genuine respect base that I disagree with you on this
> > particular point:
> >
> > "> I would love to know whether you supported Lila Tretikov's
departure.
> It
> > is
> > > clear that she did not up and resign on her own, and I would like to
> know
> > > if you were one of the folks who thought her departure would be
> > beneficial,
> > > or if you preferred she "weather the storm," so to speak.
> >
> > I supported it with sadness. The whole thing is a sad train wreck."
> >
> > I do not think this is a train wreck. I think this is one of the hottest
> > moments since this genius encyclopedia exploded onto the world.
> >
> > People are engaged.
> >
>
>
> Here I wholeheartedly agree with you. :) One of the best things to have
> come out of this is that there are bonds between volunteers and staff that
> have never been there before. These are exciting times.
>
> Best,
> Andreas
>
> [1]
>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html
> [2]
>
>
http://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/…
> [3]
>
>
http://web.archive.org/web/20030414021138/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/…
> [4]
>
>
http://web.archive.org/web/20010506042824/www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia…
> [5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#History
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--
Anna Stillwell
Major Gifts Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
415.806.1536
*www.wikimediafoundation.org <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>*