[WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

[Sheldon Rampton]

Brian <Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu> wrote:

> Let's be clear that, especially after the failure of Nupedia to take  
> off,
> Wikipedia's success was a surprise both to Sanger and Wales. Neither  
> of them
> expected that this would happen and can therefore not take full or  
> too much
> credit for it.

The fact that they were surprised by its success does not mean that  
they don't deserve credit for it. History is full of ideas whose  
success surprised their creators. I'm sure the Beatles were surprised  
when they soared to the top of the music charts (especially after they  
had spent years grinding away with only modest success in Hamburg and  
Liverpool). When Linus Torvalds released the first version of Linux,  
he had no way of knowing that it would take off the way it did. That  
doesn't mean the Beatles don't deserve credit for their music or  
Torvalds doesn't deserve credit for Linux.

If anything, the failure of Nupedia shows that Sanger and Wales  
deserve *more* credit, not less. Rather than giving up on the idea of  
an online encyclopedia after their first attempt, they persevered,  
retooled and came up with an alternative approach that did work. Of  
course they had no way of knowing what a success it would become. They  
got lucky, and a huge community of other people has contributed in  
various ways. But they still deserve credit for the original innovation.

-------------------------------------------

SHELDON RAMPTON
Research director, Center for Media & Democracy
Center for Media & Democracy
520 University Avenue, Suite 227
Madison, WI 53703
phone: 608-260-9713

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