Editing History of Wikipedia (section)

==Historical overview==
===Background===
The concept of compiling the world's knowledge in a single location dates back to the ancient [[Library of Alexandria]] and [[Library of Pergamum]], and there are ancient precursors of the idea of a comprehensive encyclopedia, such as [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis historia]]'', but the modern concept of a general-purpose, widely distributed, printed encyclopedia originates with [[Denis Diderot]] and the 18th-century French [[Encyclopédie|encyclopedists]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miloš |first=Todorović |year=2018 |title=From Diderot's Encyclopedia to Wales's Wikipedia: a brief history of collecting and sharing knowledge |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347489594 |journal=Časopis KSIO |volume=1 |pages=88–102 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.3235309 |access-date=20 October 2021}}</ref> The idea of using automated machinery beyond the [[printing press]] to build a more useful encyclopedia can be traced to [[Paul Otlet]]'s 1934 book ''[[Traité de Documentation]]''. Otlet also founded the [[Mundaneum]], an institution dedicated to indexing the world's knowledge, in 1910. This concept of a machine-assisted encyclopedia was further expanded in [[H. G. Wells]]' book of essays ''[[World Brain]]'' (1938) and [[Vannevar Bush]]'s future vision of the [[microfilm]]-based [[Memex]] in his essay "[[As We May Think]]" (1945).<ref name="reaglechap2">Reagle, Joseph (2010). ''Good Faith Collaboration.  The Culture of Wikipedia''. MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0262014472}}. Chapter 2: "The Pursuit of the Universal Encyclopedia".</ref> Another milestone was [[Ted Nelson]]'s [[hypertext]] design [[Project Xanadu]], which began in 1960.<ref name=reaglechap2/>

The use of volunteers was integral in making and maintaining Wikipedia. However, even without the internet, huge complex projects of similar nature had made use of volunteers. Specifically, the creation of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' was conceived with the speech at the London Library, on [[Guy Fawkes Day]], 5 November 1857, by [[Richard Chenevix Trench]]. It took about 70 years to complete. Dr. Trench envisioned a grand new dictionary of every word in the English language, and to be used democratically and freely. According to author Simon Winchester, "The undertaking of the scheme, he said, was beyond the ability of any one man. To peruse all of English literature{{snd}}and to comb the London and New York newspapers and the most literate of the magazines and journals{{snd}}must be instead 'the combined action of many.' It would be necessary to recruit a team{{snd}}moreover, a huge one{{snd}}probably comprising hundreds and hundreds of unpaid amateurs, all of them working as volunteers."<ref>Winchester, Simon (1998). ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary''. Harpers, p. 106.</ref>

Advances in information technology in the late 20th century led to changes in the form of encyclopedias. While previous encyclopedias, notably the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', were often book-based, Microsoft's [[Encarta]], published in 1993, was available on CD-ROM and [[hyperlink]]ed. The development of the [[World Wide Web]] led to many attempts to develop [[Online encyclopedia|internet encyclopedia projects]]. An early proposal for an online encyclopedia was [[Interpedia]] in 1993 by [[Rick Gates (Internet pioneer)|Rick Gates]];<ref name="listserv.uh.edu" /> this project died before generating any encyclopedic content. [[Free software]] proponent [[Richard Stallman]] described the usefulness of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource" in 1998.<ref name="stallmanencyclopedia">{{Cite web |last=Stallman |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Stallman |year=1998 |title=The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource (1998 Draft) |url=https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124065108/https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |archive-date=24 January 2021 |access-date=29 October 2021 |publisher=GNU}}</ref> His published document outlined how to "ensure that progress continues towards this best and most natural outcome."

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said that the concept of Wikipedia came when he was a graduate student at [[Indiana University Bloomington|Indiana University]], where he was impressed with the successes of the [[open-source movement]] and found Richard Stallman's [[GNU Manifesto|Emacs Manifesto]] promoting [[free software movement|free software]] and a sharing economy interesting. Wales also credits [[Austrian School]] economist [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s essay, "[[The Use of Knowledge in Society]]," which he read as an undergraduate,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-09-30 |title=Know It All - The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140930011944/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/31/know-it-all |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-09-30 |access-date=2024-11-07 }}</ref> as "central" to his thinking about "how to manage the Wikipedia project."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mangu-Ward |first=Katherine |date=2007-05-30 |title=Wikipedia and Beyond |url=https://reason.com/2007/05/30/wikipedia-and-beyond/ |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Reason.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The essay asserts that [[Dispersed knowledge|information is decentralized]]—that each individual only knows a small fraction of what is known collectively—and that as a result, decisions are best made by those with local knowledge, rather than by a central authority. At the time, Wales was studying finance and was intrigued by the incentives of the many people who contributed as volunteers toward creating free software, where many examples were having excellent results.<ref>{{Citation |title=Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: "I have this crazy idea that people will pay for free news" |url=https://play.acast.com/s/dannyinthevalley/wikipediasjimmywales |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Danny in the Valley |date=19 January 2018 |language=en |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316055526/https://play.acast.com/s/dannyinthevalley/wikipediasjimmywales |url-status=live }} Richard Stallman discussed at 20min, with further Open Source discussion at 16min.</ref> According to ''[[The Economist]]'', Wikipedia "has its roots in the [[Technological utopianism|techno-optimism]] that characterised the internet at the end of the 20th century. It held that ordinary people could use their computers as tools for liberation, education, and enlightenment."<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 January 2021 |title=Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |access-date=29 August 2022 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221231224550/https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Formulation of the concept===
Wikipedia was initially conceived as a feeder project for the Wales-founded [[Nupedia]], an earlier project to produce a free online encyclopedia, volunteered by [[Bomis]], a web-advertising firm owned by Jimmy Wales, [[Tim Shell]] and [[Michael E. Davis (businessman)|Michael E. Davis]].<ref name="thehive" /><ref name="Jonathan Sidener">{{Cite news |last=Sidener |first=Jonathan |date=6 December 2004 |title=Everyone's Encyclopedia |work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221005820/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041206/news_mz1b6encyclo.html |archive-date=21 February 2009}}</ref><ref name="memoirofwiki" /> Nupedia was founded upon the use of qualified volunteer contributors and a considered multi-step [[peer review]] process.<ref>Kaplan Andreas, Haenlein Michael (2014) Collaborative projects (social media application): About Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Business Horizons, Volume 57 Issue 5, pp. 617–626</ref> Despite its mailing list of over 2000 interested editors, and the presence of Sanger as full-time editor-in-chief,<ref name="resignation">{{Cite web |title=My resignation – Larry Sanger – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en |quote=I was more or less offered the job of editing Nupedia when I was, as an ABD philosophy graduate student, soliciting Jimbo's (and other friends') advice on a website I was thinking of starting. It was the first I had heard of Jimbo's idea of an open content encyclopedia, and I was delighted to take the job. |archive-date=20 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320142105/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/My_resignation--Larry_Sanger |url-status=live }}</ref> the production of content for Nupedia was extremely slow, with only 12 articles written during the first year.<ref name="memoirofwiki" />

The Nupedians discussed various ways to create content more rapidly.<ref name="Jonathan Sidener" /> Wikis had been used elsewhere on the web to organize knowledge,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-01-12 |title=From the archives: Highland Park teen is finalist in web competition |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2013-01-12-chi-archives-aaron-swartz-20130112-story.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=Chicago Tribune}}</ref> and the idea of a [[wiki]]-based complement to Nupedia was seeded by a conversation between Sanger and Ben Kovitz,<ref name="Ben_Kovitz">{{Cite news |title=Ben Kovitz |publisher=[[WikiWikiWeb]] |url=http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404030625/http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BenKovitz |archive-date=4 April 2007}} – see also Ben Kovitz'  fuller account which he links from there.</ref><ref name="Glyn Moody">{{Cite news |last=Moody |first=Glyn |date=13 July 2006 |title=This time, it'll be a Wikipedia written by experts |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html |url-status=live |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222023201/http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818630,00.html |archive-date=22 February 2007}} – While casting around for a way to speed up article production, Sanger met with Kovitz, an old friend, in January 2001. Kovitz introduced Sanger to the idea of the wiki, invented in 1995 by Ward Cunningham: web pages that anyone could write and edit. "My first reaction was that this really could be what would solve the problem," Sanger explains, "because the software was already written, and this community of people on WikiWikiWeb" – the first wiki – "had created something like 14,000 pages". Nupedia, by contrast, had produced barely two dozen articles. Sanger took up the idea immediately: "I wrote up a proposal and sent it [to Wales] that evening, and the wiki was then set up for me to work on." But this was not Wikipedia as we know it. "Originally it was the Nupedia Wiki – our idea was to use it as an article incubator for Nupedia. Articles could begin life on this wiki, be developed collaboratively and, when they got to a certain stage of development, be put into the Nupedia system."</ref><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia">{{Cite news |last=Sidener |first=Jonathan |date=23 September 2006 |title=Wikipedia co-founder looks to add accountability, end anarchy |work=[[The San Diego Union-Tribune]] |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017041126/http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060923/news_lz1n23wiki.html |archive-date=17 October 2007 |quote=The origins of Wikipedia date to 2000, when Sanger was finishing his doctoral thesis in philosophy and had an idea for a Web site.}}</ref> and by another between Wales and Jeremy Rosenfeld.<ref name="Ben_Kovitz" /> Kovitz was a [[computer programmer]] and regular on [[Ward Cunningham]]'s revolutionary wiki "the [[WikiWikiWeb]]". He explained to Sanger what wikis were, over a dinner on 2 January 2001.<ref name="Ben_Kovitz" /><ref name="Glyn Moody" /><ref name="Origins_of_Wikipedia" /><ref name="the hive">{{Cite magazine |last=Poe |first=Marshall |date=September 2006 |title=The Hive |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3 |url-status=live |magazine=[[The Atlantic Monthly]] |page=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110160718/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/3 |archive-date=10 November 2006 |access-date=25 March 2007}} – "Over tacos that night, Sanger explained his concerns about Nupedia's lack of progress, the root cause of which was its serial editorial system. As Nupedia was then structured, no stage of the editorial process could proceed before the previous stage was completed. Kovitz brought up the wiki and sketched out 'wiki magic,' the mysterious process by which communities with common interests work to improve wiki pages by incremental contributions. If it worked for the rambunctious hacker culture of programming, Kovitz said, it could work for any online collaborative project. The wiki could break the Nupedia bottleneck by permitting volunteers to work simultaneously all over the project. With Kovitz in tow, Sanger rushed back to his apartment and called Wales to share the idea. Over the next few days, he wrote a formal proposal for Wales and started a page on Cunningham's wiki called 'Wikipedia.{{'-}}"</ref> Wales stated in October 2001 that "Larry had the idea to use Wiki software" for people bored by Nupedia process,<ref name="Wikipedia-l-000671">{{Cite news |last=Wales |first=Jimmy |date=30 October 2001 |title=LinkBacks? |publisher=Wikimedia |format=Email |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620072830/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-October/000671.html |archive-date=20 June 2014}}</ref> and later stated in December 2005 that Rosenfeld had introduced him to the wiki concept.<ref name="Wired News">{{Cite magazine |date=3 May 2007 |title=Assignment Zero First Take: Wiki Innovators Rethink Openness |url=https://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium |url-status=dead |magazine=[[Wired News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328235925/http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/05/assignment_zero_citizendium |archive-date=28 March 2014 |access-date=1 November 2007}} Wired.com states: "Wales offered the following on-the-record comment in an e-mail to NewAssignment.net editor [and NYU Professor] [[Jay Rosen]] ...' Larry Sanger was my employee working under my direct supervision during the entire process of launching Wikipedia. He was not the originator of the proposal to use a wiki for the encyclopedia project – that was Jeremy Rosenfeld'."</ref><ref name="cadenhead">{{Cite web |last=Rogers Cadenhead |title=Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1 |url=http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1 |access-date=15 October 2006 |archive-date=26 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926103410/http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="rosenfeld">Also stated on Wikipedia, on Friday 2 December 2005 [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 permanent reference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311054329/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184 |date=11 March 2021 }}</ref><ref>Stated on Wikipedia on Monday 14 March 2005: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=11139857 reference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222221915/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=11139857 |date=22 February 2021 }}</ref> Sanger thought a wiki would be a good platform to use, and proposed on the Nupedia [[mailing list]] that a wiki based upon [[UseModWiki]] (then v. 0.90) be set up as a "feeder" project for Nupedia. Under the subject "Let's make a wiki", he wrote:<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=10 January 2001 |title=Let's make a wiki |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414014355/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000676.html |archive-date=14 April 2003}}</ref>

{{blockquote|No, this is not an indecent proposal. It's an idea to add a little feature to Nupedia. Jimmy Wales thinks that many people might find the idea objectionable, but I think not... As to Nupedia's use of a wiki, this is the ULTIMATE "open" and simple format for developing content. We have occasionally bandied about ideas for simpler, more open projects to either replace or supplement Nupedia. It seems to me wikis can be implemented practically instantly, need very little maintenance, and in general, are very low-risk. They're also a potentially great source of content. So there's little downside, as far as I can determine.}}
Wales set one up and put it online on Wednesday 10 January 2001, under the nupedia.com domain.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=10 January 2001 |title=Nupedia's wiki: try it out |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425173342/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-date=25 April 2003}}</ref> This moved to a new wiki under the wikipedia.com domain on 15 January. On 17 January, the [[Free Software Foundation]]'s (FSF) [[GNUPedia]] project went online, potentially competing with [[Nupedia]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 January 2001 |title=Slashdot Comments &#124; GNUPedia Project Starting |url=http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9990&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=502603 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612010030/https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9990 |archive-date=12 June 2022 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Slashdot.org}}</ref> but within a few years the FSF encouraged people "to visit and contribute to [Wikipedia]" instead.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2012 |title=The Free Encyclopedia Project |url=https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221000617/http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/ |archive-date=21 December 2012 |access-date=20 December 2012 |publisher=GNU.org |orig-year=1999}}</ref>

===Founding of Wikipedia===
{{See also|First Wikipedia edit|Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles|Wikipedia:First 100 pages}}
There was some hesitation among editors about binding Nupedia too closely to a wiki-style workflow.<ref name="memoirofwiki">{{cite web|first=Larry |last=Sanger |url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9 |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir – Part I|date=2005-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722235956/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F04%2F18%2F164213&tid=95&tid=149&tid=9 |archive-date=22 July 2009}} {{cite web|url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95 |title=The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir – Part II |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108094801/http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F04%2F19%2F1746205&tid=95 |archive-date=8 November 2006 |website=[[Slashdot]] |date=19 April 2005 |quote=My initial idea was that the wiki would be set up as part of Nupedia; it was to be a way for the public to develop a stream of content that could be fed into the Nupedia process. I think I got some of the basic pages written—how wikis work, what our general plan was, and so forth—over the next few days. I wrote a general proposal for the Nupedia community, and the Nupedia wiki went live January 10. The first encyclopedia articles for what was to become Wikipedia were written then. It turned out, however, that a clear majority of the Nupedia Advisory Board wanted to have nothing to do with a wiki. Again, their commitment was to rigor and reliability, a concern I shared with them and continue to have. Still, perhaps some of those people are kicking themselves now. They (some of them) evidently thought that a wiki could not resemble an encyclopedia at all, that it would be too informal and unstructured, as the original WikiWikiWeb was (and is), to be associated with Nupedia. They of course were perfectly reasonable to doubt that it would turn into the fantastic source of content that it did. Who could reasonably guess that it would work? But it did work, and now the world knows better.}}</ref> After a Nupedia wiki was launched under {{mono|nupedia.com}} on 10 January 2001,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-04-25 |title=[Nupedia-l] Nupedia's wiki: try it out |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425173342/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-date=25 April 2003 }}</ref> Wales proposed launching the new project under its own name, and Sanger proposed ''Wikipedia'', framing it as "a supplementary project to Nupedia which operates entirely independently."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Sanger |author-link=Larry Sanger |date=11 January 2001 |title=Re: [Advisory-l] The wiki... |publisher=Nupedia mailing list |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414021138/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-date=14 April 2003}}</ref> A new wiki was launched at {{mono|wikipedia.com}} on Monday 15 January 2001. The [[bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] and [[server (computing)|server]] (located in San Diego) used for these initial projects were donated by Bomis. Many former Bomis employees later contributed content to the encyclopedia: notably [[Tim Shell]], co-founder and later CEO of Bomis, and programmer Jason Richey.

Wales stated in December 2008 that he made Wikipedia's first edit, a test edit with the text "[["Hello, World!" program|Hello, World]]!", but this may have been to an old version of Wikipedia which soon after was scrapped and replaced by a restart.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&oldid=258632986 Message by Jimmy Wales] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412003535/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&diff=prev&oldid=258632986 |date=12 April 2016 }} Wednesday 17 December 2008. Retrieved Saturday 30 January 2010.</ref><ref>{{Cite mailing list |url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2011-January/108198.html |title=Hello world? |date=14 January 2011 |access-date=4 June 2022 |mailing-list=WikiEN-l |last=Starling |first=Tim}}</ref> The first recovered edit to Wikipedia.com was to the HomePage on 15 January 2001, reading "This is the new WikiPedia!"; it can be found [[Special:permalink/908493298|here]].<ref>Wikipedia's earliest edits were once believed lost, as early [[UseModWiki]] software deleted data after a month. But on 14 December 2010, [[Tim Starling]] found backups on [[SourceForge]] containing every change made to Wikipedia from its creation in January 2001 to 17 August 2001. As of 2019, these were imported into Wikipedia's edit history.

Before that, the first edits that had been known were to [[Special:PermanentLink/291430|Wikipedia:UuU]], [[Special:PermanentLink/286342|TransporT]], and [[Special:PermanentLink/11992008|User:ScottMoonen]] on 16 January 2001.</ref> The existence of the project was formally announced and an appeal for volunteers to engage in content creation was made to the Nupedia mailing list on 17 January 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2003 |title=&#91;Nupedia-l&#93; Wikipedia is up! |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000684.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030331101007/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000684.html |archive-date=31 March 2003 }}</ref>

The project received many new participants after being mentioned on the [[Slashdot]] website in July 2001,<ref name="slashdot26july">{{Cite web |date=26 July 2001 |title=Britannica and Free Content |url=http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114204227/http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |archive-date=14 January 2009 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref> having already earned two minor mentions in March 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 March 2001 |title=Nupedia and Project Gutenberg Directors Answer |url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/02/1422244&tid=99 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=29 March 2001 |title=Everything2 Hits One Million Nodes |url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/29/2035230&tid=95 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref> It then received a prominent pointer to a story on the community-edited technology and culture website [[Kuro5hin]] on 25 July.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 July 2001 |title=Britannica or Nupedia? The Future of Free Encyclopedias |url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011107050810/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/25/103136/121 |archive-date=7 November 2001 |publisher=Kuro5hin}}</ref> Between these influxes of traffic, there had been a steady stream of traffic from other sources, especially Google, which alone sent hundreds of new visitors to the site every day. Its first major [[mainstream media]] coverage was in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 20 September 2001.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Meyers |first=Peter |date=20 September 2001 |title=Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/fact-driven-collegial-this-site-wants-you.html |access-date=16 March 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=15 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415232001/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/technology/fact-driven-collegial-this-site-wants-you.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Divisions and internationalization ===
Early in Wikipedia's development, it began to expand internationally, with the creation of new [[namespace]]s, each with a distinct set of [[username]]s. The first [[subdomain]] created for a non-English Wikipedia was {{Mono|[[German Wikipedia|deutsche.wikipedia.com]]}} (created on Friday 16 March 2001, 01:38 UTC),<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 March 2001 |title=Alternative language Wikipedias |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |access-date=13 April 2010 |website=Lists |publisher=Wikimedia |archive-date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620120726/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |url-status=live }}</ref> followed after a few hours by {{Mono|[[Catalan Wikipedia|catalan.wikipedia.com]]}} (at 13:07 UTC).<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Catalan Homepage |url=http://catalan.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010413083954/http://catalan.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage |archive-date=13 April 2001 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> The [[Japanese Wikipedia]], started as {{Mono|nihongo.wikipedia.com}}, was created around that period,<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2001 |title=Nihongo No Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010420120143/http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |archive-date=20 April 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2001 |title=Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://www.wikipedia.com/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/ |archive-date=31 March 2001 }}</ref> and initially used only [[Romanization of Japanese|Romanized Japanese]]. For about two months Catalan was the one with the most articles in a non-English language,<ref>[[Wikipedia:Multilingual monthly statistics (2001)|Multilingual monthly statistics]]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%80bac&oldid=1 |title= First edition in the Catalan Wikipedia |language= ca |publisher= Wikipedia |access-date= 13 April 2010 |archive-date= 12 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014959/https://ca.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%80bac |url-status= live }}</ref> although statistics of that early period are imprecise.<ref>This [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_statistics_(2001)&oldid=192353617 table] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222221921/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AMultilingual_monthly_statistics_%282001%29&oldid=192353617 |date=22 February 2021 }}, for instance, misses Japanese and German articles such as [https://web.archive.org/web/20010421123743/http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nihongo_no_funimekusu this one] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20010411030440/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion this one], both dated 6 April 2001.</ref>

The [[French Wikipedia]] was created on or around 11 May 2001,<ref>The [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 Documentation on the French Wikipedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194149/https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 |date=8 June 2021 }} mentions the date of 23 March 2001, but this date is not supported by Wikipedia snapshots on the [[Internet Archive]], nor by Jason Richey's letter, which was dated 11 May 2001 (see below).</ref> in a wave of new language versions that also included [[Chinese Wikipedia|Chinese]], [[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]], [[Esperanto Wikipedia|Esperanto]], [[Hebrew Wikipedia|Hebrew]], [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]], <!--[[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]], commenting out: although Japanese Wikipedia was announced together with the others on that email, it already existed under the domain nihongo.wikipedia.com-->[[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]], [[Russian Wikipedia|Russian]], [[Spanish Wikipedia|Spanish]], and [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]].<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html  Letter of Jason Richey to wikipedia-l mailing list] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620081721/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html |date=20 June 2014 }} 11 May 2001</ref> These languages were soon joined by [[Arabic Wikipedia|Arabic]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Homepage from the Internet Archive |url=http://ar.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?HomePage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011118054300/http://ar.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?HomePage |archive-date=18 November 2001 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref> and [[Hungarian Wikipedia|Hungarian]].<ref>[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements_2001#May_2001 Wikipedia:Announcements] May 2001</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=International_Wikipedia&action=history |title = International Wikipedia |publisher=Wikipedia |access-date=13 April 2010}}</ref> In September 2001, an announcement pledged commitment to the multilingual provision of Wikipedia,<ref>[[Wikipedia: Announcements 2001#September 2001|Wikipedia:Announcements 2001]]</ref> notifying users of an upcoming roll-out of Wikipedias for all major languages, the establishment of core standards, and a push for the translation of core pages for the new wikis. At the end of that year, when international statistics first began to be logged, [[Afrikaans Wikipedia|Afrikaans]], [[Norwegian Wikipedia|Norwegian]], and [[Serbian Wikipedia|Serbian]] versions were announced.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Wikipedias statistics |url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030305012547/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |archive-date=5 March 2003 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref>

In January 2002, 90% of all Wikipedia articles were in English. By January 2004, fewer than 50% were English, and this internationalization has continued to increase as the encyclopedia grows. {{as of|2014}}, about 85% of all Wikipedia articles were in non-English Wikipedia versions.<ref name="Grand20" /> {{as of|2023}}, the English and Simple English Wikipedias have 7 million articles between them, but roughly 90% of articles were in non-English Wikipedias.<ref>{{Cite web |title=List of Wikipedias – Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en}}</ref>

===Development of Wikipedia===
[[File:Old Wikipedia.png|thumb|right|Wikipedia's main page (28 September 2002)]]
In March 2002, following the withdrawal of funding by Bomis during the [[dot-com bubble|dot-com bust]], Sanger left both Nupedia and Wikipedia.<ref name="Stacy Schiff">{{Cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Stacy |date=31 July 2006 |title=Know It All |url=https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122125817/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |archive-date=22 November 2008 |access-date=25 April 2009}}</ref> By 2002, he and Wales differed in their views on how best to manage open encyclopedias. Both still supported the open-collaboration concept, but they disagreed on how to handle disruptive editors, specific roles for experts, and the best way to guide the project to success.

Wales went on to establish self-governance and [[Business development|bottom-up]] self-direction by editors on Wikipedia. He made it clear that he would not be involved in the community's day-to-day management, but would encourage it to learn to self-manage and find its own best approaches. {{as of|2007}}, Wales mostly restricted his role to occasional input on serious matters, executive activity, advocacy of knowledge, and encouragement of similar reference projects.

Sanger said he is an "inclusionist" and is open to almost anything,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Nate |date=25 February 2007 |title=Citizendium: building a better Wikipedia |url=https://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars/3 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020001720/http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/citizendium.ars/3 |archive-date=20 October 2008 |access-date=22 October 2011 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref> and proposed that experts still have a place in the [[Web 2.0]] world. In 2006 he founded [[Citizendium]], an open encyclopedia that used real names for contributors to reduce disruptive editing, and hoped to facilitate "gentle expert guidance" to increase the accuracy of its content. Decisions about article content were to be up to the community, but the site was to include a statement about "family-friendly content".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archive: Family-Friendly Policy – Citizendium |url=http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Family-Friendly_Policy |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=en.citizendium.org |archive-date=20 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120030154/http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Family-Friendly_Policy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Nate Anderson"/>

=== Past content of Wikipedia ===
Old, even obsolete, encyclopedia articles are highly valuable for historical research.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 January 2021 |title=Encyclopedias Are Time Capsules – The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126035016/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |archive-date=26 January 2021 |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref> For each Wikipedia article, past versions are accessible through the "View history" link at the top of the page. The full version history of all Wikipedia articles is also available for download as [[Wikipedia:Database download|data dumps]], in the form of compressed [[XML]] files.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koehrsen |first=Will |date=2018-10-26 |title=Wikipedia Data Science: Working with the World’s Largest Encyclopedia |url=https://medium.com/towards-data-science/wikipedia-data-science-working-with-the-worlds-largest-encyclopedia-c08efbac5f5c |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Towards Data Science |language=en}}</ref>

In addition, the ZIM File Archive,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=ZIM File Archive: Free Data: Free Download, Borrow and Streaming |url=https://archive.org/details/zimarchive |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=Internet Archive |language=en}}</ref> at [[Internet Archive]], contains past full snapshots of Wikipedia as well as article selections, in multiple languages, from different years. They can be opened with [[Kiwix]] software. Between 2007 and 2011, three [[#English Wikipedia CD/DVD/Kiwix ZIM file releases|CD/DVD versions]] (called Wikipedia Version [[Wikipedia:Version 0.5|0.5]], [[Wikipedia:Version 0.7|0.7]] and [[Wikipedia:Version 0.8|0.8]]) containing a selection of articles from [[English Wikipedia]] were released. They became available as Kiwix ZIM files, both from the ZIM File Archive<ref name=":0" /> and from the Kiwix download site.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=Index of /archive/zim/wikipedia |url=https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/ |access-date=25 June 2022 |website=download.kiwix.org |archive-date=22 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622124809/https://download.kiwix.org/archive/zim/wikipedia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>


===Evolution of logo===
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Old wikipedia logo.png|alt=This is the very first logo|Founding – late 2001 (tentative)
File:Wiki logo The Cunctator.png|alt=This is the second "improved" logo|Late 2001 – 12 October 2003
File:Wikipedia-logo-en.png|alt=This is the next logo.|13 October 2003 – 13 May 2010
File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg|alt=This is the present logo|13 May 2010 – present
</gallery>