Larry Sanger

Larry Sanger is an American internet project developer who co-founded Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales. He is also the founder of the wiki-based free encyclopedia project, Citizendium, which was launched in 2007. A trained philosopher with a focus on epistemology — the study of knowledge, Sanger has been involved with various online encyclopedia projects. Born as the son of a marine biologist, Sanger developed an early interest in philosophy and proceeded to study the subject from Reed College and later on completed his doctorate in the same field from Ohio State University. As a college student he became fascinated with the internet and realized the potential of its publishing abilities. He even set up a listserver to serve as a medium where students and teachers could meet up for tutoring sessions. Sanger was thinking of ideas for a web site when one of his acquaintances, Jimmy Wales, came up with the idea of an online encyclopedia. Thus the Nupedia—the precursor to Wikipedia—was born. However some issues over content management cropped up between Wales and Sanger, and Sanger left the project. Over the ensuing years he launched several internet projects of his own including the Citizendium and Reading Bear. Sanger has also taught philosophy at Ohio State University