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NARRATOR: A history of Wikipedia

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in two and a half minutes.

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The history of Wikipedia
actually begins with this man,

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Ward Cunningham,

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who in 1994 created a new
website model known as a Wiki.

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Wikis are websites that allow users

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to create an edit information

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on the site in real time.

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Now, even though Wikis have
been around for awhile,

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only recently have they been used widely.

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Now they're revolutionizing
the way people collaborate

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and share ideas and
information on the internet.

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Fast forward the March of 2000,

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when these two guys, Jimmy
Wales and Larry Sanger

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decided that they wanted to create

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a free online encyclopedia,

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that would rival the
likes of Microsoft Encarta

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or the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Wales and Sanger called
their project Nupedia,

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Nupedia was a for-profit venture

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that required its articles to undergo

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a strict peer review process,

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before being published for public access.

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Contributors to Nupedia had to be experts

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in their respective fields,

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and PhDs were generally preferred.

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Unfortunately, in the early 2000s

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the internet was experiencing
some growing pains,

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and many upstart dot-coms were failing.

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Nupedia wasn't immune
to the online economy,

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and its lack of resources,
lack of direction

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and cumbersome review process,

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caused the project to go belly up in 2003,

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in its three year existence,

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Nupedia produced only 24 articles.

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Now around the same time Nupedia started,

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Wales and Sanger used Wiki technology

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to create Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia was launched in January of 2001

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and was intended to be a discussion forum

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where the public could
suggest and edit content

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for potential submission to Nupedia.

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Now, unlike Nupedia anyone
could create, edit and discuss

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the content on Wikipedia.

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After Nupedia's failure in 2003,

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Wales and Sanger looked at Wikipedia,

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now in comparison to
Nupedia's 24 articles,

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Wikipedia had produced
a little over 20,000,

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surprised by the popularity
and success of Wikipedia,

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Jimmy Wales decided to abandon
Nupedia peer review model

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and focus on encouraging
the anyone can edit model

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on Wikipedia.

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Larry Sanger did not
approve of this decision

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and left the project altogether.

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Since 2003, Wikipedia has grown to include

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over 10 million articles in 260 languages,

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nearly 3 million articles
in English alone.

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Wikipedia continually ranks

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in the top 10 websites on the internet,

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in terms of page views,

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and its popularity has
actually encouraged Google News

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to start linking directly
to Wikipedia's content

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from within it's news articles,

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and through it all,

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Wikipedia has kept it's
anyone can edit mantra.

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Wikipedia has had its share
of praise and criticism,

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triumphs and controversies,

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and though the future of the project

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may not be completely certain,

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one thing is for sure, whether
you love it or you hate it,

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Wikipedia has drastically affected

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how we access and share
information on the internet.