GNE (encyclopedia)
GNE(originallyGNUPedia) was a project to create afree-contentonline encyclopedia,licensed under theGNU Free Documentation License,under the auspices of theFree Software Foundation.The project was proposed byRichard Stallmanin December 2000[1]and officially started in January 2001. It was moderated by Héctor Facundo Arena, an ArgentineprogrammerandGNUactivist.[2]
History
[edit]Immediately upon its creation, GNUPedia was confronted by confusion with the similar-soundingNupediaproject led byJimmy WalesandLarry Sanger,and controversy over whether this constituted aforkof the efforts to produce a free encyclopedia. In addition, Wales already owned the gnupedia.orgdomain name.[3][4]The GNUPedia project changed its name to GNE (an abbreviation for "GNE's Not an Encyclopedia", arecursive acronymsimilar to that of theGNU Project) and switched to aknowledgebase.[2]GNE was designed to avoid centralization and editors who enforced quality standards, which they viewed as possibly introducing bias.Jonathan Zittraindescribed GNE as a "collective blog" more than an encyclopedia.[5]Stallman has since lent his support to Wikipedia.[6]
InThe Wikipedia Revolution,Andrew Lihexplains the reasons behind the demise of GNE:
Richard Stallman who inspired the free software andfree culture movementalso proposed his own encyclopedia in 1999 and attempted to launch it in the same year thatWikipediatook off. Called Gnupedia it coexisted confusingly in the same space asBomis'sNupedia,a completely separate product. Keeping with tradition Stallman renamed his project GNE – GNE's not an encyclopedia. But in the end Wikipedia's lead and enthusiastic community was already well established and Richard Stallman put the GNE project into inactive status and put his support behind Wikipedia.[7]
TheGNU Projectoffers the following explanation about GNE:
Just as we were starting a project, GNUpedia, to develop a free encyclopedia, the Nupedia encyclopedia project adopted the GNU Free Documentation License and thus became a free commercial project. So we decided to merge GNUpedia project into Nupedia. Now, the Wikipedia encyclopedia project has adopted the philosophy of Nupedia and taken it even further. We encourage you to visit and contribute to the site.[6]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^Stallman, Richard(December 18, 2000)."The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource".Retrieved2013-05-15.
- ^abReagle, Joseph Michael (2010).Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia.MIT Press.pp.37–38.ISBN9780262014472.
- ^Jimbo Walesgnupedia.org resolves to nupedia// bug-gnupedia mailing list - 21 Jan 2001 (ArchivedFebruary 8, 2012, at theWayback Machine)
- ^Poe, Marshall (September 1, 2006)."The Hive".The Atlantic.Archivedfrom the original on January 2, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 11,2014.)
- ^Zittrain, Jonathan(2008).The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.Yale University Press.pp.131–133.ISBN9780300145342.
- ^abThe Free Encyclopedia Projectgnu.org (ArchivedJanuary 5, 2012, at theWayback Machine)
- ^Lih, Andrew (2009).The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia.New York City:Hyperion Books.p.79.ISBN978-1-4013-0371-6.OCLC232977686.
External links
[edit]
- GNE website(ArchivedDecember 17, 2011, at theWayback Machine)