Nine Theses

I submit these nine theses to Wikipedia's community and to the world. I do this, as Martin Luther said when he posted his famous 95 theses^⧉ "Out of love for the truth and the desire to elucidate it."

A quarter of a century ago, Jimmy Wales' company Bomis hired me to start a free encyclopedia. The first draft, from which we learned much, was Nupedia---it made slow progress. So, a year later, on January 2, 2001, when a friend told me about wikis, I immediately began imagining a wiki encyclopedia. I proposed it to Jimmy, then CEO of Bomis. He agreed and installed the software, and I went to work getting things ready. After I named it, we launched Wikipedia on January 15, 2001, and just nine days later, I was able to write, "Wikipedia has definitely taken on a life of its own; new people are arriving every day and the project seems to be getting only more popular. Long live Wikipedia!"

The title I claimed at the time was "chief instigator." My daily leadership for the 14 months after that was essential to transforming a completely empty, blank wiki into what would soon become the largest written resource in the history of the world. I was responsible for several policies that were and are fundamental to the project: the exclusive focus on an encyclopedia; neutrality; "no original research"; "be bold"; aspects of the verifiability policy; and other things. I even proposed the tongue-in-cheek "rule" to "ignore all rules." For more, see this page on my role in Wikipedia^⧉ my Slashdot memoir^⧉ and my book, Essays on Free Knowledge. I say these things not to brag but to show why my proposals deserve a careful hearing.

I carefully chose and worded the following nine theses to appeal to the universal concern for truth and justice. I have worked for many months on this project. I am confident that every thesis stands on solid ground. Some Wikipedians, wedded to the current system, might be inclined to reject them; but many others, as well as the broader world, will be able to see that they are quite reasonable. I hope that the Wikipedia community will do the necessary introspection and find ways to make these proposals a reality. I also hope the broader world will join the discussion on each point and press Wikipedia's leadership as well as rank-and-file editors to adopt them, for the good of all.