Wikipedia Cofounder Launches Rival Citizendium

Wikipedia Cofounder Launches Rival Citizendium

Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger has launched Citizendium, a self-proclaimed "citizens' compendium" of general knowledge.

The site will work like Wikipedia in that anyone can submit information; however, contributors must submit their real names, CNET reports. In addition, an editorial board will exercise "gentle expert oversight" of submitted articles.

Sanger started private testing of Citizendium in November 2006 and claims to now have approximately 820 authors and 186 editors contributing to the project. Authors can start or edit articles and editors can decide which version of an article is approved and which requires an academic background in a particular area of expertise.

The site hopes to have more control over how content is created and edited, in an effort to avoid many of the problems with defamation and vandalism that have sometimes plagued Wikipedia entries.