Nupedia News

March 22, 2000

It's been quite a long time since our last update, but that's mainly because we've been so busy. This update will be brief and informal.

As most of you already know, the much-heralded new web-based system is now (long since) up and running. To see it operate in its full splendor, you'll have to be logged in. We plan to add more instructions (where text is underlined) but have always seemed to lack time to finish this task. Meanwhile, the system is simple enough, with enough instructions already in place, for many people to have started using it; others, it seems, might feel they've been left high and dry. Our apologies; we will try to get those instructions written. In the meantime, of course, help is available from many different people.

A conversation in early January about the so-called "WikiWiki" software led to the creation of Wikipedia, a new encyclopedia project complementary to Nupedia. Basically, anyone can go to any page of that website and, by simply pressing the "edit text" link, edit the text of the page. As of this moment (Thursday, March 22, 12:57 PM Pacific Time), we have 2,953 (yes, 2,953) pages in Wikipedia. Of these, 1,816 are relatively substantial articles. We started in January, 2001, so we've made incredible progress--even we are surprised. Maybe you think that Wikipedia would end up being a rather low-quality product, since it's open to everyone. But perhaps it's the fact that it is open to everyone that makes a lot of these articles in fact not so bad, and ever-improving. We tend to cater to the highest common denominator--"lower denominators" usually don't touch articles they know nothing about.

Please note: the editorial processes and policies of Wikipedia and Nupedia are totally separate; Nupedia editors and peer reviewers do not necessarily endorse the Wikipedia project, and Wikipedia contributors do not necessarily endorse the Nupedia project. Larry Sanger is working on both projects, as are a number of Nupedia members. The projects might eventually develop a very interesting symbiotic relationship. But nothing along those lines is official, and no changes are anticipated in the near future. Certainly no changes will be made without consulting Advisory-L and Nupedia-L.

In January and February, we had an enormous influx of traffic due to coverage of Nupedia by the German press agency DPA and by the hugely popular computer programmer website, Slashdot.org (twice!). (This has led, by the way, to our getting far behind in our e-mail--something for which we apologize, but it really couldn't be helped.)

As a result, we have set up Deutsch-L, a mailing list, ably led by Andreas Flack, which has been producing German translations of various Nupedia pages. And as a result of that, we've accepted translations of the home page in French, Italian, and Spanish (as well as German of course). We've set up Interpret-L for general translation issues, as well as Espanol-L, Francais-L, Italiano-L, and Portugues-L. See our information page for translations for more information.

Another piece of news is that we have found an able Chief Copyeditor who may be contacted via the copyediting page.

Those, then, are some news highlights. There has been much other news. If you're curious, you could join Nupedia-L or simply poke around the website to see what you've been missing. Kind regards to all!

December 15, 2000

We are hereby kicking off a membership contest--we hope the holiday spirit, or at least greed, will move you to participate.  You might win $250 or more; details below.  Also, our new system is almost finished. When we "go live" with it, you can expect a special announcement.  This is a very big deal to us. We have other news as well.

Contents:

1. Holiday membership contest; $250, $100, $50 prizes; special $100 prize
2. New system almost finished; want to help us test it?
3. Religion, Medieval History categories up; classics editor found; prominent ophthalmologist joins
4. Other important news

Contest deadline is 11:59 PM, December 31, 2000, Pacific Standard Time.  As we approach this date, we'll have fun posting on Nupedia-L any current (unofficial) standings as we receive them, so please report your successes to lsanger@nupedia.com early and often!

We all now know the importance of having clear counting procedures.  In order to credit you with getting a new member on board, we must have the member ID of any new member you brought on board.  We will not do any tallying ourselves, that is, you must inform us, specifically with a list of member IDs, of the members you've brought on board (and whether they've become peer reviewers or editors).  We will then as appropriate make inquiries to our satisfaction, and then attempt to decide the winner as impartially as possible; our decision will be final, and your participation indicates that you agree with that.  Results will be posted on the main page of the website by January 5, 2001.  Neither the editor-in-chief nor anyone else in the Bomis office is eligible to participate.

Feel free to use any materials from the website in your efforts--for example materials on or linked from our "about" page.

Good luck!

2. New system almost finished; want to help us test it?

Sometime early January, we expect, Nupedia's editorial process will move to the website.  We have no doubts whatsoever that the new system will be a tremendous improvement over the old mailing-list based system, particularly since that older system was subject to numerous human bottlenecks, many of which will now be avoided.  An editor will be able simply to press a button to accomplish many things that used to require composing an e-mail.  Discussion of articles will be conducted online, and authors will be able to view all the archives of article discussions online.  Applications can be made, reviewed, and accepted online, which should make the application process easier and quicker; it's even possible to attach a CV.

Why talk about it, though, when you can go see it for yourselves?  Please do.  Just be sure to follow these steps carefully:
   (1) Go to the new system test area.
   (2) Go to the bottom of the page and log in!  This is very important; you won't be able to see the fully-functioning system unless you do.
   (3) Go back to the new system test area and refresh the page.
   (4) Why not volunteer for a "mock" article in the "Test Category" category (under "Culture")?  Or ask lsanger@nupedia.com if you want him to make you a "peer reviewer" for that category, to see how that will work in the system; we'll add you, no questions asked.  We can also make you moderator of any category's open review discussion; just apply online.  We will "assign" articles to you, make various participants "lead reviewers," etc, etc.  We'd like to make this a dress rehearsal.  Your participation will be appreciated.
   (5) E-mail lsanger@nupedia.com with any problems you spot.  While we've already spotted many problems and these are being resolved, we trust that you'll be able to find some that we missed.  Two elements of the system are presently missing (we'll be working on them over the coming few weeks): a host of "automatic e-mails" (reminders, e.g.) and more in-depth instructions/guidelines, which you'll notice are now in the system as inoperative links.

3. Religion, Medieval history categories up; classics editor found; prominent ophthalmologist joins

With the arrival of a second peer reviewer, our religion category, headed Dr. Munawar Anees, is now open for business.  Others are welcome to join them.  Congratulations to them and good luck on a challenging road ahead!  Moreover, we are very grateful to Prof. Michael Kulikowski of Smith College for taking the initiative to set up a Medieval European History category, and he has found enough peer reviewers to make that category active.  We hope soon to see articles on Charlesmagne, lays, medieval monastic thought and life, feudal society, etc.

We're glad to have found a new, able, and experienced editor for our classics category in Dr. Michael DiMaio, professor at Salve Regina University, classicist, philosopher, and webmaster of a very successful online encyclopedia of Roman emperors.  We are grateful to him for assuming the mantle of responsibility for one of our most active groups.

Dr. Leo Bores, a co-inventor of radial keratotomy and one of the world's prominent opthalmologists, has kindly offered to head up an opthalmology category.  We're grateful for this, and this certainly helps to increase the stature of the project overall.

4. Other important news

• After Nupedia's press release of November 9, we received coverage from a number of sources internationally, including the prominent computer industry magazine The Industry Standard, CNN, Newsbytes, the Japanese version of Linux Today, and the Stamford Advocate.
• The Nupedia advisory group has been discussing a proposal to include encyclopedia-type open content materials created outside of Nupedia in a special section of Nupedia.com.  While we're still a bit too busy with other projects (especially finishing up the new system) to get this new feature up and running, we believe it will help attract more people and more good content to our project.
• Liz Campeau, who was with us as an editorial assistant for around six months, has decided to go back to school to become a teacher.  We wish her well and thank her for her help.  The editor-in-chief will be taking over some of her responsibilities, and some things will simply go undone; we won't hire a replacement just yet.
• Our first Computers category article appeared yesterday.  Congratulations go to author Gisle Hannemyr and editor Michael Witbrock.
• We began actually making a little money recently: we are selling small numbers of text ads on the search results page.  This is an important first step to making Nupedia a viable project long-term.  So far, Bomis, Inc. has been simply losing money by paying the editor-in-chief's salary as well as those of others who are or have been organizing the project, and paying for other expenses such as server space (and the contest money, of course!).  Bomis is owed our gratitude for its continued faithful support of this project.  It would not happen without this very substantial support.
• As of this writing we can boast 2,529 "active" members (i.e., people who receive this newsletter), 81 peer reviewers, and 15 subject area editors.  We have 12 completed, posted articles (three new ones posted yesterday).  Moreover, in various stages of production are 140 or more articles, and of these 53 rough drafts have been received.
• There might be some e-mails that we haven't replied to, or people who have fallen between the cracks, etc.  Please don't take this personally.  We're just very busy and not always perfectly organized.  Remember that the squeaky wheel tends to get the grease.
• What do we want for Christmas? Encyclopedia articles.

Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Bah Humbug (your choice) to everyone!

October 31, 2000

Contents

1. New system under construction
2. Various other news tidbits
3. A list of useful pages on the website

We'll make a special announcement when the system does go live; that probably won't be for at least a few more weeks, however.

2. Various other news tidbits

Various items that can be stated concisely:

* We now require that you copyedit only three articles, down from five, before we will reimburse you for the required copyediting books.

* Membership is up to 2,300, and traffic has picked up lately.

* We have posted seven high-quality articles; another will be posted today, and several others are very close to being finished.

* Very many articles have come due recently or are soon to come due.   If you are facing a due date, please communicate with the appropriate people about this.

* A few dozen t-shirts and coffee cups have been sent out.   Remember that you must e-mail Liz ecampeau@nupedia.com if you want yours and you qualify.

* We plan to do a press release soon.  Coincidentally, Nupedia is soon to be interviewed by a major computer industry magazine.

* Wesley Cooper, a philosophy professor at the University of Alberta, has replaced Thomas Ryckman as editor of our philosophy category.

* Robert Dyer, our esteemed classics editor, has left the fold due to philosophical differences over editorial policy.  We're looking for a replacement; he's a tough act to follow, it seems.

* A half-dozen or more Russians have joined us as peer reviewers as a result of Rita Zagirova's efforts, proving once again our commitment to constructing an international encyclopedia.  Thanks, Rita!

* We are now actively looking for people to fill out a number of categories -- religion in particular -- and your help with this, as always, will be appreciated.

3. A list of useful pages on the website

For your information, I've listed a number of web addresses:

General instructions on how to write an article

Detailed instructions

Newest articles

Where to sign up for Nupedia mailing lists

Where to edit your member information (member profile, bio, e-mail address, password, etc.)

What lead reviewers are supposed to do

How to copyedit for Nupedia

Where to learn about the requirements for articles, our procedures, and many other matters

A list of all the articles currently in production

Archive of this news e-mail

You've received this mail because you signed up as a Nupedia member.  Thanks for your involvement.  To have your e-mail removed from these announcements, please go to our member area where you can easily unsubscribe yourself.  For help unsubscribing, write Liz Campeau at ecampeau@nupedia.com

September 1, 2000

Contents

1. Our first articles arrive; "article-a-day" begins
   
2. Join our new general review group, General-l, and give us your input on "provisional" articles for which we don't yet have review groups
   
3. Editors no longer "interim"
   
4. Nupedia t-shirts now available (they're great!)
   
5. Statistics and progress
   
6. Why not sign up to write a brief, introductory article?

Our first four articles, complete with pop-up biographies, pronunciations, and lists of readings, etc., are available on the website.

We hope you enjoy them.   These are open content articles, so you may use them on your websites and on other media with our compliments, but you must credit Nupedia as the source (per our license).

We have begun to send out articles in our "article-a-day" feature.  To sign up to receive an article a day -- or at least, articles as they appear -- please go to Daily Info.

There are already over 1,600 subscribers to this service.

2. Join our new general review group, General-l, and give us your input on "provisional" articles for which we don't yet have review groups

This is important, so we hope you'll read this.

If you wish to help review articles on topics for which we do not yet have active review groups, please go to our general-l page.

General-l will be tasked with making sure that brief, introductory, nonspecialist articles on subjects for which we do not yet have functioning review groups meet Nupedia's standards of quality.  I'll be the editor of General-l and I'll see to it that we find suitable lead reviewers for all articles; in fact, we plan to use it to help build up the other, as yet nonfunctioning review groups.  Articles that are approved by General-l will be marked as "provisional" until the appropriate review group is functioning and has a chance to look at it again and give it final approval. 

So, please do join General-l, particularly if you have some knowledge of areas in which there are not yet functioning Nupedia review groups.  The more people we have on General-l, the more effective General-l will be.  Please, also, fill out your member profiles and specify your interests, both professional and nonprofessional.  We will also need this in order to find people who can help be lead reviewers of articles that will be posted on General-l, so this is actually quite important to the project! 

3. Editors no longer "interim"

We have decided to designate all present editors as our "permanent" editors.  Henceforth their title is no longer "Interim Editor" but simply "Editor" (of a given subject area).  We've taken this step to thank those who have already contributed their valuable time, effort, and expertise, as well as to encourage the participation of new editors. 

If you are a senior scholar in a field and are interested in this very interesting and (we think) rewarding position, please write us at lsanger@nupedia.com.  We will be pleased as punch to explain the ins and outs and answer any questions you might have.  We're looking for editors in a number of different areas, but at present particularly Literature, Chemistry, and Physics.

In general, if you are extremely highly qualified in your field, we hope you'll write and let us find a way to get you involved in Nupedia.

4. Nupedia t-shirts now available (they're great!)

We have received our first shipment of Nupedia t-shirts, which are very slick.  You can earn one by (1) becoming an editor or peer reviewer, (2) writing an article, or (3) being the lead copyeditor of five articles (and for that, we'll also reimburse you for any copy of the required copyediting books that you buy, too!).  The front of the t-shirts, which are white, is emblazed with the blue Nupedia logo, and on the back is printed the statement that was on the website for many months: "Suppose scholars the world over," etc. -- the whole thing. 

If you're an editor or peer reviewer, please send Liz ecampeau@nupedia.com your mailing address and size (XXL, XL, L, M, or S) so that we can send you your t-shirt.  All editors get both a t-shirt and a mug; peer reviewers and article writers get a choice of a t-shirt or a mug.  We've already sent out our first shipment.  Yes, we will send them abroad; remember, this is an international encyclopedia! 

5. Statistics and progress

We now have about 2,200 Nupedia members who receive this newsletter, and over 70 editors and peer reviewers.  Please continue inviting your friends, family, colleagues, etc., to join us!  We appreciate it.  The more people involved, the better the encyclopedia. 

As in previous months, Classics and Music are the most active review groups, with Philosophy gaining quickly, and Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, and Zoology coming on strong.  Thanks very much to the dedicated members of those groups, many of whom have done or are doing substantial, high-quality work. 

We expect all of these statistics to spike after we do a new press release within the next few weeks.  More press coverage seems likely; that's another reason that this would be a particularly good time for you to write and finalize Nupedia articles! 

6. Why not sign up to write a brief, introductory article?

Though we have several dozen articles in various stages of writing and editing, only a few of them concern everyday topics of the sort on which experts/specialists do not usually write.  We still have not assigned many articles about countries of the world, states of the U.S., major world cities, important political leaders, authors, inventions, etc., etc.  Many of these topics, of course, will clearly require expert treatment.  But many more are topics of the sort that hobbyists or good researchers who are also good writers will do a good job.  For example, I admit I'm no expert on Irish traditional music, but I have taught Irish fiddle for a living and I do know a fair bit about Irish music; so I thought myself qualified to write a brief, introductory article about the topic, saving the longer article on the same topic (which we do plan) for a bona fide expert.

Are you an excellent writer and researcher who would like to write a short (one to five paragraph) introductory article on an avocation of yours?  Please proceed to our volunteer page.

Let's get to work!

Nupedia news

July 13, 2000

We have a lot of news to report this month!  Our first articles should be appearing on the website quite soon.  Also, we've chosen a new logo, which will adorn t-shirts and mugs that we have decided to give to our contributors; our mailing list system is now easier to use; and our programmers have been hard at work improving the system software.  Please read on for the details. 

Contents

1. Our first articles should appear on the website soon
2. Nupedia's new logo
3. T-shirts and coffee cups now available to contributors
4. Our mailing list system is now web-based and much easier to use
5. Contributor bios now automated; see member profile page
6. Copyediting begins; both American and British English accepted
7. Optional reimbursement for copyediting books
8. Anonymous remailer system in place
9. Extensive changes and improvements to the article system software
10. What "open content" means, again

Our first articles should be posted on the website soon.  Among our first articles will be "Atonality" by Christoph Hust, a German musicologist; "Hydratius" by Michael Kulikowski, a Smith College historian and British ex-pat; and two articles on Irish traditional music by Larry Sanger.  We're always looking for new article proposals, of course!  Toan Vo, a programmer assigned full-time to Nupedia, has been hard at work designing the system that will serve the articles on the website.  If you want to check if anything new has been posted within the next few weeks, please go to our newest articles page.

2. Nupedia's new logo

We have chosen a new logo and title banner for Nupedia. Please see the website main page.  Have a look!  The logo was designed by Sally Milo of Milo Design in Tucson, Arizona.  Congratulations to her.  We wish to thank other folks who contributed some beautiful and striking designs.  In particular, a Michele living in Thailand designed several wonderful logos, and we would like to thank her very much for her time and patience.  Bryn Kanar's logos also deserve an honorable mention, and indeed there were several other very nice designs. 

3. T-shirts and coffee cups now available to contributors

We have decided to design some t-shirts and coffee cups with the new logo available only to those working on the encyclopedia.  As a small token of our appreciation, we will give a choice of either a t-shirt or a coffee cup to those who (1) write an article, (2) join us as a peer reviewer, or (3) copyedit five articles.  We'll give both to our editors.  We'll send a Nupedia bumper sticker as well.  We will send these items all around the world -- wherever you live.  Your suggestions (sent to ecampeau@nupedia.com) as to what to put on the t-shirt, aside from the logo, would be appreciated. 

4. Our mailing list system is now web-based and much easier to use

Several weeks ago we switched from the Majordomo mailing list software to Mailman software.  This means that you can join or leave mailing lists using a very easy-to-use web-based interface.  As a particularly valuable bonus, list archives are now viewable on the web as well.  Please have a look at our list of mailing lists to join or view archives.

5. Contributor bios now automated; see member profile page Toan (the above-mentioned programmer) has changed our system so that you can now enter in a biographical note about yourself.  If you become an editor, peer reviewer, writer, or copyeditor, we will take the text you inputted (it's your option) and automatically create a biographical page about you.  You will be able to specify an e-mail address and web page, if you wish. 

To add a biographical note, please visit our newly-revised edit member profile page and scroll down to near the bottom of the page.

EDITORS AND PEER REVIEWERS, PLEASE NOTE: Liz will be transferring your bios, i.e., the information we have on the present editors and peer reviewers page to your member profiles.  You do not need to do this. However, once Liz has done this, you will be able to change your bios yourselves. 

6. Copyediting begins; both American and British English accepted

Our first articles are now being copyedited; thanks to all who have volunteered so far!  After a discussion, we have decided to inaugurate two different copyediting groups, one devoted to British English articles (copyeditbre-l) and another devoted to American English articles (copyeditame-l).  The original copyediting group, copyedit-l, is being retained as a forum in which more general copyediting matters are discussed.  We are still in need of competent copyeditors; the more on the lists, the less work for everyone.  Anyone who has been one of the two official copyeditors for five different articles will earn a t-shirt or mug.  If you're interested in joining us, please see the relevant web pages:

copyedit-l information
copyeditame-l list information (American English)
copyeditbre-l list information (British English)

To review our copyediting policy, please see the relevant part of the policy statement.

7. Optional reimbursement for copyediting books

Because it appears that some of our copyeditors are balking at the cost of our copyediting references (The Chicago Manual of Style and either Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage or Fowler's Modern English Usage), we are now offering to reimburse our copyeditors for the cost of these books, once they have copyedited five articles for us.  This is optional, i.e., we will make the reimbursement only for those who request it. 

8. Anonymous remailer system in place

Following a discussion of the Nupedia advisory board, we have decided to add a step to the editorial review process, in which we will make an attempt to have some blind review of articles.  When an article proposal is accepted, the editor assigns a peer reviewer to the article, who is called the "lead reviewer" of that article.  In the initial stage of review, we would like to conceal the identity of the lead reviewer from the author and vice-versa.  When the lead reviewer agrees that the article is ready to be posted on the review group for public review, the lead reviewer and author can introduce themselves to each other. 

This procedure created the technical problem of how we could permit easy communication between lead reviewers and authors that nonetheless conceals their identities.  We solved this problem by setting up an anonymous remailer system: when an article is assigned, an e-mail is sent automatically to the author(s) and the lead reviewer informing all parties of an anonymous remailer address.  In order for one party to communicate to the others, one needs only to send mail to that address.  Thanks to Bomis programmer Ted O'Connor for rigging up this remailer system. 

9. Extensive changes and improvements to the article system software

Toan (and, before him, Jason Richey) has made and continues to make a number of very useful improvements to the article system software; in the past month we've switched to a database-driven system.  Among many other things, we now have pages where you can keep track of your current assignments as well as of topics you've requested, on these two pages:

List of your assigned articles
List of your volunteered articles

We've also made many very useful and essential improvements to areas of the website that are accessible only to editors. 

10. What "open content" means, again

As we begin to accept and post our first articles, there should be a reminder of what "open content" means, since this is an "open content" encyclopedia.  It means that you, or anyone, will be able to copy the contents of Nupedia articles, for whatever purposes (such as educational but also for-profit purposes), so long as they link back to Nupedia (or, in print, properly credit us).  Soon after our first articles appear, we will work on a way to make the articles easily available to those who wish to create Nupedia mirror websites and to use them in other ways.  In this way we hope to achieve the highest possible distribution of the materials that you are helping to create. 

We want to thank our first writers, peer reviewers, and editors for their patience and hard work.  It will start paying off soon, we think.  Also, we can anticipate making our second press release before the end of August; this will generate considerable public attention, we think. 

Final comment: Larry Sanger, Nupedia Editor-in-Chief, has a birthday July 16. His only birthday request is article proposals!  Bear in mind, initial articles can be quite brief. 

Looking for older Nupedia news? Please try our news archives.  Send questions to comments@nupedia.com.