Nupedia (2000-2003, 24 articles published)

Wales, 38, is a former futures and options trader who became interested in the Web early on. He founded the search engine Bomis in 1996. Then, in 2000, he started his first free encyclopedia project, called Nupedia. It was meant to be a free reference work for the public, but not by the public. Volunteer Nupedia authors had to submit résumés and subject their submissions through an academic-style peer-review process prior to publication. Wales says Nupedia was a "complete flop." Only 24 articles were ever finished.

Ultimately, Wales and Larry Sanger, a professor whom Wales had hired to help organize Nupedia, came upon the idea of creating a truly collaborative Web-based encyclopedia. Wikipedia launched in January 2001. Within a month, there were 1,000 articles, although a small community of volunteers wrote most.

(from forbes article on Extreme Blogging, 12/04)