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Bomis
Former dot-com company associated with Nupedia and Wikipedia

Bomis, Inc. was a dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia. It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael Davis. By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Wikipedia-related resources transferred to the Wikimedia Foundation.

The company initially tried a number of ideas for content, including being a directory of information about Chicago. The site subsequently focused on content geared to a male audience, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Bomis became successful after focusing on pornography. "Bomis Babes" was devoted to erotic images; the "Bomis Babe Report" featured adult pictures. Bomis Premium, available for an additional fee, provided explicit material. "The Babe Engine" helped users find erotic content through a web search engine. The advertising director for Bomis noted that 99 percent of queries on the site were for nude women.

Bomis created Nupedia as a free online encyclopedia (with content submitted by experts) but it had a tedious, slow review process. Wikipedia was initially launched by Bomis to provide content for Nupedia, and was a for-profit venture (a Bomis subsidiary) through the end of 2002. As the costs of Wikipedia rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined; these losses were compounded by the dot-com crash. Since Wikipedia was a drain on Bomis' resources, Wales and philosophy graduate student Larry Sanger decided to fund the project as a nonprofit. Sanger was laid off from Bomis in 2002. Nupedia content was merged into Wikipedia, and it ceased in 2003.

The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation began in 2003 with a board of trustees composed of Bomis' three founders (Wales, Davis, and Shell) and was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, Bomis' location. Wales used about US$100,000 of revenue from Bomis to fund Wikipedia before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status. Wales stepped down from his role as CEO of Bomis in 2004. Shell was CEO of the company in 2005, while on the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees. Wales edited Wikipedia in 2005 to remove the characterizations of Bomis as providing softcore pornography, which attracted media attention; Wales expressed regret for his actions. The Atlantic gave Bomis the nickname "Playboy of the Internet", and the term caught on in other media outlets. Scholars have described Bomis as a provider of softcore pornography.

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History

Background

Jimmy Wales left a study track at Indiana University as a PhD candidate to work in finance before completing his doctoral dissertation.545556 In 1994 Wales was hired by Michael Davis, CEO of finance company Chicago Options Associates, as a trader575859 focusing on futures contracts and options.6061 Wales was adept at determining future movements of foreign currencies and interest rates;6263 he was successful in Chicago, became independently wealthy,646566 and was director of research at Chicago Options Associates from 1994 to 2000.676869 He became acquainted with Tim Shell from email lists discussing philosophy.7071

Wales wanted to participate in the online-based entrepreneurial ventures which were increasingly popular and successful during the mid-1990s.7273 His experience (from gaming in his youth) impressed on him the importance of networking.74 Wales was interested in computer science, experimenting with source code on the Internet75 and improving his skill at computer programming.76 In his spare time after work at Chicago Options Associates, Wales constructed his own web browser.77 While at the firm, he noted the successful 1995 initial public offering of Netscape Communications.7879

Foundation

Wales co-founded Bomis in 1996,80 with business associates Tim Shell,818283 and his then-manager Michael Davis,848586 as a for-profit corporation with joint ownership.878889 Wales was its chief manager.90 In 1998 he moved from Chicago to San Diego to work for Bomis,919293 and then to St. Petersburg, Florida (where the company subsequently relocated).94

The staff at Bomis was originally about five employees.9596 Its 2000 staff included programmer Toan Vo, Andrew McCague and system administrator Jason Richey;97 Wales employed his high-school friend and best man in his second wedding, Terry Foote,9899 as advertising director.100 In June 2000, Bomis was one of five network partners of Ask Jeeves.101 The majority of the revenue that came in to Bomis was generated through advertising.102 The most successful time for Bomis was during its venture as a member of the NBC web portal NBCi; this collapsed at the end of the dot-com bubble.103

Although Bomis is not an acronym, the name stemmed from "Bitter Old Men in Suits"104 (as Wales and Shell called themselves in Chicago).105106107 The site began as a web portal,108109 trying a number of ideas (including serving as an access point for information about Chicago).110111 It later focused on male-oriented content, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women.112113114

Hosted content

Working from the Open Directory Project,115 Bomis created and maintained hundreds of webrings on topics related to lad culture.116 In 1999 the company introduced the Bomis Browser, which helped users block online pop-up ads.117 Its webring on Star Wars was considered a useful resource for information on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).118 Additional webrings included sections helping users find information on the 1942 film Casablanca,119 Hunter S. Thompson,120 Farrah Fawcett,121 Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls,122 and the 1998 film Snake Eyes.123 "Bomis: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Ring", devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, organized over 50 sites related to the program.124 Sheila Jeffreys noted in her Beauty and Misogyny that in 2004 Bomis maintained "The Lipstick Fetish Ring", which helped users with a particular attraction to women in makeup.125

Bomis became successful after it focused on X-rated and erotic media.126127 Advertising generated revenue which enabled the company to fund other websites,128129130 and the site published suggestive pictures of professional models.131 In addition to Bomis the company maintained nekkid.com132 and nekkid.info,133 which featured pictures of nude women.134135 About ten percent of Bomis' revenue was derived from pornographic films and blogs.136137

The website included a segment devoted to erotic images, "Bomis Babes",138139 and a feature enabled users to submit recommended links to other sites appealing to a male audience.140 Peer-to-peer services provided by the site helped users find other websites about female celebrities, including Anna Kournikova and Pamela Anderson.141 In the Bomis Babes section was the Bomis Babe Report, begun in 2000, with pictures of porn stars142143144145 in a blog format.146147148 The Bomis Babe Report produced original erotic material,149150 including reports on pornographic film actors and celebrities who had posed nude.151 It was referred to as The Babe Report for short.152

Wales referred to the site's softcore pornography as "glamour photography",153154155156157 and Bomis became familiar to Internet users for its erotic images.158159160 During this period Wales was photographed steering a yacht with a peaked cap, posing as a sea captain with a female professional model on either side of him. In the photograph, the women were wearing panties and T-shirts advertising Bomis.161162163

A subscription section, Bomis Premium,164 provided access to adult content and erotic material;165166167 A three-day trial was US$2.95.168 While Bomis Babes provided nude images of females to subscribers,169 Bomis Premium featured lesbian sexual practices and female anatomy.170 Bomis created the Babe Engine,171 which helped users find erotic material online through a web search engine.172173 According to Bomis advertising director Terry Foote, 99 percent of searches on the site related to nude women.174

Nupedia and Wikipedia

Bomis is best known for supporting the creation of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia.175176 Tim Shell and Michael Davis continued their partnership with Wales during the 2000 Nupedia venture.177 Larry Sanger met Jimmy Wales through an e-mail communication group about philosophy and objectivism,178179180 and joined Bomis in May, 1999.181 Sanger was a graduate student working towards a PhD degree in philosophy, with research focused on epistemology;182183184 he received his degree from Ohio State University,185 moving to San Diego to help Bomis with its encyclopedia venture.186187 At the time Sanger joined Bomis the company had a total workforce of two employees with help from programmers.188

Sanger and Wales began Nupedia with resources from Bomis;189 at the beginning of 2000, the company agreed to provide early financing for Nupedia from its profits.190191192 Nupedia went live in March,193194 when Wales was CEO of Bomis;195 Sanger was Nupedia's editor-in-chief.196197 Nupedia's reading comprehension was intended for high-school graduates,198 and Bomis set its goal: "To set a new standard for breadth, depth, timeliness and lack of bias, and in the fullness of time to become the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the history of humankind."199200

Although Bomis began a search for experts to vet Nupedia articles, this proved tedious.201 In August 2000 Nupedia had more than 60 academics contributing to the peer-review process on the site, most with doctorates in philosophy or medicine.202 Scholars wishing to contribute to Nupedia were required to submit their credentials via fax for verification.203 At that time, Bomis was attempting to obtain advertising revenue for Nupedia204 and the company was optimistic that it could fund the project with ad space on Nupedia.com.205

Wikipedia began as a feature of Nupedia.com on January 15, 2001,206207 later known as Wikipedia Day.208209 Someone working from the office.bomis.com server created the first edit to the website,210 the creation of HomePage with the text "This is the new WikiPedia!"211212 It was originally intended only to generate draft articles for Nupedia,213214215 with finished articles moved to the latter.216 Wikipedia became a separate site days after the Nupedia advisory board opposed combining the two.217218 In September 2001, Wales was simultaneously CEO of Bomis and co-founder of Wikipedia;219 Sanger was chief organizer of Wikipedia and editor-in-chief of Nupedia.220221

Nupedia was encumbered by its peer-review system,222223 a seven-step process224225 of review and copyediting,226 and Wikipedia grew at a faster rate.227228 In November 2000, Nupedia had 115 potential articles awaiting its peer-review process.229230 By September 2001, after a total investment of US$250,000 from Bomis, Nupedia produced 12 articles;231232233 from 2000 through 2003, Nupedia contributors produced a total of 24 finalized articles.234235236 Wikipedia had about 20,000 articles and versions in 18 languages by the end of 2001.237

Bomis originally planned to make Wikipedia profitable,238 providing staffing and hardware for its initial structure;239 Wikipedia would not have survived without this early support.240241 Bomis provided web servers and bandwidth for the projects, owning key items such as domain names.242 Wales used money from Bomis to maintain the Wikipedia servers in Tampa, Florida.243244245

As the cost of Wikipedia rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined as a result of the dot-com crash.246247 In late 2000 Bomis had a staff of about 11 employees, but by early 2002 layoffs reduced the staff to its original size of about five.248 Sanger was laid off in February 2002;249250 from January 15, 2001, through March 1, 2002, he was the sole paid editor of Wikipedia.251 Sanger stepped down from his dual roles as chief organizer of Wikipedia and editor-in-chief of Nupedia on March 1, 2002, feeling unable to commit to these areas on a volunteer basis252 and a dearth of "the habit or tradition of respect for expertise" from high-ranking Wikipedia members.253 He continued contributing to community discussions, optimistic about Wikipedia's future success.254255

After Sanger's departure, Wikipedia was managed by Wales and a burgeoning online community.256 Although Wales thought advertising was a possibility, the Wikipedia community was opposed to business development257258259 and Internet marketing was difficult in 2002.260 Wikipedia remained a for-profit venture (under the auspices of Bomis) through the end of 2002.261 By then it had moved from a .com domain name to .org,262263 and Wales said that the site would not accept advertising.264

Material from Nupedia was folded into Wikipedia265 and it was discontinued by 2003.266267

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

By 2003 Wikipedia had grown to 100,000 articles in its English-language version, and it became difficult for Bomis to continue financially supporting the project.268 With Wikipedia a drain on the company's resources, Wales and Sanger decided to fund the project on a non-profit basis.269 Bomis laid off most of its employees to continue operating, since Wikipedia was not generating revenue.270 The company owned Wikipedia from its creation through 2003,271272 and Wales used about $100,000 of Bomis' revenue to fund Wikipedia before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status.273

In June 2003 Wikipedia was transferred to a nascent non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation,274275 which was formed as a charitable institution to supervise Wikipedia and its associated wiki-based sites.276277 When the foundation was established, its staff began to solicit public funding278 and Bomis turned Wikipedia over to the non-profit.279 All Bomis-owned hardware used to run Wikipedia-associated websites was donated to the Wikimedia Foundation,280 and Wales transferred Wikipedia-related copyrights from Bomis to the foundation.281 It was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida,282 where Bomis was located.283 The foundation shifted Wikipedia's dependence away from Bomis, allowing it to purchase hardware for expansion.284

The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees was initially composed of Bomis' three founders: Jimmy Wales and his two business partners, Michael Davis and Tim Shell.285286 Shell and Davis were appointed to the board by Wales,287 but after Wikipedia community members complained that the board was composed of appointed individuals,288 the first elections were held in 2004.289 Two community members, Florence Devouard and Angela Beesley, were elected to the board of trustees.290

In August 2004 Wales was chief executive officer of Bomis,291 and on September 20 Wikipedia reached the million-article mark on an expenditure of $500,000 (most directly from Wales).292293 In November 2004 he told the St. Petersburg Times he no longer controlled Bomis' day-to-day operations, but retained ownership as a shareholder.294 In 2005, Tim Shell was CEO of Bomis and one of the board members overseeing Wikipedia.295 Shell remained CEO of Bomis in 2006, becoming vice-president of the Wikimedia Foundation and continuing to sit on its board.296 Bomis co-founder Michael Davis became treasurer of the Wikimedia Foundation that year.297 Wales told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 that although he retained partial ownership of Bomis, "It's pretty much dead."298 According to the Internet Archive, the Bomis website was last accessible with content in 2010;299 when accessed in 2013 by the archive, it had a welcome message for PetaBox.300 When accessed in 2014 by the archive, the website featured a blank white page with a line of text saying "Hello, world!".301302

Aftermath

In 2005, Wales made 18 changes to his Wikipedia biography.303304305 He removed references to Bomis Babes as softcore pornography and erotica,306 and Larry Sanger as co-founder of Wikipedia.307308 Wales' actions were publicized by author Rogers Cadenhead,309310 attracting attention from US and UK media.311 In 2011, Time listed Wales' 2005 edits in its "Top 10 Wikipedia Moments".312

Wikipedia policy warned users not to edit their own biography pages,313314 with its rules on autobiographical editing quoting Wales: "It is a social faux pas to write about yourself."315 Larry Sanger said, "It does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history",316317 and began a discussion on the talk page of Wales' biography about historical revisionism.318

Wales called his actions fixing mistakes,319 but after Cadenhead publicized the edits to his biography he expressed regret for his actions.320321 In The Times Wales said that individuals should not edit their own Wikipedia biographies,322 telling The New Yorker that the standard applied to himself as well.323 Wales warned that the activity should be discouraged because of the potential for bias:324 "I wish I hadn't done it. It's in poor taste."325326

Bomis was called the "Playboy of the Internet" by The Atlantic,327 and the sobriquet was subsequently used by publications including The Sunday Times,328 The Daily Telegraph,329 MSN Money,330 Wired,331 The Torch Magazine,332 and the 2007 book The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen.333 Wales considered the "Playboy of the Internet" nickname inappropriate,334 although he was asked in interviews if his time at Bomis made him a "porn king".335336337 The 2010 documentary film about Wikipedia, Truth in Numbers? Everything, According to Wikipedia, discussed this characterization of Wales by journalists.338339 Wales, interviewed in the film, called the characterization inaccurate and explained that his company responded to content demand from customers.340 In later interviews, he responded to "porn king" questions by telling journalists to look at a page on Yahoo! about pornography related to dwarfism.341 According to a 2007 article in Reason, "If he was a porn king, he suggests, so is the head of the biggest Web portal in the world."342

Description of site

The Chronicle of Philanthropy characterized Bomis as "an Internet marketing firm... which also traded in erotic photographs for a while."343 Jeff Howe wrote in his 2008 book, Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, about "one of Wales's less altruistic ventures, a Web portal called Bomis.com that featured, among other items, soft-core pornography."344 In his 2008 book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, legal scholar Jonathan Zittrain wrote that "Bomis helped people find 'erotic photography', and earned money through advertising as well as subscription fees for premium content."345 The Guardian described the site as on "the fringes of the adult entertainment industry",346 and The Edge called Bomis.com an "explicit-content search engine".347 Business 2.0 Magazine described it as "a search portal... which created and hosted Web rings around popular search terms – including, not surprisingly, a lot of adult themes."348

Footnotes

Bibliography

Further reading

Primary sources

References

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  3. Henderson 2008, p. 500 ↩

  4. Seybold 2006, p. 250 ↩

  5. DiBona 2005 ↩

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  10. The Globe and Mail 2012, pp. 89–91 ↩

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  12. Shirky 2009 ↩

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  15. Rosenzweig 2013 ↩

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  17. Zittrain 2008, p. 133 ↩

  18. Kuchinskas 2009 ↩

  19. Blakely 2005 ↩

  20. Business Insider 2013 ↩

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