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Bomis

For the genus of spiders, see Bomis (spider).

Bomis, Inc.
Type of businessPrivate company
Type of site
Available inEnglish
Founded1996
Dissolved2007[1]
Headquarters
St. Petersburg, Florida
,
United States
Founder(s)
CEOTim Shell[2][3]
IndustryDot-com
Products
Employees10
Subsidiaries
URLbomis.com, archived at the Internet Archive
AdvertisingYes
RegistrationNo
Launched1996

Bomis, Inc. (/ˈbɒmɪs/, from Bitter Old Men in Suits;[14] rhyming with "promise")[15] was a dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Wikipedia.[9] It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael Davis.[16][17][18] By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Wikipedia-related resources transferred to the Wikimedia Foundation.[1][19]

The company initially tried a number of ideas for content, including being a directory of information about Chicago.[20] The site subsequently focused on content geared to a male audience, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women.[21][22][23] Bomis became successful after focusing on pornography.[24] "Bomis Babes" was devoted to erotic images;[6] the "Bomis Babe Report" featured adult pictures.[8][13] Bomis Premium, available for an additional fee, provided explicit material.[5][24][25] "The Babe Engine" helped users find erotic content through a web search engine.[4][9][26] The advertising director for Bomis noted that 99 percent of queries on the site were for nude women.[27]

Bomis created Nupedia as a free online encyclopedia (with content submitted by experts) but it had a tedious, slow review process.[28][29] Wikipedia was initially launched by Bomis to provide content for Nupedia,[12][30][31] and was a for-profit venture (a Bomis subsidiary) through the end of 2002.[32] As the costs of Wikipedia rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined; these losses were compounded by the dot-com crash.[33] Since Wikipedia was a drain on Bomis' resources, Wales and philosophy graduate student Larry Sanger decided to fund the project as a nonprofit.[33] Sanger was laid off from Bomis in 2002.[34] Nupedia content was merged into Wikipedia,[35] and it ceased in 2003.[11]

The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation began in 2003 with a board of trustees composed of Bomis' three founders (Wales, Davis, and Shell)[18] and was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida,[19] Bomis' location.[36] Wales used about US$100,000 of revenue from Bomis to fund Wikipedia before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status.[37] Wales stepped down from his role as CEO of Bomis in 2004.[38] Shell was CEO of the company in 2005, while on the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.[2] Wales edited Wikipedia in 2005 to remove the characterizations of Bomis as providing softcore pornography,[30][39] which attracted media attention;[25][40][41] Wales expressed regret for his actions.[30][39] The Atlantic gave Bomis the nickname "Playboy of the Internet",[42] and the term caught on in other media outlets.[33][43][44] Scholars have described Bomis as a provider of softcore pornography.[31][45]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference hutcheon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Barnett 2005, p. 62.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference wechselander was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference 2013businessinsider was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference zittrain was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference evanhansen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference nickmiller was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference rosenzweig was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference harryhenderson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference robertwright was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mahadevan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference heatherhasan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference canhistorybeopen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference isaacson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Conway 2010, p. 7.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference seybold was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference dibona was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference andrewlih was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ayers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference paulanderson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference thelunch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference davidweinberger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference clayshirky was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference kuchinskas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference rhysblakely was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference manguward was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference brainscan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference patrickseitz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference edemariam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference elisecraig was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference brennenjensen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference susanmeyer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference neate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ^ Cite error: The named reference spotlightsanger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Cite error: The named reference johnkwaters was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  36. ^ Cite error: The named reference mehegan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  37. ^ Cite error: The named reference martinhickman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference noendtoit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference jonbernstein was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  40. ^ Cite error: The named reference timelliott was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  41. ^ Cite error: The named reference danmitchell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  42. ^ Cite error: The named reference marshallpoe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  43. ^ Cite error: The named reference givingupbillions was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ Cite error: The named reference andrewkeen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  45. ^ Cite error: The named reference jeffhowe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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