Chris I. Whitten Family History Wiki

Mr. Chris I. Whitten

Born 1970's.

Son of [private father] and [private mother]

[send private message] | Account confirmed 27 January 2011 | Chris's 32255 contributions | 696 thank-yous received | Last profile change on 14 May 2012

11:17: Laura Marchese posted a message on the page for Chris Whitten. [Thank Laura for this]

Categories: WikiTree Staff. This page has been accessed 25,895 times.

Chris is the creator of this website, WikiTree, as well as WikiAnswers, Free-Market.Net, and other websites.

You can e-mail chris@ (wikitree.com). However, if you have questions, please first see How_to_use_WikiTree and the WikiTree Help section. If you don't find your answer there, post on our Facebook community page, tweet #WikiTreeOnline or contact the WikiTree team.

Biography

Chris grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with his mother Donna and brother Ted. His father Ted and step-mother Vicki were in the nearby town of Ashby.

In 1989 he graduated from Fitchburg High School and started at Lyndon State College in the beautiful Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. After two years in the small business program there he transferred to New York University to study economics. He graduated from NYU in 1993.

After college he stayed in New York City and worked as the managing editor of a mail order book catalog called Laissez Faire Books. Before Amazon.com this was the only source for many unusual books on libertarian philosophy and free-market economics. In 1994, he started experimenting with the Internet to sell books for Laissez Faire. The e-mail update list he created there was one of the first of its kind.

In 1995 Chris left his job to create a libertarian community and networking site called Free-Market.Net: The Freedom Network (FMN). This site has been called "the mother of all libertarian websites" for its early work in promoting usage of the Internet among free-market organizations and individuals.

In 1997 he created a non-profit organization in Chicago called The Henry Hazlitt Foundation to be a home for FMN and its newer sister sites including libertarian.org, ifeminists.com and Bureaucrash. The foundation grew to employ five people full-time and more than a dozen people part-time.

In 2000 Chris met Megan McClellan who was finishing her math degree at the University of Chicago.

In 2001 Chris retired from his non-profit work to be more entrepreneurial again. And to pay off his student loans.

In 2002 Chris created FAQ Farm, which later became WikiAnswers and then Answers.com. It is a collaborative question and answer site where users can ask a question about anything and other users help answer them. The Q&As become permanent resources so that the same question never has to be asked twice.

In 2004 Chris moved back from Chicago to New York City. Megan was offered a job on Wall Street. The next year, in 2005, Megan was offered a job in London and they took that opportunity to see Europe.

In 2006 Chris and Megan returned from England. They bought a home in Croton-on-Hudson in northern Westchester County, NY.

Late that year Chris sold his WikiAnswers business. During 2007 he worked with Answers.com to integrate the site into their company and take advantage of the new economies of scale.

In both 2007 and 2008 WikiAnswers was the fastest growing site among the largest US websites. It is now a top 25 website and gets millions of visitors per day.

In 2008 Chris began work on this site, WikiTree.

Only the Trusted List can access the following:

Chris's formal name
full middle name
e-mail address
exact birthdate
birth location
personal memories about Chris (1)
images (363)
siblings' names
spouse's name

For access to Chris Whitten's full information you must be a logged-in community member and on Chris's Trusted List.

Comments

For public comments, here are the options:

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Private Message: You can also send a private message to Chris. (Best for comments addressed directly to Chris.)

Public Bulletin Board

On May 14, Laura Marchese wrote:

Great to meet you in Ohio. Thanks for the invite

[Thank Laura for this] [reply on Laura's page]

On April 16, Therese Hostetter wrote:

I do not know how to invite someone?

[Thank Therese for this] [reply on Therese's page]

On March 31, Jean Clubine wrote:

Thank you, Chris for the invitation to join Wikitree. I certainly appreciate it. Jean

[Thank Jean for this] [reply on Jean's page]

On March 27, S. Manley wrote:

Thank you so much for answering my request & allowing me to join WiKi. Sue

[Thank S. for this] [reply on S.'s page]

On March 27, Kersti Anear wrote:

Thank-you very much for the invite :)

[Thank Kersti for this] [reply on Kersti's page]

On March 27, Andreas Kurzhals wrote:

Dear Chris, I thank you very much for inviting me. Andreas

[Thank Andreas for this] [reply on Andreas's page]

On March 26, Karen Wilhelm wrote:

Thanks for inviting me to WikiTree. I'll add my family history soon as I get a chance. Karen

[Thank Karen for this] [reply on Karen's page]

On March 16, Sun R. wrote:

Thank you for inviting me on. I'm hoping to contribute as well as to ask questions.

[Thank Sun for this] [reply on Sun's page]

On March 6, Kim LeBlanc wrote:

Thanks Chris! I'm so excited (and dismayed) to start working :p

[Thank Kim for this] [reply on Kim's page]

On March 6, Norazlan Ariffin wrote:

Thanks Chris for the invite! Eager to start.

[Thank Norazlan for this] [reply on Norazlan's page]

[more]

Facebook Social Comments

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