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Jimmy Wales

British-American Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales is an influential American internet entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of Wikipedia and the founder of WikiTribune. Born on August 7, 1966, in Huntsville, Alabama, he has significantly impacted how knowledge is shared online.

Early Life and Education

Wales attended the Randolph School and later earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University and a master's degree from the University of Alabama. He briefly taught at two universities before transitioning into finance, where he worked as a research director at Chicago Options Associates.

Career Highlights

  • Nupedia and Wikipedia: In 2000, Wales co-founded Nupedia, a peer-reviewed encyclopedia. This project laid the groundwork for Wikipedia, which launched on January 15, 2001. Wikipedia quickly became the largest and most popular encyclopedia globally, operating on a model that allows users to collaboratively edit content.14

  • Wikimedia Foundation: Wales founded the Wikimedia Foundation in 2003 to support Wikipedia and its sister projects. He continues to serve on its Board of Trustees.14

  • WikiTribune: Launched in 2017, WikiTribune aimed to create an ad-free news platform where volunteers could contribute and curate news articles. Despite initial enthusiasm and funding, the project faced challenges, leading to significant changes in its structure and operations.36

Recognitions

Wales has received numerous accolades for his contributions to the internet and knowledge sharing. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." He has also been recognized by various institutions for his commitment to free knowledge dissemination.24

Personal Insights

Wales is known for his vision of making information freely accessible to everyone. He famously stated, “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge”.4 This philosophy continues to guide his work and initiatives.

For more details about his professional background, you can find him on LinkedIn under the username jimmy-wales-919a8b.5

Highlights

Mar 2 · twitter

Parents - one of the first things you can do for your children's online safety is to teach them to never open their camera because an app asks them too. This is key. Of course, here in the UK, Ofcom is bizarrely encouraging Roblox to collect face scans of children. 1/

Jan 26 · twitter

The UK war on VPNs is an embarassment. For child safety, we should be teaching children about Internet safety - including why you should use a VPN to protect your privacy, block malware, etc.

To keep children safe, we are legislating to prevent them being safer online? Mad.

Jan 20 · Wired
Jimmy Wales Will Never Edit Donald Trump’s Wikipedia Page: He ‘Makes Me Insane’
Jimmy Wales Will Never Edit Donald Trump’s Wikipedia Page: He ‘Makes Me Insane’
At 25, Wikipedia Now Faces Its Most Existential Threat—Generative A.I.
At 25, Wikipedia Now Faces Its Most Existential Threat—Generative A.I.
Apr 16 · augment.org
Jimmy Wales' Life and Career as a Founder of Wikipedia
Mar 20 · aaespeakers.com
Jimmy Wales | Keynote Speaker
Apr 16 · wired.com
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales wanted to save journalism. He didn't
Nov 19 · cjr.org
Wikipedia's co-founder wanted to let readers edit the news. What ...
Wikipedia's co-founder wanted to let readers edit the news. What ...

Related Questions

What inspired Jimmy Wales to create Wikipedia?
How did Jimmy Wales' background in finance influence his career in technology?
What are some of the challenges Jimmy Wales faced while developing Wikipedia?
How did Jimmy Wales' role in Bomis contribute to the creation of Wikipedia?
What is the significance of Jimmy Wales being named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World"?
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales, photo 1
Jimmy Wales, photo 2
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Location

London, England, United Kingdom