Jimmy Donal “ Jimbo ” Wales ( /dmi donl welz/ ; born August 7, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur . [3] [4] He is the co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia , and the for-profit Wikia web hosting company. [5] [6]

Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama , where he attended Randolph School , a university-preparatory school. [7] [8] Later, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Finance from Auburn University and the University of Alabama , respectively. [9]

While in graduate school, Wales taught at two universities; however, he departed before completing a PhD to take a job in finance, and later worked as the Research Director of a Chicago, Illinois, futures and options firm. In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis , an adult web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. The company would provide the initial funding for the peer-reviewed free encyclopedia, Nupedia (2000–03), and its successor, Wikipedia.

On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Wikipedia—a free, open content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity; as Wikipedia’s public profile grew, he became the project’s promoter and spokesman. He is historically cited as a co-founder of Wikipedia, though he has disputed the “co-” designation, declaring himself the sole founder. [10] [11]

Wales serves on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the non-profit charitable organization that he helped establish to operate Wikipedia, holding its board-appointed “community founder” seat. In 2004, he co-founded Wikia , a for-profit wiki hosting service . His role in creating Wikipedia, which has become the world’s largest encyclopedia, prompted Time Magazine to name him in their 2006 list of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World”. [12]

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1Early life

2Career 2.1Chicago Options Associates and Bomis 2.2Nupedia and the origins of Wikipedia 2.3Wikipedia 2.3.1Controversy regarding Wales’s status as co-founder 2.3.2Role 2.4Wikimedia Foundation 2.4.1Controversies 2.5Wikia and later pursuits

3Political and economic views 3.1Personal philosophy 3.2Philosophy in practice 3.3Development and management of Wikipedia 3.4Testimony before Senate Homeland Security Committee 3.5European Court of Justice Google ruling 3.6Other issues

4Personal life

5Honors, awards and positions

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Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama , shortly before midnight on August 7, 1966; however, his birth certificate lists his date of birth as the 8th. [13] [14] His father, Jimmy, [15] worked as a grocery store manager, while his mother, Doris Ann (née Dudley), and his grandmother, Erma, ran the House of Learning, [16] [8] a small private school in the tradition of the one-room schoolhouse , where Wales and his three siblings received their early education. [16] [17]

As a child, Wales was a keen reader with an acute intellectual curiosity. [6] When he was three, his mother bought a World Book Encyclopedia from a door-to-door salesman. As he grew up and learned to read, it became an object of reverence. It put at his fingertips an abundant supply of knowledge complete with maps, illustrations, and a few cellophane layers of transparencies one could lift to explore such things as the muscles, arteries, and digestive system of a dissected frog. But Wales soon discovered that the World Book had shortcomings: no matter how much was in it, there were many more things that were not. World Book sent out stickers for owners to paste on the pages in order to update the encyclopedia, and Wales was careful to put the stickers to work, stating, “I joke that I started as a kid revising the encyclopedia by stickering the one my mother bought.” [18]

During an interview in 2005 with Brian Lamb , Wales described his childhood private school as a “ Montessori influenced philosophy of education”, where he “spent lots of hours poring over the Britannicas and World Book Encyclopedias ”. [19] There were only four other children in Wales’s grade , so the school grouped together the first through fourth-grade students and the fifth through eighth-grade students. As an adult, Wales was sharply critical of the government’s treatment of the school, citing the “constant interference and bureaucracy and very sort of snobby inspectors from the state” as a formative influence on his political philosophy. [19]

After eighth grade, Wales attended Randolph School , [20] [21] [22] [23] a university-preparatory school in Huntsville, graduating at sixteen. [24] Wales said that the school was expensive for his family, but that “education was always a passion in my household ... you know, the very traditional approach to knowledge and learning and establishing that as a base for a good life.” [19] He received his bachelor’s degree in finance from Auburn University in 1986. [25] He began his Auburn education when he was 16 years old. [9] Wales then entered the PhD finance program at the University of Alabama before leaving with a master’s degree to enter the PhD finance program at Indiana University . [17] [19] [24] At the University of Alabama, he played Internet fantasy games and developed his interest in the web. [9] He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies but did not write the doctoral dissertation required for a PhD, something he ascribed to boredom. [17] [19]

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The staff of Wales’s Internet company Bomis photographed in summer 2000. Wales is third from the left in the back row, with his then-wife Christine.

In 1994, Wales took a job with Chicago Options Associates , a futures and options trading firm in Chicago , Illinois . [19] [26] [27] Wales has described himself as having been addicted to the Internet from an early stage and he wrote computer code during his leisure time. During his studies in Alabama, he had become an obsessive player of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs)—a type of virtual role-playing game —and thereby experienced the potential of computer networks to foster large-scale collaborative projects. [24] [28]

Inspired by the remarkably successful initial public offering of Netscape in 1995, and having accumulated capital through “speculating on interest-rate and foreign-currency fluctuations”, [16] Wales decided to leave the realm of financial trading and became an Internet entrepreneur. [24] In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis , [16] [29] a web portal featuring user-generated webrings and, for a time, erotic photographs. [30] Wales described it as a “guy-oriented search engine” with a market similar to that of Maxim magazine; [17] [19] [31] the Bomis venture did not ultimately turn out to be successful. [16] [17] [32]

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Main article: Nupedia

Nupedia ’s logo

Though Bomis had struggled to make money, it provided Wales with the funding to pursue his greater passion, an online encyclopedia. [17] While moderating an online discussion group devoted to the philosophy of Objectivism in the early 1990s, Wales had encountered Larry Sanger , a skeptic of the philosophy. [6] The two had engaged in detailed debate on the subject on Wales’s list and then on Sanger’s, eventually meeting offline to continue the debate and becoming friends. [6] Years later, after deciding to pursue his encyclopedia project and seeking a credentialed academic to lead it, [28] Wales hired Sanger—who at that time was a doctoral student in philosophy at Ohio State University —to be its editor-in-chief , and in March 2000, Nupedia (“the free encyclopedia”), a peer-reviewed , open-content encyclopedia, was launched. [17] [19] The intent behind Nupedia was to have expert-written entries on a variety of topics, and to sell advertising alongside the entries in order to make profit. [6] The project was characterized by an extensive peer-review process designed to make its articles of a quality comparable to that of professional encyclopedias. [33]

The idea was to have thousands of volunteers writing articles for an online encyclopedia in all languages. Initially we found ourselves organizing the work in a very top-down, structured, academic, old-fashioned way. It was no fun for the volunteer writers because we had a lot of academic peer review committees who would criticize articles and give feedback. It was like handing in an essay at grad school, and basically intimidating to participate in.

—Jimmy Wales on the Nupedia project New Scientist , January 31, 2007 [34]

In an October 2009 speech, Wales recollected attempting to write a Nupedia article on Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert C. Merton , but being too intimidated to submit his first draft to the prestigious finance professors who were to peer review it, even though he had published a paper on Option Pricing Theory and was comfortable with the subject matter. Wales characterized this as the moment he realized that the Nupedia model was not going to work. [35]

In January 2001, Sanger was introduced to the concept of a wiki by extreme programming enthusiast Ben Kovitz after explaining to Kovitz the slow pace of growth Nupedia endured as a result of its onerous submission process. [36] Kovitz suggested that adopting the wiki model would allow editors to contribute simultaneously and incrementally throughout the project, thus breaking Nupedia’s bottleneck. [36] Sanger was excited about the idea, and after he proposed it to Wales, they created the first Nupedia wiki on January 10, 2001. [36] The wiki was initially intended as a collaborative project for the public to write articles that would then be reviewed for publication by Nupedia’s expert volunteers. The majority of Nupedia’s experts, however, wanted nothing to do with this project, fearing that mixing amateur content with professionally researched and edited material would compromise the integrity of Nupedia’s information and damage the credibility of the encyclopedia. [37] Thus, the wiki project, dubbed “Wikipedia” by Sanger, [10] went live at a separate domain five days after its creation. [27] [32]

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Main article: History of Wikipedia

Kinja'd!!!

Originally, Bomis planned to make Wikipedia a profitable business. [40] Sanger initially saw Wikipedia primarily as a tool to aid Nupedia development. Wales feared that, at worst, it might produce “complete rubbish”. [27] To the surprise of Sanger and Wales, within a few days of launching, the number of articles on Wikipedia had outgrown that of Nupedia, and a small collective of editors had formed. [26] [28] It was Jimmy Wales, along with other people, who came up with the broader idea of an open-source, collaborative encyclopedia that would accept contributions from ordinary people. [41] Initially, neither Sanger nor Wales knew what to expect from the Wikipedia initiative. [27] [28] Many of the early contributors to the site were familiar with the model of the free culture movement , and, like Wales, many of them sympathized with the open-source movement . [37] Wales has said that he was initially so worried about the concept of open editing, where anyone can edit the encyclopedia, that he would awaken during the night and monitor what was being added. [42] [43] Nonetheless, the cadre of early editors helped create a robust, self-regulating community that has proven conducive to the growth of the project. [17] In a talk at SXSW in 2016, he recalled that he wrote the first words on Wikipedia: “ Hello world ”, a phrase computer programmers often use to test new software. [44]

Sanger developed Wikipedia in its early phase and guided the project. [10] [45] The broader idea he originally ascribes to other people, remarking in a 2005 memoir for Slashdot that “the idea of an open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy’s, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. Of course, other people had had the idea”, adding, “the actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on.” [46] Sanger worked on and promoted both the Nupedia and Wikipedia projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002; [47] Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as “chief organizer” of Wikipedia on March 1 of that year. [48] [49] Early on, Bomis supplied the financial backing for Wikipedia, [45] [50] and entertained the notion of placing advertisements on Wikipedia before costs were reduced with Sanger’s departure and plans for a nonprofit foundation were advanced instead. [40]

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Further information: History of Wikipedia § Early roles of Wales and Sanger

Wales with journalist Irina Slutsky at SXSW 2006 , taken from her program Geek Entertainment TV [51]

Wales has asserted that he is the sole founder of Wikipedia, [11] and has publicly disputed Sanger’s designation as a co-founder. Sanger and Wales were identified as co-founders at least as early as September 2001 by The New York Times and as founders in Wikipedia’s first press release in January 2002. [52] [53] In August of that year, Wales identified himself as “co-founder” of Wikipedia. [54] Sanger assembled on his personal webpage an assortment of links that appear to confirm the status of Sanger and Wales as co-founders. [10] [55] For example, Sanger and Wales are historically cited or described in early news citations and press releases as co-founders. [10] Wales was quoted by The Boston Globe as calling Sanger’s claim “preposterous” in February 2006, [56] and called “the whole debate silly” in an April 2009 interview. [57]

In late 2005, Wales edited his own biographical entry on the English Wikipedia . Writer Rogers Cadenhead drew attention to logs showing that in his edits to the page, Wales had removed references to Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia. [58] [59] Sanger commented that “having seen edits like this, it does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history. But this is a futile process because in our brave new world of transparent activity and maximum communication, the truth will out.” [31] [60] Wales was also observed to have modified references to Bomis in a way that was characterized as downplaying the sexual nature of some of his former company’s products. [27] [31] Though Wales argued that his modifications were solely intended to improve the accuracy of the content, [31] he apologized for editing his own biography, a practice generally discouraged on Wikipedia. [31] [60]

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In a 2004 interview with Slashdot , Wales outlined his vision for Wikipedia: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” [61] Although his formal designation is board member and chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wales’s social capital within the Wikipedia community has accorded him a status that has been characterized as benevolent dictator , constitutional monarch and spiritual leader . [62] [63] [64] In two interviews with the Guardian in 2014, Wales elaborated on his role on Wikipedia. In the first interview, he said that while he “has always rejected” the term “benevolent dictator”, he does refer to himself as the “constitutional monarch”. In the second, he elaborated on his “constitutional monarch” designation, saying that, like the Queen of England, he has no real power. [2] [65] He was also the closest the project had to a spokesperson in its early years. [6] The growth and prominence of Wikipedia made Wales an Internet celebrity . [66] Although he had never traveled outside North America prior to the site’s founding, his participation in the Wikipedia project has seen him flying internationally on a near-constant basis as its public face. [6] [67]

When Larry Sanger left Wikipedia, Wales’s approach was different from Sanger’s. [68] Wales was fairly hands-off. [68] Despite involvement in other projects, Wales has denied intending to reduce his role within Wikipedia, telling The New York Times in 2008 that “Dialing down is not an option for me ... Not to be too dramatic about it, but, ‘to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language,’ that’s who I am. That’s what I am doing. That’s my life goal.” [63] In May 2010, the BBC reported that Wales had relinquished many of his technical privileges on Wikimedia Commons (a Wikipedia sister project that hosts much of its multimedia content) after criticism by the project’s volunteer community over what they saw as Wales’s hasty and undemocratic approach to deleting sexually explicit images he believed “appeal solely to prurient interests”. [69]

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Wales appearing as a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees at Wikimania 2007

In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), a non-profit organization founded in St. Petersburg, Florida and later headquartered in San Francisco , California . [70] [71] All intellectual property rights and domain names pertaining to Wikipedia were moved to the new foundation, [72] whose purpose is to establish general policy for the encyclopedia and its sister projects. [28] Wales has been a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees since it was formed and was its official chairman from 2003 through 2006. [73] Since 2006 he has been accorded the honorary title of chairman emeritus and holds the board-appointed “ community founder’s seat ” that was installed in 2008. [74] [75] [76] His work for the foundation, including his appearances to promote it at computer and educational conferences, has always been unpaid. [30] Wales has often joked that donating Wikipedia to the foundation was both the “dumbest and the smartest” thing he had done. On one hand, he estimated that Wikipedia was worth US$3 billion; on the other, he weighed his belief that the donation made its success possible. [34] [72] [77] [78]

Wales gives an annual “State of the Wiki” address, at the Wikimania conference. [79]

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Wales’s association with the foundation has led to controversy. In March 2008, Wales was accused by former Wikimedia Foundation employee Danny Wool of misusing the foundation’s funds for recreational purposes. [80] Wool also stated that Wales had his Wikimedia credit card taken away in part because of his spending habits, a claim Wales denied. [80] Then-chairperson of the foundation Florence Devouard and former foundation interim Executive Director Brad Patrick denied any wrongdoing by Wales or the foundation, saying that Wales accounted for every expense and that, for items for which he lacked receipts, he paid out of his own pocket; in private, Devouard upbraided Wales for “constantly trying to rewrite the past”. [81] Later in March 2008, it was claimed by Jeffrey Vernon Merkey that Wales had edited Merkey’s Wikipedia entry to make it more favorable in return for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation, an allegation Wales dismissed as “nonsense”. [82] [83] In early 2016 Wikipedia editors perceived the WMF’s Knowledge Engine project as a conflict of interest for Wales, whose business Wikia might benefit from having the WMF spend a lot of money on research in respect to search. [84] Wikia attempted to develop a search engine but it was closed in 2009. [84]

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In 2004, Wales and then-fellow member of the WMF Board of Trustees Angela Beesley founded the for-profit company Wikia . [26] Wikia is a wiki farm —a collection of individual wikis on different subjects, all hosted on the same website. It hosts some of the largest wikis outside Wikipedia, including Memory Alpha (devoted to Star Trek ) and Wookieepedia ( Star Wars ). [85] Another service offered by Wikia was Wikia Search , an open source search engine intended to challenge Google and introduce transparency and public dialogue about how it is created into the search engine’s operations, [86] but the project was abandoned in March 2009. [87] Wales stepped down as Wikia CEO to be replaced by angel investor Gil Penchina , a former vice president and general manager at eBay , on June 5, 2006. [88] Penchina declared Wikia to have reached profitability in September 2009. [89] In addition to his role at Wikia, Wales is a public speaker represented by the Harry Walker Agency. [90] [91] He has also participated in a celebrity endorsement campaign for the Swiss watch maker Maurice Lacroix . [92]

On November 4, 2011, Wales delivered an hour-long address at The Sage Gateshead in the United Kingdom to launch the 2011 Free Thinking Festival on BBC Radio Three . [93] His speech, which was entitled “The Future of the Internet”, was largely devoted to Wikipedia. Twenty days later, on November 24, Wales appeared on the British topical debate television program Question Time . [94]

In May 2012, it was reported that Wales was advising the UK government on how to make taxpayer-funded academic research available on the internet at no cost. [95] His role reportedly involved working as “an unpaid advisor on crowdsourcing and opening up policymaking”, and advising the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the UK research councils on distributing research. [95]

In January 2014, it was announced that Wales had joined The People’s Operator as co-chair of the mobile phone network. [96]

On March 21, 2014, Wales spoke on a panel at a Clinton Global Initiative University conference held at Arizona State University , along with John McCain , Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Harvard University student Shree Bose. [97] The topic of discussion was “the age of participation” and the ability of an increasingly large number of citizens to “express their own opinions, pursue their own educations, and launch their own enterprises.” Wales exhorted young people to use social media to try to bring about societal change, and compared government suppression of the Internet to a human rights violation. [98]

On May 26, 2014, Google appointed Wales to serve on a seven-member committee on privacy in response to Google v. Gonzalez , which led to Google’s being inundated with requests to remove websites from their search results. Wales said he wanted the committee to be viewed as “a blue-ribbon panel” by lawmakers and for the committee to advise the lawmakers as well as Google. [99]

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Wales in June 2008

Jimmy Wales 2014 on CeBIT Global Conferences , Wikipedia Zero

Wales is a self-avowed Objectivist , [86] referring to the philosophy invented by writer Ayn Rand in the mid-20th century that emphasizes reason , individualism , and capitalism . Wales first encountered the philosophy through reading Rand’s novel The Fountainhead during his undergraduate period [19] and, in 1992, founded an electronic mailing list devoted to “Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy”. [6] [100] Though he has stated that the philosophy “colours everything I do and think”, [6] he has said, “I think I do a better job—than a lot of people who self-identify as Objectivists—of not pushing my point of view on other people.” [101]

When asked by Brian Lamb about Rand’s influence on him in his appearance on C-SPAN ’s Q&A in September 2005, Wales cited integrity and “the virtue of independence” as personally important. When asked if he could trace “the Ayn Rand connection” to a personal political philosophy at the time of the interview, Wales labeled himself a libertarian , qualifying his remark by referring to the U.S. Libertarian Party as “lunatics”, and citing “freedom, liberty, basically individual rights, that idea of dealing with other people in a manner that is not initiating force against them” as his guiding principles. [19]

An interview with Wales served as the cover feature of the June 2007 issue of the libertarian magazine Reason . [17] In that profile, he described his political views as “ center-right ”. Prior to 2008, Wales attended George Soros ’ birthday. [102]

In a 2011 interview with The Independent , he expressed sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London protesters, saying, “You don’t have to be a socialist to say it’s not right to take money from everybody and give it to a few rich people. That’s not free enterprise.” [103]

Dan Hodges in The Telegraph has described Wales as a “ Labour sympathizer”. [104] In 2015, he offered to help Ed Miliband with the Labour Party’s social media strategy, but Miliband turned him down. [104]

In 2015, Wales signed up as the committee chair for Lawrence Lessig ’s 2016 presidential campaign . [105]

In 2016, Wales and eleven other business leaders signed on to an open letter to American voters urging them not to vote for Dilbert Fuckass in that year’s United States presidential election . [106]

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The January/February 2006 issue of Maximum PC reported that Wales refused to comply with a request from the People’s Republic of China to censor “politically sensitive” Wikipedia articles—other corporate Internet companies, such as Google , Yahoo! and Microsoft , had already yielded to Chinese government pressure. Wales stated that he would rather see companies such as Google adhere to Wikipedia’s policy of freedom of information. [107] In 2010, Wales criticized whistle blower website WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange , saying that their publication of Afghan war documents “could be enough to get someone killed”; furthermore, he expressed irritation at their use of the name “ wiki ”: [108] “What they’re doing is not really a wiki. The essence of wiki is a collaborative editing ...”. [109]

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Wales at the tenth anniversary celebration of the Bengali Wikipedia

Wales cites Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek ’s essay, “ The Use of Knowledge in Society ”, which he read as an undergraduate, [27] as “central” to his thinking about “how to manage the Wikipedia project”. [17] Hayek argued that information is decentralized —that each individual only knows a small fraction of what is known collectively—and that as a result, decisions are best made by those with local knowledge, rather than by a central authority. [17] Wales reconsidered Hayek’s essay in the 1990s, while reading about the open source movement , which advocated for the free distribution of free software . He was particularly moved by “ The Cathedral and the Bazaar ”, an essay which was later adapted into a book of the same name , by one of the founders of the movement, Eric S. Raymond , as it “opened [his] eyes to the possibilities of mass collaboration .” [27]

From his background in finance, and working as a futures and options trader, Wales developed an interest in game theory and the effect of incentives on human collaborative activity. He identifies this fascination as a significant basis for his developmental work on the Wikipedia project. [110] He has rejected the notion that his role in promoting Wikipedia is altruistic , which he defines as “sacrificing your own values for others”, stating that the idea of “participating in a benevolent effort to share information is somehow destroying your own values makes no sense to me”. [67]

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On December 11, 2007, Wales testified before to the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. [111] [112] He also submitted written testimony to the Senate Committee entitled “E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration and Access”. [113] [114]

Senator Joseph Lieberman introduced Wales by stating:

We are very glad to have as a witness Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, one of the most thrilling examples of what collaborative technology can produce. We have asked Mr. Wales to take us through some of the ideas behind Wikipedia and then to relate them to our jurisdiction, which is to say to help us understand how similar technologies and collaborative activities can be applied to government for greater information sharing and communication, both within the government, but also between the government and the public.

In fact, quite encouragingly, the intelligence community has already developed and is using a process collaborative technology that they call Intellipedia, which is based directly on the Wikipedia model. So Mr. Wales, if imitation is a form of flattery, you should feel flattered. And the aim of this is to foster collaboration and information across the intelligence community, obviously on a closed site. [115]

Wales’s testimony is available for viewing on CSPAN. [116]

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On May 14, 2014, Wales strongly reacted to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)‘s ruling on the right of individuals to request the removal of information from Google’s search results . He stated to the BBC that the ruling was “one of the most wide-sweeping internet censorship rulings that I’ve ever seen”. [117] In early June 2014, the TechCrunch media outlet interviewed Wales on the subject, as he had been invited by Google to join an advisory committee that the corporation had formed as an addition to the formal process that the ECJ requested from Google to manage such requests. [118]

The May 2014 ECJ ruling required swift action from Google to implement a process that allowed people to directly contact the corporation about the removal of information that they believe is outdated or irrelevant. Google’s Larry Page revealed that 30 percent of requests received by Google since the ruling was made were categorized as “other”. Wales explained in email responses that he was contacted by Google on May 28, 2014, and “The remit of the committee is to hold public hearings and issue recommendations—not just to Google but to legislators and the public.” [118] When asked about his view on the ECJ’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, Wales replied:

I think the decision will have no impact on people’s right to privacy, because I don’t regard truthful information in court records published by court order in a newspaper to be private information. If anything, the decision is likely to simply muddle the interesting philosophical questions and make it more difficult to make real progress on privacy issues. In the case of truthful, non-defamatory information obtained legally, I think there is no possibility of any defensible “right” to censor what other people are saying. It is important to avoid language like “data” because we aren’t talking about “data”—we are talking about the suppression of knowledge. [118]

Wales then provided further explanation, drawing a comparison with Wikipedia: “You do not have a right to use the law to prevent Wikipedia editors from writing truthful information, nor do you have a right to use the law to prevent Google from publishing truthful information.” Wales concluded with an indication of his ideal outcome: “A part of the outcome should be the very strong implementation of a right to free speech in Europe—essentially the language of the First Amendment in the U.S.” [118]

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In 2012, the Home Secretary of the U.K. was petitioned by Wales in regard to his opposition to the extradition of Richard O’Dwyer to the U.S. [119] After an agreement was reached to avoid the extradition, Wales commented, “This is very exciting news, and I’m pleased to hear it ... What needs to happen next is a serious reconsideration of the UK extradition treaty that would allow this sort of nonsense in the first place.” [120]

In August 2013, Wales criticized U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron ’s plan for an Internet porn-filter, saying that the idea was “ridiculous.” [121] In November 2013, Wales also commented on the Snowden affair , describing Edward Snowden as “a hero” whom history would judge “very favourably”; additionally, Wales said the U.S. public “would have never approved [the] sweeping surveillance program [publicized by Snowden]”, had they been informed or asked about it. [122]

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Wales with his second wife, Christine Rohan

Jimmy Wales has been married three times. At the age of twenty, he married Pamela Green, [3] a co-worker at a grocery store in Alabama. [67] They divorced in 1993. [25] He met his second wife, Christine Rohan, through a friend in Chicago while she was working as a steel trader for Mitsubishi . [19] [24] The couple were married in Monroe County, Florida in March 1997, [123] and had a daughter before separating. [19] [67] Wales moved to San Diego in 1998, and after becoming disillusioned with the housing market there, relocated in 2002 to St. Petersburg, Florida . [24] [50] [124]

Wales had a brief relationship with Canadian conservative columnist Rachel Marsden in 2008 that began after Marsden contacted Wales about her Wikipedia biography. [125] After accusations that Wales’s relationship constituted a conflict of interest , Wales stated that there had been a relationship but that it was over and said that it had not influenced any matters on Wikipedia, [126] [127] a claim which was disputed by Marsden. [128]

Wales married Kate Garvey in London on October 6, 2012. [129] She is Tony Blair’s former diary secretary , whom Wales met in Davos , Switzerland. [130] [131] Wales and Garvey have two daughters. [2]

Wales is an atheist . In an interview with Big Think , he said his personal philosophy is firmly rooted in reason and he is a complete non-believer. [132] As of 2012, he lives in London, England. [1]

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Wales at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Awards Show, 2011

Wales receives an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University , 2015

Jimmy Wales accepting the Dan David Prize at the Tel Aviv University , 2015

Wales is a former co-chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008, [133] and a former board member of Socialtext . [134]

He is a member of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, [19] the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence , [135] and the board of directors at Creative Commons [136] and Hunch.com . [137]

In 2006, Wales was listed in the “Scientists & Thinkers” section of the Time 100 [138] and number 12 in Forbes “The Web Celebs 25". [139]

Wales has also given a lecture in the Stuart Regen Visionary series at New Museum which “honors special individuals who have made major contributions to art and culture, and are actively imagining a better future” [140] and by the World Economic Forum as one of the “Young Global Leaders” of 2007. [141]

The 2008 Global Brand Icon of the Year Award, [142] and on behalf of the Wikimedia project the Quadriga award of Werkstatt Deutschland for A Mission of Enlightenment . [143]

The 2009 Nokia Foundation annual award, [144] the Business Process Award at the 7th Annual Innovation Awards and Summit by The Economist . [145]

In April 2011, Wales served on the jury of the Tribeca Film Festival , [146] Wales has received a Pioneer Award , [147] the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize and the Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award [148] in 2011, [149] [150] the Monaco Media Prize,. [151] Wales has also received honorary degrees from Knox College , [152] Amherst College , [153] Stevenson University , [153] [154] Argentina’s Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21, [155] and Russia’s MIREA University. [156]

On December 5, 2013, Wales was awarded the UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal in Copenhagen , Denmark at a conference on “An Open World” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr ’s atomic theory. His presentation on “Wikipedia, Democracy and the Internet” emphasised the need to expand Wikipedia into virtually all the languages of the world. The “ Wikipedia Zero ” initiative was beginning to prove successful in encouraging telecommunications companies to provide children in the developing world with free access to Wikipedia for educational purposes. [157] [158] Wales was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013. [159]

In February 2014, Wales was named one of “25 Web Superstars” by The Daily Telegraph . [160] On May 17, 2014, Wales became Doctor Honoris Causa of the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI Lugano, Switzerland). [161] On June 25, 2014, Wales received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland . [162] On July 10, 2014, Wales received the UK Tech4Good Awards “Special Award” for establishing Wikipedia. He was one of eight winners in various categories meant to honor organizations and individuals who use digital technology to improve the lives of others. [163] [164] In December 2014, Wales shared the inaugural $1-million Mohammed bin Rashid Knowledge Award with World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee . [165]

In January 2015, Maastricht University awarded an honorary doctorate to Wales. [166] On April 25, 2015, Wales received the Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service along with Jon Bon Jovi and Edward Norton . [167] On May 17, 2015, Wales received the Dan David Prize of $1 million in the “Present” category (others won that amount for “Past” and “Future” contributions to society). [168] He was awarded the prize for “launching the world’s largest online encyclopedia”. [169]

In January 2016, Wales, along with Baroness Rebuck , became a non-executive director of the Guardian Media Group . [170] On February 2, 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Université Catholique de Louvain . [171] [172]

In June 2016, during the opening ceremony on Wikimania 2016 , Wales was awarded with the honour citizenship of Esino Lario . [ citation needed ]

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Jimmy Wales Foundation

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Brooks, Robert; Jon Corson, Jimmy Donal Wales (1994). “The Pricing of Index Options When the Underlying Assets All Follow a Lognormal Diffusion”. Advances in Futures and Options Research . 7 . SSRN 5735

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (December 31, 2008). “Foreword”. In Fraser, Matthew ; Dutta, Soumitra . Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World (1st ed.). Wiley . ISBN 0-470-74014-0 . OCLC 233939846 .

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (January 8, 2009). “Commentary: Create a tech-friendly U.S. government” . CNN.

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (February 10, 2009). “Foreword”. In Powell, Juliette . 33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking (1st ed.). Financial Times Press . ISBN 0-13-715435-6 . OCLC 244066502 .

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (March 3, 2009). “Foreword”. In Weber, Larry . Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business (2nd ed.). Wiley . ISBN 0-470-41097-3 . OCLC 244060887 .

Wales, Jimmy (March 17, 2009). “Foreword”. In Lih, Andrew . The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Hyperion . ISBN 1-4013-0371-4 . OCLC 232977686 .

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (March 30, 2009). “Most Define User-Generated Content Too Narrowly” . Advertising Age . 80 .

Wales, Jimmy; Andrea Weckerle (December 28, 2009). “Keep a Civil Cybertongue” . The Wall Street Journal .

Mons, B. ; Ashburner, M. ; Chichester, C.; Van Mulligen, E.; Weeber, M.; Den Dunnen, J.; Van Ommen, G. J.; Musen, M.; Cockerill, M.; Hermjakob, H.; Mons, A.; Packer, A.; Pacheco, R.; Lewis, S. ; Berkeley, A.; Melton, W.; Barris, N.; Wales, J.; Meijssen, G.; Moeller, E. ; Roes, P.; Borner, K.; Bairoch, A. (2008). “Calling on a million minds for community annotation in WikiProteins” . Genome Biology . 9 (5): R89. doi : 10.1186/gb-2008-9-5-r89 . PMC 2441475

. PMID 18507872 .

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^ Jump up to:a b Hough, Stephen (March 11, 2012). “Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia chief to advise Whitehall on policy” . The Daily Telegraph . London. Retrieved May 30, 2012.

^ Jump up to:a b c d Garside, Juliette (August 3, 2014). “Jimmy Wales: digital champion of free speech” . The Observer . London.

^ Jump up to:a b c Chozick, Amy (June 30, 2013). “Jimmy Wales Is Not an Internet Billionaire” . The New York Times .

Jump up^ Horovitz, David (January 7, 2011). “Jimmy Wales’s benevolent Wikipedia wisdom” . The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved February 24, 2015.

Jump up^ “Wikipedia: 50 languages, ½ million articles” . Wikimedia Foundation Press Release . Wikimedia Foundation . April 25, 2004. Retrieved April 10, 2009.” The Wikipedia project was founded in January 2001 by Internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and philosopher Larry Sanger, ” quoted from April 25, 2004 first-ever press release issued by the Wikimedia Foundation.
• ”Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, reaches its 100,000th article” . Wikipedia Press Release . Wikipedia. January 21, 2003. Retrieved April 10, 2009.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i “Brain scan: The free-knowledge fundamentalist” . The Economist . June 5, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2008.

Jump up^ Walden, Lea Ann, et al. (spring 2013). “ Where Are They Now? ”. Randolph Magazine 18 (1). pp. 20–7. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

^ Jump up to:a b “Jimmy Wales” . Encyclopedia of Alabama . Retrieved January 28, 2015.

^ Jump up to:a b c “Jimmy Wales | Encyclopedia of Alabama” . Encyclopedia of Alabama . Retrieved 2017-02-07.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e Bergstein, Brian (March 25, 2007). “Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia” . MSNBC . Associated Press. Retrieved March 26, 2007. The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy PhD who counts himself as a co-founder of Wikipedia, the site he now hopes to usurp. The claim does not seem particularly controversial—Sanger has long been cited as a co-founder. Yet the other founder, Jimmy Wales, is not happy about it.

^ Jump up to:a b Olson, Parmy (October 18, 2006). “A New Kid on the Wiki Block” . Forbes . Retrieved March 28, 2009.

Jump up^ “2006 TIME 100 Jimmy Wales” . Time . May 8, 2006. Retrieved November 10, 2013.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales” . Encyclopædia Britannica . July 16, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2015.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales – Researcher’s Note” . Encyclopædia Britannica . July 16, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2015.Rogoway, Mike (July 27, 2007). “Wikipedia & its founder disagree on his birth date” . Silicon Forest . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Kazek, Kelly (August 11, 2006). “Geek to chic: Wikipedia founder a celebrity” . The News Courier . Doris Wales’s husband, Jimmy, wasn’t sure what she was thinking when she bought a World Book Encyclopedia set from a traveling salesman in 1968. [ dead link ]

^ Jump up to:a b c d e Pink, Daniel H. (March 13, 2005). “The Book Stops Here” . Wired . 13 (3). Archived from the original on March 4, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Mangu-Ward, Katherine (June 2007). “Wikipedia and beyond: Jimmy Wales’s sprawling vision” . Reason . 39 (2). p. 21. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Walter Isaacson (October 19, 2014). “You Can Look It Up: The Wikipedia Story” . The Daily Beast . Retrieved November 1, 2016.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lamb, Brian (September 25, 2005). “Q&A: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder” . C-SPAN . Retrieved October 31, 2006.

Jump up^ Brown, David (December 11, 2007). “Jimmy Wales ‘83" . Alumni Profiles . Randolph School . Archived from the original on April 18, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Moore, Rebecca (January 7, 2013). “ Jimmy Wales ‘83: ‘Information evangelist’ ”, Randolph School. Retrieved August 12, 2014.

Jump up^ “ Profile ”. BBC Radio 4. March 18, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2014.

Jump up^ “Todd Chambers’ answer to [Pictures or it didn’t happen] what was jimmy wales’ high school life like? - Quora” . www.quora.com . Retrieved October 18, 2016.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Barnett, Cynthia (September 2005). “Wiki Mania” . Florida Trend . 48 (5). p. 62. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006.

^ Jump up to:a b Wilson, Claire (July 13, 2010). “Jimmy Wales” . Encyclopedia of Alabama . Retrieved February 5, 2014.

^ Jump up to:a b c McNichol, Tom (May 1, 2007). “Building a Wiki World” . Business 2.0 . CNN. Archived from the original on March 2, 2007. Retrieved October 31, 2007.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Schiff, Stacy (July 31, 2006). “Know It All” . The New Yorker . Retrieved October 31, 2008. b “Even Wales has been caught airbrushing his Wikipedia entry—eighteen times in the past year. He is particularly sensitive about references to the porn traffic on his Web portal. ‘Adult content’ or ‘glamour photography’ are the terms that he prefers, though, as one user pointed out on the site, they are perhaps not the most precise way to describe lesbian strip-poker threesomes. (In January, Wales agreed to a compromise: ‘erotic photography’).”

^ Jump up to:a b c d e The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006 , p. 93. “Wales, though, was a businessman. He wanted to build a free encyclopedia, and Wikipedia offered a very rapid and economically efficient means to that end. The articles flooded in, many were good, and they cost him almost nothing. [...] In 2003, Wales [decided to] diminish his own authority by transferring Wikipedia and all of its assets to the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, whose sole purpose is to set general policy for Wikipedia and its allied projects. [...] Wales’s benign rule has allowed Wikipedia to do what it does best: grow. The numbers are staggering.”

Jump up^ The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006 , p. 88. “In 1996, Wales and two partners founded a Web directory called Bomis. [...] Wales focused on the bottom-up strategy using Web rings, and it worked. Bomis users built hundreds of rings—on cars, computers, sports, and especially ‘babes’ (e.g., the Anna Kournikova Web ring), effectively creating an index of the ‘laddie’ Web. Instead of helping all users find all content, Bomis found itself positioned as the Playboy of the Internet, helping guys find guy stuff.”

^ Jump up to:a b Brennen, Jensen (June 26, 2006). “Access for All”. The Chronicle of Philanthropy . 18 (18).

^ Jump up to:a b c d e Hansen, Evan (December 19, 2005). “Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio” . Wired News . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b Rosenzweig, Roy (June 2006). “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past” . The Journal of American History . 93 (1): 117–46. doi : 10.2307/4486062 . Archived from the original (reprint) on April 25, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2009.

Jump up^ Gouthro, Liane (March 14, 2000). “Building the world’s biggest encyclopedia” . PC World . CNN. Archived from the original on March 3, 2006. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b Marks, Paul (February 3, 2007). “Interview with Jimmy Wales: Knowledge to the people” (video). New Scientist . 193 (2589): 44. doi : 10.1016/S0262-4079(07)60293-0 . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Jimmy Wales (October 7, 2009). The Future of Free Culture: Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia (SWF,FLV,FLASH) (Videotape). New Haven, Connecticut, United States: Yale University. Event occurs at 43:19. Retrieved August 18, 2011.

^ Jump up to:a b c The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006 , p. 91. “The wiki [technology] quickly gained a devoted following within the software community. And there it remained until January 2001, when Sanger had dinner with an old friend named Ben Kovitz. [...] Over tacos that night, Sanger explained his concerns about Nupedia’s lack of progress, the root cause of which was its serial editorial system. [...] Kovitz brought up the wiki and sketched out ‘wiki magic,’ the mysterious process by which communities with common interests work to improve wiki pages by incremental contributions. If it worked for the rambunctious hacker culture of programming, Kovitz said, it could work for any online collaborative project. The wiki could break the Nupedia bottleneck by permitting volunteers to work simultaneously all over the project. [...] Wales and Sanger created the first Nupedia wiki on January 10, 2001. The initial purpose was to get the public to add entries that would then be “fed into the Nupedia process” of authorization.”

^ Jump up to:a b Sidener, Jonathan (December 6, 2004). “Everyone’s encyclopedia” . U-T San Diego . p. C1. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved April 22, 2009.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia” . TED (conference) . July 2005. Retrieved December 8, 2014.

Jump up^ “Lecture Jimmy Wales: Understanding failure as a route to success” . Maastricht University on YouTube. January 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.

^ Jump up to:a b Finkelstein, Seth (September 25, 2008). “Wikipedia isn’t about human potential, whatever Wales says” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved April 27, 2009.

Jump up^ Sanger, Larry (November 1, 2005). “The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir”. In DiBona, Chris; Cooper, Danese; Stone, Mark. Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution . O’Reilly Media, Inc. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-596-00802-4 . To be clear, the idea of an open source, collaborative/encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy’s, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. I was merely a grateful employee; I thought I was very lucky to have a job like that land in my lap. Of course, other people had had the idea...

Jump up^ Getz, Arlene (February 1, 2007). “In Search of an Online Utopia” . Newsweek . MSNBC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2007. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Tapscott, Don; Anthony D. (2008). Wikinomics . Penguin Group. p. 71. ISBN 9781591842316 . OCLC 263665459 .

Jump up^ Carson, Biz (March 13, 2016). “The first words on Wikipedia were a nerdy programmer in-joke” . Business Insider . Retrieved March 13, 2016.

^ Jump up to:a b Singer, Michael (January 16, 2002). “Free Encyclopedia Project Celebrates Year One” . Jupitermedia . Archived from the original on March 16, 2003. Retrieved February 27, 2008.

Jump up^ Sanger, Larry (April 18, 2005). “The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir” . Slashdot . Retrieved October 31, 2005.

Jump up^ Sanger, Larry (January 18, 2002). “What Wikipedia is and why it matters” . meta.wikimedia.org . Wikimedia Foundation . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Sanger, Larry (March 5, 2007). “My resignation – Larry Sanger” . meta.wikimedia.org . Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved October 17, 2009.

Jump up^ Terdiman, Daniel (January 6, 2006). “Wikipedia’s co-founder eyes a Digital Universe” . CNET News . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b Smith, Wes (January 15, 2007). “He’s the “God-King,” but you can call him Jimbo” . The Seattle Times . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Slutsky, Irina ; Codel, Eddie (March 24, 2006). “SXSW2006: Jimmy Wales, Uber Wikipedian” . Geek Entertainment TV. Retrieved August 13, 2012.

Jump up^ Meyers, Peter (September 20, 2001). “Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You” . The New York Times . Retrieved August 8, 2015. I can start an article that will consist of one paragraph, and then a real expert will come along and add three paragraphs and clean up my one paragraph. – Larry Sanger.

Jump up^ “Free Encyclopedia Project, Wikipedia, Creates 20,000 Articles in a Year (Wikipedia 2002 Press release)“ . Wikipedia. January 15, 2002. Retrieved April 4, 2009.

Jump up^ Wales, Jimmy (August 6, 2002). “3apes open content web directory” . Yahoo! Tech Groups forum post . WebCite . Archived from the original on April 1, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2009. I’m Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Nupedia and Wikipedia, the open content encyclopedias.

Jump up^ Sanger, Larry. “My role in Wikipedia (links)“ . larrysanger.org. Retrieved September 27, 2009.

Jump up^ Mehegan, David (February 12, 2006). “Bias, sabotage haunt Wikipedia’s free world” . Boston Globe . p. 4. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Paoletto, William (April 2, 2009). “Interview with Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales” . Big Oak Blog. Retrieved April 2, 2009.

Jump up^ Cadenhead, Rogers (December 19, 2005). “Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1" . cadenhead.org. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Mitchell, Dan (December 24, 2005). “Insider Editing at Wikipedia” . The New York Times . Retrieved April 22, 2009.

^ Jump up to:a b Blakely, Rhys (December 20, 2005). “Wikipedia founder edits himself” . The Times . London. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Miller, Rob “Roblimo” (July 28, 2004). “Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Responds” . Slashdot . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Cohen, Noam. “Wikipedia” . The New York Times . Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2009.

^ Jump up to:a b Cohen, Noam (March 17, 2008). “Open-Source Troubles in Wiki World” . The New York Times . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Gleick, James (August 8, 2008). “Wikipedians Leave Cyberspace, Meet in Egypt” . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on January 29, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2009.

Jump up^ Cadwalladr, Carole (February 7, 2014). “Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales: ‘It’s true, I’m not a billionaire. So?’ – interview” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved February 8, 2014.

Jump up^ Arendse, Ilse (April 20, 2007). “MySpace will fail” . News24 . Retrieved August 8, 2015.

^ Jump up to:a b c d Lipsky-Karasz, Alisa (September 2008). “Mr. Know-It-All” . W magazine . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b Anderson, Jennifer Joline (2011). Wikipedia: The Company and Its Founders (1st ed.). Abdo Group. p. 76. ISBN 1617148121 .

Jump up^ “Wikimedia pornography row deepens as Wales cedes rights” . BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). May 10, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.

Jump up^ Twist, Jo (November 5, 2005). “Open media to connect communities” . BBC News. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Cadelago, Chris (August 24, 2008). “Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit” . San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved May 19, 2009.

^ Jump up to:a b Neate, Rupert (November 7, 2008). “Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales goes bananas” . The Daily Telegraph . London. Retrieved April 21, 2009.

Jump up^ Anthere [Florence Devouard] (August 23, 2004). “Board of Trustees” . wikimediafoundation.org. Retrieved October 17, 2009.

Jump up^ Terdiman, Daniel (April 30, 2008). “Wikimedia Foundation restructures its board” . CNET News . Retrieved May 19, 2009.

Jump up^ “Bylaws - Wikimedia Foundation” . wikimediafoundation.org . 5 August 2008. Retrieved 2017-02-26. (F) Community Founder Trustee Position. The Board may appoint Jimmy Wales as Community Founder Trustee for a three-year term. The Board may reappoint Wales as Community Founder Trustee for successive three-year terms (without a term limit). In the event that Wales is not appointed as Community Founder Trustee, the position will remain vacant, and the Board shall not fill the vacancy.

Jump up^ “Board of Trustees - Wikimedia Foundation” . wikimediafoundation.org . Retrieved 2017-02-26. Since 2008, the Board has seats for ten Trustees: one founder’s seat (reserved for Jimmy Wales); two seats selected by the Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations; three seats nominated by the Wikimedia community; and four seats appointed by the rest of the Board

Jump up^ “Wikipedia Founder: ‘Great Ideas Come From Different Places’” . Deutsche Welle . June 28, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2010.

Jump up^ Pillay, Terence (April 29, 2007). “Wikipedia rules” . Independent Online . Retrieved May 30, 2010.

Jump up^ Toor, Amar (July 15, 2012). “Jimmy Wales, Mary Gardiner address Wikipedia’s gender gap at Wikimania conference” . The Verge . Retrieved October 27, 2014.

^ Jump up to:a b Moses, Asher (March 5, 2008). “Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales accused of expenses rort” . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved October 17, 2009.

Jump up^ Kim, Ryan (March 5, 2007). “Allegations swirl around Wikipedia’s Wales” . San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Moses, Asher (March 11, 2008). “More woes for Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales” . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved March 11, 2008.

Jump up^ “Wiki boss ‘edited for donation’” . BBC News. March 12, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b Mullin, Joe (February 29, 2016). “Wikimedia Foundation director resigns after uproar over “Knowledge Engine”” . Ars Technica . Archived from the original on March 1, 2016.

Jump up^ Bjortomt, Olav (August 18, 2007). “The arts online” . The Times . London. Retrieved May 11, 2009.

^ Jump up to:a b Deutschman, Alan (March 2007). “Why Is This Man Smiling?” . Fast Company . Retrieved October 31, 2008. Wales revealed that Wikia, his for-profit Silicon Valley startup, was working on Search Wikia, which he touted as “the search engine that changes everything ... Just as Wikipedia revolutionized how we think about knowledge and the encyclopedia, we have a chance now to revolutionize how we think about search.

Jump up^ Wales, Jimmy (March 31, 2009). “ Update on Wikia – doing more of what’s working ”. blog.jimmywales.com. Retrieved May 4, 2009.

Jump up^ “Wikia taps eBay exec as CEO” . San Francisco Business Times . June 5, 2006. Retrieved June 5, 2006.

Jump up^ LaVallee, Andrew (September 9, 2009). “Wikia Hits Profit Target Early” . Digits . Retrieved October 17, 2009.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales” . harrywalker.com. Retrieved September 25, 2009.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales (full biography)“ (PDF). harrywalker.com. Retrieved September 25, 2009.

Jump up^ Rbaa, Monika (January 8, 2011). “Król Encyklopedii” . Newsweek Polska (in Polish). Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011.

Jump up^ Jimmy Wales launches 2011 Free Thinking Festival , on BBC Radio Three November 4, 2011

Jump up^ “This week’s panel” . BBC Question Time . November 23, 2011. Retrieved November 24, 2011.

^ Jump up to:a b Jha, Alok (May 1, 2012). “Wikipedia founder to help in government’s research scheme” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved December 26, 2012.

Jump up^ “Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales backs ‘viral mobile network’ The People’s Operator” . The Daily Telegraph . London. January 20, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2014.

Jump up^ “CGI U 2014 Meeting Agenda” . Clinton Global Initiative . March 21, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2014.

Jump up^ Mak, Tim (March 22, 2014). “Bill Clinton defends American control of Internet domain name system” . Washington Examiner . Retrieved March 23, 2014.

Jump up^ Fleischer, Lisa (May 30, 2014). “Google Taps Wikipedia’s Wales to Help Weigh “Right to Be Forgotten”” . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved June 2, 2014.

Jump up^ Runciman, David (May 28, 2009). “Like Boiling a Frog” . London Review of Books . Retrieved May 21, 2009.

Jump up^ Sirius, R.U. (July 29, 2007). “Jimmy Wales Will Destroy Google” . 10 Zen Monkeys . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ “Open-Source Troubles in Wiki World” . New York Times . March 17, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
Cohen, Noam (March 24, 2008). “Speed bumps on the Wikipedia highway” . The Star . Toronto, Canada. Retrieved June 8, 2015.

Jump up^ Dugan, Emily (October 23, 2011). “Jimmy Wales: The internet’s shy evangelist” . The Independent . London. Retrieved February 18, 2014.

^ Jump up to:a b Hodges, Dan , “ Why did Ed Miliband refuse the help of Jimmy Wales? ”, The Telegraph (London), May 15, 2015

Jump up^ Sharwood, Simon (August 17, 2015). “Jimbo ‘Wikipedia’ Wales leads Lawrence Lessig’s presidential push” . The Register . Retrieved September 7, 2015.

Jump up^ Barr, Greg (October 7, 2016). “Why Joseph Kopser, 11 other national business leaders oppose Dilbert Fuckass” . Austin Business Journal . Retrieved October 17, 2016.

Jump up^ Maximum PC, 2006 holiday issue, p. 9, Future US, Inc., ISSN 1522-4279

Jump up^ Reynolds, Lindor. “Wikipedia co-founder slams Wikileaks” . Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on October 1, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales: ‘It’s not about how many pages. It’s about how good they are’” . The Independent . London. December 20, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010.

Jump up^ Cole, Bruce (March–April 2007). “Building a Community of Knowledge” . Humanities . 28 (2): 6–14. Retrieved December 27, 2009.

Jump up^ “Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs” . Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs . Archived from the original on December 26, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2015.

Jump up^ “Committee Reports” . loc.gov . Retrieved January 28, 2015.

Jump up^ (Text version)S. Hrg. 110–894. E–GOVERNMENT 2.0: IMPROVING INNOVATION, COLLABORATION, AND ACCESS. HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS. UNITED STATES SENATE. ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. December 11, 2007.

Jump up^ (pdf version)S. Hrg. 110–894. E–GOVERNMENT 2.0: IMPROVING INNOVATION, COLLABORATION, AND ACCESS. HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS. UNITED STATES SENATE. ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. DECEMBER 11, 2007.

Jump up^ Introduction of Jimbo Wales by Senator Joseph Lieberman, Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, S. Hrg. 110–894. ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. DECEMBER 11, 2007.

Jump up^ “Jimbo Wales testifies US Senate Committee – Video – C-SPAN.org” . C-SPAN.org . Retrieved January 28, 2015.

Jump up^ Lee, Dave (May 14, 2014). “Google ruling ‘astonishing’, says Wikipedia founder Wales” . BBC News. Retrieved May 14, 2014.

^ Jump up to:a b c d Lomas, Natasha (June 8, 2014). “Jimmy Wales Blasts Europe’s “Right To Be Forgotten” Ruling As A “Terrible Danger”” . TechCrunch . AOL Inc. Retrieved June 9, 2014.

Jump up^ Ball, James. “Wikipedia’s founder calls for Richard O’Dwyer extradition to be stopped” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved August 14, 2015.

Jump up^ Davies, Lizzy; Ball, James; Bowcott, Owen (November 28, 2012). “Wikipedia founder hails extradition deal with US and calls for law reform” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved November 28, 2012.

Jump up^ Gray, Lila (September 17, 2013). “Wikipedia Gives Porn a Break” . XBIZ.com. Retrieved October 20, 2013.

Jump up^ Gabbatt, Adam (November 25, 2013). “Edward Snowden a ‘hero’ for NSA disclosures, Wikipedia founder says” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved December 7, 2013.

Jump up^ Meyer, Susan (2013). Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia . Rosen Publishing . p. 27.

Jump up^ Lewine, Edward (November 18, 2007). “The Encyclopedist’s Lair” . The New York Times . Retrieved March 7, 2008. C “Greatest misconception about Wikipedia: We aren’t democratic. Our readers edit the entries, but we’re actually quite snobby. The core community appreciates when someone is knowledgeable, and thinks some people are idiots and shouldn’t be writing.”

Jump up^ “Canadian pundit, Wikipedia founder in messy breakup” . Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The Canadian Press. March 2, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Moses, Asher (March 4, 2008). “Ex takes her revenge on Mr Wikipedia” . The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Bergstein, Brian (March 5, 2008). “Wikipedia’s Wales defends breakup, expenses” . USA Today . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Agrell, Siri (March 4, 2008). “Ms. Marsden’s cyberspace breakup: tit-for-tat-for-T-shirt” . The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Donnelly, Laura (October 6, 2012). “Wiki wedding: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales marries Tony Blair’s former aide” . The Daily Telegraph . London.

Jump up^ Edemariam, Aida (February 19, 2011). “The Saturday interview: Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales” . The Guardian . London. Retrieved February 19, 2011.

Jump up^ Smallman, Danny (January 18, 2012). “Jimmy Wales: Mr Wikipedia on today’s blackout” . London Evening Standard . Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2012.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales” . What do you believe? . Big Think Media. August 10, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2011. I’m a complete non-believer.

Jump up^ “World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008" . World Economic Forum. May 18–20, 2008. Archived from the original on April 30, 2009. Retrieved May 12, 2009.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales Joins Socialtext Board of Directors; Wikipedia Founder to Advise Leader in Enterprise Wiki Solutions” (Press release). SocialText. October 3, 2005. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ “People: Advisory board” . MIT Center for Collective Intelligence . Retrieved August 8, 2015.

Jump up^ Garlick, Mia (March 30, 2006). “Creative Commons Adds Two New Board Members” . Creative Commons . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Wales, Jimmy (December 7, 2009). “What’s new for me: Hunch” . blog.jimmywales.com. Retrieved December 7, 2009.

Jump up^ Anderson, Chris (April 30, 2006). “Jimmy Wales: The (Proud) Amateur Who Created Wikipedia” . Time . Retrieved February 17, 2008.

Jump up^ Ewalt, David M. (January 23, 2007). “The Web Celeb 25" . Forbes . Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ “Stuart Regen Visionaries Series: Jimmy Wales” . New Museum. Archived from the original on December 22, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2011. “Wikipedia founder James Wales at New Museum as 2010 Stuart Regen Visionary” . Flash Art . Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2011.

Jump up^ “Speakers: Jimmy Wales” . iCommonsSummit.org. 2008. Archived from the original on May 20, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ “Corum announces Jimmy Wales as The Global Brand Icon of the Year Award” . MattBaily.ca. September 14, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ Woodall, James. “Peter Gabriel: Rocker, Human-Rights Advocate” . Intelligent Life . The Economist Group . Retrieved October 20, 2009.

Jump up^ “Nokia Foundation awards the founder of Wikipedia” . Nokia.com. November 4, 2009. Retrieved November 5, 2009.

Jump up^ “The Economist Innovation Awards and Summit” . The Economist . October 30, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.

Jump up^ Rutkoff, Aaron (April 18, 2011). “Tribeca Film Festival Names Actors, Directors to Its Jury” . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved August 18, 2011.

Jump up^ “EFF Honors Craigslist, Gigi Sohn, and Jimmy Wales with Pioneer Awards” . Kansas City infoZine News . April 28, 2006. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

Jump up^ “Press release” (in German). Leonardo-award.eu. September 21, 2011. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2014.

Jump up^ “GD Prize 2011" . Gdi.ch. Retrieved July 3, 2014.

Jump up^ Isobel Leybold-Johnson. “ Knowledge is our most important resource ”. Swissinfo January 27, 2011.

Jump up^ Barnett, Emma (November 17, 2009). “Jimmy Wales interview: Wikipedia is focusing on accuracy” . The Daily Telegraph . London.

Jump up^ “Knox College Honorary Degrees” . Knox College . Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved October 31, 2008.

^ Jump up to:a b “ Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, Poet Mary Jo Salter, Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse Among Eight to Be Honored at Amherst Commencement ”, amherst.edu. Retrieved May 23, 2010.

Jump up^ “Stevenson University awards Honorary Degree” . stevensonuniversity.org. May 21, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2010.

Jump up^ “Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, distinguished by UES 21" . Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21 . December 16, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2011.

Jump up^ MIREA (June 16, 2011). “Moscow State Technical University Website” . Retrieved June 22, 2011. Rector prof. RAN AS Whitefish J. Wales handed a diploma and the mantle of Honorary Doctor Bauman MIREA.

Jump up^ “An Open World” (PDF). University of Copenhagen. Retrieved December 2, 2013.

Jump up^ “Niels Bohr Conference: Free exchange of information can avert technological threats” . University of Copenhagen. October 24, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2013.

Jump up^ Ngak, Chenda (June 26, 2013). “Aaron Swartz among inductees to Internet Hall of Fame” . CBS News . Retrieved December 10, 2014.

Jump up^ Curtis, Sophie (February 28, 2014). “25 years of the World Wide Web: 25 Web superstars” . The Daily Telegraph . London. Retrieved March 1, 2014.

Jump up^ “From the blog of Lorenzo Cantoni, dean of the Faculty” . Retrieved May 17, 2014.

Jump up^ “Scotland Tonight: Wikipedia founder honoured in Glasgow” . STV News . June 25, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2014.

Jump up^ Smolaks, Max (July 11, 2014). “Tech4Good Awards Celebrate Digital Inclusion” . Tech Week Europe . Retrieved July 11, 2014.

Jump up^ “Tech4Good Awards 2014 Winners” . Tech4Good Awards. July 10, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2014.

Jump up^ Shabandri, Muaz (December 8, 2014) “ Web inventor, Wiki co-founder share $1m Knowledge Award ”. khaleejtimes.com. Retrieved December 8, 2014.

Jump up^ “Maastricht University awards honorary doctorates to Frans Timmermans and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales” . Maastricht University . Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2014.

Jump up^ “Photos from the 36th Annual Common Wealth Awards” . bonjovi.com . March 20, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.

Jump up^ “Dan David Foundation to award three prizes of $1 million to six world renowned laureates” . Jerusalem Post . February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015.

Jump up^ Elis, Niv (February 10, 2015). “Wikipedia co-founder, genome project leader among recipients of Dan David Prize” . Jerusalem Post . Retrieved May 17, 2015.

Jump up^ Ponsford, Dominic (January 27, 2016). “Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales and Gail Rebuck join Guardian Media Group board” . Press Gazette . Retrieved January 27, 2016.

Jump up^ Belga (February 2, 2016). “Eduardo Suplicy, Paola Vigano et Jimmy Wales faits Docteurs honoris causa de l’UCL” . L’Avenir . Retrieved February 13, 2016.

Jump up^ Schmitz, Bruno (February 2, 2016). “UCL: Trois penseurs utopistes pour régler les problèmes belges?” . RTBF . Retrieved February 13, 2016.

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Poe, Marshall (September 2006). “The Hive” . The Atlantic Monthly . 298 (2): 86–94. Retrieved February 29, 2008.

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Find more about Jimmy Wales at Wikipedia’s sister projects

Media from Commons

News from Wikinews

Quotations from Wikiquote

Texts from Wikisource

Official website

Jimmy Wales’s English Wikipedia userpage

Jimmy Wales ’ Wikia userpage

Jimmy Wales at the Internet Movie Database

Jimmy Wales on Charlie Rose

Appearances on C-SPAN

Roberts, Russ (March 9, 2009). “Wales on Wikipedia” . EconTalk . Library of Economics and Liberty .

Wikipedia:Role of Jimmy Wales , Wales’s role in the English Wikipedia as described by its editors

Wales, Jimmy (December 9, 2016). “How Wikipedia Works” . cato.org . Cato Institute . Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, discusses the site, how it’s treated by governments, and how it’s fueled by its users.

Multi-media

“ Wikimania: Meet the Wikipedians. Those “persnickety,” techy types who keep your favorite Internet information website brimming with data .” 60 Minutes : Morley Safer interviewing Jimmy Wales. First aired on April 5, 2015. Rebroadcast on July 26, 2015.

“The birth of Wikipedia – Jimmy Wales recalls how he assembled “a ragtag band of volunteers,” gave them tools for collaborating and created Wikipedia, the self-organizing, self-correcting, never-finished online encyclopedia” . TED talks . July 2005.

On Being w/Krista Tippett ; Jimmy Wales - The Sum of All Human Knowledge (broadcast WAMU American University) September 11, 2016

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Wikia

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Wikipedia

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Wikimedia Foundation

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Internet Hall of Fame