Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales was born in Huntsville in 1966, the product of an American upbringing that would eventually carry him well beyond his origins. He was educated at Randolph School, then went on to Auburn University, the University of Alabama, and Indiana University Bloomington. Before his career in technology, he worked as a financial trader.
Wales built his professional life across a range of digital ventures. He worked on Bomis and on Nupedia, and went on to co-found Wikipedia, the project most closely associated with his name. He also co-founded Fandom, and later worked on WikiTribune and Trust Café. Throughout these endeavors he has functioned as an entrepreneur, computer scientist, researcher, and orator, and he holds both United States and United Kingdom citizenship.
His work has been recognized with several distinctions, including the Internet Hall of Fame award, the Quadriga award, and the EFF Award. Wales remains a Wikimedian, and the co-founding of Wikipedia continues to stand as the central fact of his public career.
Quotes by Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales's insights on:
I have always viewed the mission of Wikipedia to be much bigger than just creating a killer website. We're doing that of course, and having a lot of fun doing it, but a big part of what motivates us is our larger mission to affect the world in a positive way.
One of the ways that Microsoft beat Apple way back in the day was that they were a lot more open; today, in the world I come from, the free software and open-source world, Microsoft is not generally viewed as open; they’re viewed as proprietary.
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.
I have always viewed the mission of Wikipedia to be much bigger than just creating a killer website. We’re doing that of course, and having a lot of fun doing it, but a big part of what motivates us is our larger mission to affect the world in a positive way.
It turns out a lot of people don’t get it. Wikipedia is like rock’n’roll; it’s a cultural shift.
Massive numbers of people are going to come online from cultures we don’t normally interact with.
I tend to eat things in fours. I’ll eat four nuts, four grapes, four chips at a time. I don’t know why. It’s not really a superstition. I don’t think anything bad will happen if I don’t, but three potato chips doesn’t seem right.
I spent lots of time reading the encyclopedia and really kind of an eclectic approach to learning things – not very structured.