Jimmy Wales . Better known as Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales is the founder of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and also chairs the Wikimedia Foundation , a non-profit organization that supports the encyclopedia and other projects.
Biography
This American from Alabama, who was born in 1966 , although since he was a teenager he had an affinity for technology and computers, his university career was basically channeled towards the side of finance. With a Bachelor of Finance from Auburn University and a Master of Finance from the University of Alabama, Wales spent several years working as a stock investor in Chicago . After getting to raise some money, he decided to try his luck on his own and invest what he had collected in his own projects. One of them, the one that would carry on with Larry Sanger, was Wikipedia , which was born in 2001The origin of this monster of the network was, according to its author, to “give free access to universal knowledge.” And without fussing, his future goal is “to give a free and free encyclopedia in their language to all people on the planet.” A couple of years later, in 2003 , he founded the Wikimedia Foundation .
the beginning
However, some time before the idea of the free Internet encyclopedia had begun to see the light, and it did so through articles written by experts on various topics that Wales was putting together. In addition, it meant an alternative to Nupedia, a free content encyclopedia project that Jimmy Wales was in but, due to his bureaucratic process to validate the notes, did not end up being successful and led to part of his collaborators moving to the Wikipedia plan .
The key that made this project become what it is today was the participation of the Internet user to edit the articles. For Wales, the triumph of Wikipedia “is the triumph of collaboration between users. The idea is that there is a common knowledge base and it is about making it available to everyone. Without a doubt there is room for paid encyclopedias, but a general and free work like this was necessary. “
Wikimedia was the second big step for Wales, a foundation created to organize the content of Wikipedia but above all to raise funds for the maintenance of Wikipedia and other projects, aimed of course so that they continue to be free: the Wikictionary, dictionary with definitions, synonyms and antonyms; wikibooks, textbooks; the Wikiquote, a compilation of famous quotes; the Wikinews, with current news, among others.
Present
Currently, his figure continues to be highly disputed, as it has always been, and he has had to endure great headaches due to demands arising from some content that did not coincide with the real ones. But whether you agree with his ideas or not, no one can deny access to a different world on the web that emerged from this new way of sharing knowledge established by Jimmy Wales.