QUOTE
15. Jimmy Wales
“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 weâ€re doing.†This, according to Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales in a 2004 Slashdot interview, is the concept behind Wikipedia.
The Internet was already taking a toll on traditional paper-bound encyclopedias, but the 2001 launch of Wikipedia, Wales’ online knowledge base comprised of user-generated, collaborative, peer-edited articles, dealt them a crippling blow. Despite some disputes around Wales’ personal vs. Wikipedia finances and ongoing controversy whenever Wikipedia entries are edited under suspicious circumstances, Wikipedia has become a standard online research tool with a knowledge base nearing 2.5 million (English language) articles and some 75,000 active contributors.
“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 weâ€re doing.†This, according to Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales in a 2004 Slashdot interview, is the concept behind Wikipedia.
The Internet was already taking a toll on traditional paper-bound encyclopedias, but the 2001 launch of Wikipedia, Wales’ online knowledge base comprised of user-generated, collaborative, peer-edited articles, dealt them a crippling blow. Despite some disputes around Wales’ personal vs. Wikipedia finances and ongoing controversy whenever Wikipedia entries are edited under suspicious circumstances, Wikipedia has become a standard online research tool with a knowledge base nearing 2.5 million (English language) articles and some 75,000 active contributors.