Jimmy Wales

• Born: August 7, 1966
• Place of Birth: Huntsville, Alabama

• Cocreator of Wikipedia
• Primary Field: Internet
• Specialty: Social media
• Primary Company/Organization: Wikipedia

Introduction

Jimmy Wales, cofounder of Wikipedia, has said that he believes everyone should have the freedom to access information and the ability to add to the human knowledge base. While Wikipedia operates as a nonprofit organization, Wales used his background in finance to provide capital for the free online encyclopedia. Charismatic but controversial, labeled in the past as “benevolent dictator” and “spiritual leader” by his colleagues, Wales remained the public face of Wikipedia, spreading the gospel of free access to information.

Early Life

Jimmy Donal Wales was born to a middle-class southern family on August 7, 1966, in Huntsville, Alabama. His father, also Jimmy, worked as a grocery store manager, while his mother, Doris, and grandmother, Erma, ran the House of Learning, a small private school founded on the principles of the one-room schoolhouse and the Montessori method. Wales and his three siblings received their early education from the House of Learning; the number of students was so small that the environment was almost like a home school. An early, inquisitive reader, Wales spent many hours at the House of Learning reading the Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia.

Although Wales did not come from a wealthy family, they considered education extremely important for success and were willing to pay the price for further private education. After eighth grade, Wales attended a university preparatory school, the Randolph School, in Huntsville, graduating at sixteen. He attended Auburn University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in finance. He then entered the doctoral program in finance at the University of Alabama, but he left with a master's degree to transfer to the PhD finance program at Indiana University. While enrolled in doctoral studies, Wales taught courses at Indiana University and the University of Alabama but did not write his doctoral dissertation.

Life's Work

During his college years, Wales developed a fascination with the developing internet and wrote computer code in his spare time. While studying at the University of Alabama, he became addicted to multiuser dungeons (MUDs), an early type of online role-playing game. From this experience, as well as his undergraduate exposure to Austrian school economist Friedrich Hayek's essay “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” Wales grasped Hayek's concept of decentralized information and the potential of computer networks to foster large-scale collaborative projects to collect, organize, and disseminate this information. Wales recognized this theme again when reading about the open source movement, particularly through an essay by a founder of that movement, Eric S. Raymond, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” which emphasized mass collaboration.

In 1994, Wales took a job with Chicago Options Associates, a futures and options trading firm in Chicago, Illinois. Through the information he gained in this position, Wales amassed his own capital by speculating on interest rates and foreign currencies. This work, in turn, led to an interest in game theory and the effect of incentives on human collaborative activity, information that he combined with the philosophy of open source for the Wikipedia concept. In 1995, after Netscape went public, Wales decided to abandon financial trading to become an internet entrepreneur.

In 1996, Wales and two partners founded Bomis, a male-oriented search engine and web portal featuring entertainment, user-generated web rings, and erotic photographs. While the Bomis venture landed Wales in trouble later for its pornographic content, it would provide the initial funding for the peer-reviewed free encyclopedia Nupedia and its successor, Wikipedia.

In the early 1990s, while moderating an online philosophy discussion group, Wales met Larry Sanger. Wales and Sanger had engaged in a lengthy online debate on objectivism, which resulted in a meeting offline to continue the debate in person, giving birth to their friendship. When Wales was ready to pursue his online encyclopedia project, he knew that he needed a credentialed academic to lead it. Wales remembered Sanger—a doctoral student in philosophy at Ohio State University at the time—and hired him to be the editor in chief.

In March 2000, Wales and Sanger launched the first free, peer-reviewed, open-content encyclopedia, Nupedia. Wales's vision was for Nupedia to have peer-reviewed, expert written entries on all subjects in all languages and to sell advertising on the site to generate profit. Unfortunately, the initial process to receive, review, edit, and publish entries on Nupedia was extremely time-intensive and led to very few entries actually getting published. Wales himself felt too intimidated to submit a first draft of an entry to Nupedia, because he knew the committee of highly esteemed finance professors who would review it. Wales wanted to change the Nupedia model to streamline the publishing process and make the site more user-friendly for volunteer writers.

In 2001, Sanger met with computer programmer Ben Kovitz to discuss the challenges of Nupedia. Kovitz introduced the concept of a wiki to Sanger, suggesting that a wiki would allow editors and writers to contribute and edit simultaneously, thus eliminating the bottleneck of backlogged entries. Sanger proposed the idea to Wales, and on January 10, 2001, they integrated the wiki into Nupedia. This first wiki was intended for the public to collaborate on articles that would then be reviewed by Nupedia's experts for publication. The majority of Nupedia's editors rejected the wiki, however, believing that blending content written by nonacademics with professionally researched and edited articles would compromise the academic integrity of Nupedia and destroy its credibility. On January 15, 2001, Wales and Sanger placed the wiki project, named “Wikipedia” by Sanger, on a separate domain and made it live.

Wales and Sanger had differences in opinion regarding the role of Wikipedia. While Sanger saw Wikipedia as the medium to hasten Nupedia's development, Wales saw Wikipedia as the one true collaborative open encyclopedia that would provide infinite, evolving information to the world. A few days after the launch of Wikipedia, the number of articles published there had exceeded that of Nupedia, and a collective of Wikipedia editors had formed. These first Wikipedia contributors and editors sympathized with the open source movement and promoted the free culture movement through their activities on Wikipedia.

In 2002, Bomis discontinued funding for Sanger's position. Sanger resigned as editor in chief of Nupedia and as “chief organizer” of Wikipedia. This significantly reduced maintenance costs for Wikipedia. Wales abandoned the idea of placing advertisements on Wikipedia and decided to turn it into a nonprofit foundation. Wales has been accused of editing Sanger out of the history of Wikipedia; in 2005 Wales edited his own biographical Wikipedia entry, deleting all references to Sanger as cofounder. Wales also tried to modify references to Bomis as a site that provided pornographic photos. As each individual Wikipedia entry displays a log of its edits, Wales could not hide his actions, and he apologized for editing his own biography. At the same time, he continued to refute Sanger's claims of cofounding Wikipedia in other forums.

In 2003, Wales set up the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) to establish policy for Wikipedia and related projects. It is a charitable organization that also generates funding for Wikipedia. Wales serves as a member on WMF's board of trustees. While Wales does not get paid by WMF, in 2008 he was accused of using WMF funds for recreational purposes and was forced to relinquish his WMF credit card. In 2004, Wales cofounded Wikia, which later became Fandom, a for-profit wiki-hosting service, with former WMF board of trustees member Angela Beesley. Fandom allows people to host individual wikis on different subjects on the same website. Originally chief executive officer (CEO) of Wikia, Wales stepped down in 2006, when former vice president and general manager of eBay Gil Penchina stepped in and made Wikia profitable by 2009. Wales is also a public speaker, represented by the Harry Walker Agency. He has given talks around the world on the future of the internet, open access to information, and related topics.

As Wikipedia became one of the most prominent websites around the world, Wales became an internet celebrity and the public face of Wikipedia. At the same time, opinions of Wales have ranged from “benevolent dictator” to “spiritual leader.” Because of the Sanger controversy, Wales has developed a reputation for rewriting his personal history, editing out any perceived wrongdoings on his part.

Wales's role in creating Wikipedia, which has become the world's largest online open-access encyclopedia, prompted Time magazine to name him to its 2006 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was also ranked twelfth in Forbes Web Celebs 25. In 2007, Wales was identified by the World Economic Forum as one of its Young Global Leaders. His awards have included a Pioneer Award, the 2008 Global Brand Icon of the Year Award, the 2009 Nokia Foundation Annual Award, and the Business Process Award at the Seventh Annual Innovation Awards and Summit by The Economist. He has received honorary degrees from Knox College, Amherst College, Stevenson University, Argentina's Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21, and Russia's MIREA University.

Wales identifies as an objectivist, following twentieth-century writer Ayn Rand's philosophy, which promotes reason, individualism, and capitalism. He has identified his political views as “center-right” but also claims that he is an atheist. While he refused to comply with a request from the People's Republic of China to censor “politically sensitive” Wikipedia articles, Wales criticized WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing Afghan war documents and identifying their website as a wiki, since it did not allow for collaborative editing.

In 2017, Wales announced his intention to launch a free-to-read and advertisement-free but for-profit news service called WikiTribune. Through WikiTribune, launched that year, anyone could propose changes to a news story, but those edits must include a citation to a reputable source and must be approved by a paid staff member or trusted volunteer before it could go live. In contrast to Wikipedia, most of the writers were to be paid through donations from users. By 2018, however, the site model had changed, as losses were reported in addition to layoffs of the editorial employees. Under this iteration, contributors from the community would have editorial and fact-checking responsibilities instead. In 2019, continued experimentation with the site resulted in the launch of a WikiTribune-related social media network, WT.Social; eventually, WikiTribune was absorbed into WT.Social.

Through the auction house Christie's, Wales sold a non-fungible token (NFT) of Wikipedia's first edit, from 2001, for $750,000 in late 2021. As Fandom had also grown to a large, recognized host of fan communities and articles revolving around the fictional universes of video games, television series, and films, the platform saw further expansion in 2022 upon its purchase of additional industry services. Some of the brands acquired included TV Guide, GameFAQs, and Metacritic.

Personal Life

At twenty years old, Wales married his first wife, Pam, a coworker at a grocery store in Alabama. After moving to Chicago for his first job, Wales met his second wife, Mitsubishi steel trader Christine Rohan. Their marriage lasted one year, and they had a daughter before separating. In 2008, Wales had a brief relationship with Canadian conservative columnist Rachel Marsden. In 2012, he married Kate Garvey, former British prime minister Tony Blair's former diary secretary. They have two children and live in London. Wales became a British citizen in 2019.

Wales identified Wikipedia as his sole hobby, but he also said he enjoys reading and philosophy.

Bibliography

“About Jimmy.” Jimmy Wales Official Website, jimmywales.com/about-jimmy/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Anderson, Jennifer Joline. Wikipedia: The Company and Its Founders. Edina: ABDO, 2011. Print.

Bradshaw, Tim. "Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales Launches Twitter and Facebook Rival." Financial Times, 13 Nov. 2019, www.ft.com/content/9956ff9c-0622-11ea-a984-fbbacad9e7dd. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Bruns, Axel. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Lang, 2008. Print.

Chozick, Amy. "Jimmy Wales Is Not an Internet Billionaire." New York Times Magazine, 27 June 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/magazine/jimmy-wales-is-not-an-internet-billionaire.html. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Forristal, Lauren. "Fandom Acquires Metacritic, GameSpot, TV Guide and Other Entertainment Brands in Deal Worth around $55M." TechCrunch, 3 Oct. 2022, techcrunch.com/2022/10/03/fandom-acquires-seven-brands-from-red-ventures-gamespot-tv-guide/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Lih, Andrew. The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. New York: Hyperion, 2009. Print.

Safer, Morley. "Wikimania." CBS News, 26 July 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/wikipedia-jimmy-wales-morley-safer-60-minutes/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Steafel, Eleanor. "Jimmy Wales: I Don't Regret Not Monetising Wikipedia." Telegraph, 15 Jan. 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/jimmy-wales/12100506/Jimmy-Wales-I-dont-regret-not-monetising-Wikipedia.html. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

Volpicelli, Gian M. "Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Wanted to Save Journalism. He Didn't." Wired, 16 Apr. 2019, www.wired.co.uk/article/jimmy-wales-is-having-another-crack-at-wikitribune. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.

"Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Creates News Service Wikitribune." BBC News, 25 Apr. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/technology-39695767. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.