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Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales in April 2008
Born
Jimmy Donal Wales

(1966-08-07) August 7, 1966 (age 58)
Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJimbo, James
Alma materAuburn University
University of Alabama
Indiana University Bloomington
Occupation(s)President of Wikia, Inc.; Board member and Chair Emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation
ChildrenKira
Websiteblog.jimmywales.com
Wikipedia User Page

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born August 7, 1966)[1][2][3][4] is an American Internet entrepreneur known for his role in developing Wikipedia, a free open content encyclopedia which he co-founded in 2001.[5][6] He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, holding the board-appointed "community founder" seat.[7] In 2004, he founded Wikia, a privately owned free web hosting service.

Together with others, Wales laid the foundation for Wikipedia's rapid growth and popularity.[8][9] The success of the project has helped popularize a trend in web development (called Web 2.0) that aims to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users. As Wikipedia expanded and its public profile grew, Wales took on the role of the project's spokesperson and promoter through speaking engagements and media appearances. His work with Wikipedia, which has become the world's largest encyclopedia, prompted Time magazine to name him in its 2006 list of the world's most influential people.[10] Wales is the current de facto leader of Wikipedia,[11][5] whose role in the project has gained broad media attention[10][12][13] and has led to controversy.[14][15][dead link][16]

Personal life and education

Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. His father, Jimmy,[17] worked as a grocery store manager while his mother, Doris, and his grandmother, Erma, ran a small private school, in the tradition of the one-room schoolhouse, where Wales received his early education. He and only four other children were placed in the same grade, so the school grouped together the first through fourth grade students and the fifth through eighth grade students.[18] After eighth grade, Wales attended Randolph School,[19] a university-preparatory school in Huntsville, Alabama. Wales has said that the school was expensive for his family, but that education was regarded as important. "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."[18]

He received his bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University and started with the Ph.D. finance program at the University of Alabama, where he left with a Master's.[18] After that, he took courses offered in the Ph.D. finance program at Indiana University. He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies, but did not write the doctoral dissertation required to earn a Ph.D.[18]

His first wife, Pam, was quoted in W magazine as saying that Wales, because he believed altruism was evil, discouraged her from pursuing a nursing degree when they were married: "His whole ‘Mr. Save the World’ is so contrary to what he said every day for seven years."[20] Late in March 1997, Wales married his second wife, Christine, in Monroe County, Florida.[21] They are currently separated.[22] They have a daughter named Kira. As of 2007, Wales resided in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area.[23] He owns a SureFire M6 Guardian and a 250 lumen flashlight which he has called his "most prized possession".[23]

Briefly, he had a relationship with Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden that began after Marsden contacted Wales about her Wikipedia biography.[24] After accusations that Wales' relationship constituted a conflict of interest, Wales announced in March 2008 on his Wikipedia user page (and later on his personal blog) that there had been a relationship but that it was over and that it had not influenced any matters on Wikipedia.[25][26] In return, Marsden, who claimed to have learned about the breakup by reading about it on Wikipedia, turned to eBay and listed for auction a T-shirt and sweater which she claimed Wales left behind at her apartment.[27][28][29][25][30]

Career

Chicago Options Associates and Bomis

From 1994 to 2000, Wales was the research director at Chicago Options Associates,[31] a futures and options trading firm in Chicago.[18] By "speculating on interest rate and foreign-currency fluctuations," he had soon earned enough to "support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives," according to Daniel Pink of Wired Magazine.[32] During this time, one of the projects Wales undertook was the creation of the web portal Bomis,[32] a website featuring user-generated webrings that, according to The Atlantic Monthly, "found itself positioned as the Playboy of the Internet."[33] For a time the company sold erotic photographs,[34] and Wales described the site as having had "a market similar to say Maxim magazine. So it‘s kind of a guy-oriented search engine."[18] Although Wales is no longer connected with the company, his involvement with Bomis has been criticized, with questions frequently asked about the nature of its content.[35][36] Bomis also provided the initial funding for the Nupedia project.[32]

Nupedia and Wikipedia

Main article: History of Wikipedia

In March 2000, Wales started a peer-reviewed, open-content encyclopedia, Nupedia ("the free encyclopedia"), and hired Larry Sanger to be its editor-in-chief.[18] Nupedia was characterized by an extensive peer-review process designed to make its articles of a quality comparable to that of professional encyclopedias.[37] After Sanger publicly proposed on January 10, 2001 the idea of using a wiki to create an encyclopedia, Wales installed wiki software on a server and authorized Sanger to pursue the project under his supervision. Sanger dubbed the project "Wikipedia" and, with Wales, laid down the founding principles and content, establishing an Internet-based community of contributors during that year. Wikipedia was initially intended to be a wiki-based site for collaboration on early encyclopedic content for submission to Nupedia, but Wikipedia's rapid growth quickly overshadowed Nupedia's development.[31] Sanger worked on and promoted both the Nupedia and Wikipedia projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002; Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia on March 1.[38][39] Wales has said that he initially was so worried with the concept that he would wake up in the middle of the night, wanting to check the site for vandalism.[40] In the early years, Wales supplied the financial backing for the project.[8] In a 2004 interview with Slashdot, Wales explained his motivations about 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."[41]

Wikimedia Foundation

In mid-2003, Wales set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in St. Petersburg, Florida, and now based in San Francisco, California.[42][43] Originally chairman of the foundation, Wales has held the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus since 2006. He is now one of eight directors who make up its Board of Trustees.[44] The work he carries out for the foundation has always been unpaid, including his appearances to promote the organization at computer and educational conferences.[34] In a 2007 interview, Wales said he had mixed feelings about having "donated" Wikipedia to the foundation, as he estimated its value at US$3 billion, but added that he is glad he did, as this is only the case because of the nature of Wikipedia itself.[45]

In March 2008, Wales was accused by former Wikimedia Foundation employee Danny Wool of subsidizing personal expenditures with foundation funds. Wool also stated that Wales had his Wikimedia credit card taken away in part because of his spending habits, though Wales denied this claim.[46] Foundation Chair 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 he did not have receipts for, he paid out of his own pocket.[47] Later in March 2008, it was alleged by Jeffrey Vernon Merkey that Wales had edited Merkey's entry in Wikipedia to make it more "favourable" in return for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation. In May 2006 Wales had erased Merkey's article "because of the unpleasantness of it" and stated "we are nearing a resolution of this longstanding conflict," referring to a dispute between the Wikipedia community and Merkey over the content of the biography. Wales called the allegation that the Wikimedia Foundation had received donations in exchange for this "nonsense."[48][49]

Wikia

Main article: Wikia

In 2004, Wales co-founded, with Angela Beesley, the for-profit company Wikia, Inc.[31] Wikia is a wiki farm — a collection of individual wikis on different subjects, all hosted on the same website.[50]

Another service offered by Wikia is an open source web search engine named Wikia Search, intended to challenge Google and introduce transparency and public dialogue about how it's created into the search engine's operations. On Wikia Search, Wales has stated, "I trust Google reasonably well, but that's like saying you have a favorite politician. I trust this politician, but I still want the city council to meet publicly. I still want a certain transparency in how government is run, even if you trust the person who's in charge now."[51] According to Wales, "It is meant to take on Google by creating a search engine where all the editorial decisions are made by the general public and all the software is open."[52]

Roles of Wikipedia creators

Main article: Origins of Wikipedia

Wales has publicly denied Larry Sanger's role as co-founder of Wikipedia.[53] To the contrary, Wales has stated that he is the sole founder[54] on the grounds that Sanger was his paid employee.[55] In 2006, Wales told The Boston Globe that "it's preposterous" to call Sanger the co-founder.[54] However, Sanger was identified as co-founder at least as early as September 2001 by The New York Times[56] and was referred to as a founder alongside Wales in Wikipedia's first press release in 2002.[57] In addition to developing Wikipedia in its early phase and guiding the project,[8][58] Sanger was responsible for the idea of applying the wiki concept to the building of a free encyclopedia. He also coined the name of the project.[58][59] He nevertheless ascribed the broader idea to Wales: "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. (...) The actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on."[60] In response to Wales' statement,[61] Sanger posted on his personal webpage a collection of statements confirming his role in founding Wikipedia, by referencing earlier versions of Wikipedia pages, citing Wikipedia press releases, and linking to early media coverage, all of which described Wales and Sanger as the co-founders.[62] In a discussion with Brian Bergstein of the Associated Press, Wales said: "When you write this up please do not uncritically repeat Sanger's absurd claim to be the co-founder of Wikipedia." He added: "I am not bent out of shape about it. The facts are on my side, which is why I bother so little about it."[58] Wales' role in the Wikipedia community has been described as "benevolent dictator for life."[63]

Editing of own Wikipedia biography

In late 2005, Wales edited his own biography page on Wikipedia. In this regard, Rogers Cadenhead drew attention to logs showing that Wales had removed references to Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia.[64][65] 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 be out."[36][64][66] 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.[36] An article in the July 31, 2006, issue of The New Yorker magazine expanded on this topic, stating that Wales was "caught airbrushing his Wikipedia entry—eighteen times in the past year" and that he was "sensitive about references to the porn traffic on his Web portal".[59]

In both cases, Wales argued that his modifications were solely intended to improve the accuracy of the content.[36] He apologized for editing his own biography, a practice generally frowned upon at Wikipedia. Wales said in the Wired interview, "People should not do it, including me. I wish I had not done it."[36]

Wales had previously edited his entries on Wikipedia and on the Wikimedia Foundation's website in 2004 to indicate his date of birth is August 7, 1966.[67][68] He also made a statement in 2006 in which he wrote in part: "My date of birth is not August 8, 1966."[69] The Encyclopædia Britannica, Current Biography, and Who’s Who in America support these statements.[2][3][4] According to a researcher’s note on the Britannica’s website in June 2007, Wales contacted Britannica claiming that the date of August 7, 1966, was incorrect but was unwilling to provide them with a documented alternative, unless his birth date was removed, which violated Britannica's policies.[70] On July 27, 2007, when asked by Oregonian reporter Mike Rogoway when his birthday was, Wales is reported to have mysteriously stated, "Nobody knows."[2] Moreover, on his blog, Rogoway claims that a Florida public records search shows that Wales’ driver's license lists his date of birth as August 8, 1966.[2] In August 2007, Wales expanded on this in his Wikipedia talk page by stating, in part: "In any event, the quotes in the Oregonian are correct."[71]

Personal philosophy

Wales is a self-avowed "Objectivist to the core", and has named his daughter Kira after the heroine in Ayn Rand's We the Living,[51] although he says, "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."[72] When asked by Brian Lamb in his appearance on C-SPAN's Q&A about Rand, Wales cited "the virtue of independence" as important to him personally. When asked if he could trace "the Ayn Rand connection" to having a political philosophy at the time of the interview, Wales reluctantly labeled himself a libertarian, qualifying his remark by referring to the Libertarian Party as "lunatics" and citing "freedom, liberty, basically individual rights, that idea of dealing with other people in a matter that is not initiating force against them" as his guiding principles.[18] From 1992 to 1996, he ran the electronic mailing list "Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy."[73] An interview with Wales served as the cover feature of the June 2007 issue of the libertarian magazine Reason.[35]

Honors, awards and positions

Jimmy Wales receiving the Quadriga award

Other notable media appearances

  • November 6, 2006 – Wales appears on PBS' Charlie Rose.[83]
  • April 2, 2007 – Wales is featured in Time magazine in the article "10 Questions: Jimmy Wales". He answers ten questions culled from Time's readership. His is the second interview to consist of reader questions (the first being Chris Rock). Previously, the questions had been composed by a Time staff member. In his replies, he acknowledges the limitations of Wikipedia, while defending its usefulness.[84]
  • May 24, 2007 - Wales is a guest on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Colbert has a running gag in which he makes fictional edits to Wikipedia; Wales comments that editors are "scrambling" to keep up with him.[85]
  • December 6, 2007 - Wales, while at the Online Information conference in London's Olympia, states that "it's a bad educator that bans their students from reading Wikipedia." Wales reasoned that new editing and checking procedures make Wikipedia more reliable than ever.[86]
  • On 12 October 2008, Wales was interviewed by Stephen Fry on "Stephen Fry in America", and gave a brief overview of Wikipedia, saying that it was "something that can be really special ... we want to be good ... this is the early days of the Internet, and maybe in 500 years time, people will look back and say ”that was good“".[87]

Published work

References

  1. ^ "Jimmy Wales". Monroe, Florida's County Clerk website (Marriage License Database). Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  2. ^ a b c d "Jimmy Wales". Britannica Book of the Year. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-25. Cite error: The named reference "dob" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson. February 28, 2007. ISBN 978-0824210748. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help) Cite error: The named reference "dob1"" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Who's Who In America: Diamond Edition (60 ed.). Marquis Who's Who. October 12, 2005. ISBN 978-0837969909. Cite error: The named reference "dob2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Brain scan: The free-knowledge fundamentalist". Technology Quarterly. The Economist. 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
  6. ^ Keen, Andrew (2008-06-02). "Andrew Keen on New Media". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  7. ^ "Board of Trustees/Restructure Announcement". Wikimedia Foundation website. April 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
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  9. ^ Poe, Marshall (September 2006). "The Hive", The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved on 2008-02-29.
    "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...Wales’s benign rule has allowed Wikipedia to do what it does best: grow. The numbers are staggering."
  10. ^ a b c Anderson, Chris (April 30, 2006). "Jimmy Wales: The (Proud) Amateur Who Created Wikipedia". Time. Retrieved on 2006-05-08.
  11. ^ Frith, Holden (March 26, 2007). "Wikipedia founder launches rival online encyclopaedia". The Times. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  12. ^ Smith, Wes (January 15, 2007). "He's the "God-King," but you can call him Jimbo". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  13. ^ Evans, Mark (March 2, 2006). "Co-founder has learned to roll with the punches". National Post. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  14. ^ Bergstein, Brian (March 5, 2008). "Wikipedia's Wales Hit Over Expenses". Time in partnership with CNN. Retrieved through Internet Archive. Retrieved 2008-10-31. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  15. ^ Harris, Scott Duke (March 5, 2008). "Wikipedia founder dogged by tawdry tales online". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
  16. ^ Cohen, Noam (March 17, 2008). "Open-Source Troubles in Wiki World". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-10-31.
  17. ^ Kazek, Kelly (August 11, 2006). "Geek to chic: Wikipedia founder a celebrity". The News Courier. Doris Wales' husband, Jimmy, wasn't sure what she was thinking when she bought a World Book Encyclopedia set from a traveling salesman in 1968.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h Lamb, Brian (September 25, 2005). "Q&A: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder". C-SPAN. Retrieved 2006-10-31.
  19. ^ Brown, David (2007-12-11). "Jimmy Wales '83". Alumni Profiles. Randolph School. Retrieved 2008-10-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Lipsky-Karasz, Alisa (September 2008). "Mr. Know-It-All". W magazine. Retrieved 2008-10-31. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  21. ^ Florida Marriage Collection, 1822-1875 and 1927-2001 (Requires paid membership to view). Ancestry.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-31.
  22. ^ Kim, Ryan (March 5, 2007). "Allegations swirl around Wikipedia's Wales". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved through Internet Archive. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  23. ^ a b Lewine, Edward (November 18, 2007). "The Encyclopedist's Lair". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  24. ^ The Canadian Press (March 2, 2008). "Canadian pundit, Wikipedia founder in messy breakup". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  25. ^ a b Moses, Ahser (March 4, 2008). "Ex takes her revenge on Mr Wikipedia". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  26. ^ Bergstein, Brian (March 5, 2008). "Wikipedia's Wales defends breakup, expenses". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  27. ^ Agrell, Siri (March 4, 2008). "Ms. Marsden's cyberspace breakup: tit-for-tat-for-T-shirt". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  28. ^ Naughton, Philippe (March 4, 2008). "Wikipedia Founder's Fling With Columnist Ends in Nasty Public Breakup". FOXNews.com. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  29. ^ Pavia, Will; Philippe Naughton (March 4, 2008). "Fury of a woman scorned – on Wikipedia". The Times. Retrieved 2008-10-31.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ Sheehy, Kate (March 4, 2008). "One wild and Wiki breakup". New York Post. Retrieved on 2008-08-02.
  31. ^ a b c McNichol, Tom (2007-03-01). "Building a Wiki World". Business 2.0. CNN. Retrieved 2007-03-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ a b c Pink, Daniel H. (2005-03-13). "The Book Stops Here". Wired. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "bookstopshere" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  33. ^ Poe, Marshall. "The Hive". The Atlantic Monthly, 2006-09-01. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  34. ^ a b Brennen, Jensen (2006-06-29). "Access for All". Chronicle of Philanthropy. Vol. 18, no. 18. USA: Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ a b Mangu-Ward, Katherine (June 2007). "Wikipedia and beyond: Jimmy Wales' sprawling vision". Reason. Vol. 39, no. 2. Reason Foundation. p. 21. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
  36. ^ a b c d e Hansen, Evan. "Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio". Wired News. Wired. Retrieved 2006-02-14.
  37. ^ Gouthro, Liane (2000-03-14). "Building the world's biggest encyclopedia". PCWorld. CNN. Retrieved 2007-11-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ My resignation—Larry Sanger 2002-03-01. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
  39. ^ Wikipedia's co-founder eyes a Digital Universe 2006-01-06.
  40. ^ "In Search of an Online Utopia". Archived from the original on 2007-04-18.. msnbc.msn, 2007-02-01. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  41. ^ Wales, Jimmy (2004-07-28). ""Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Replies"". Slashdot. Retrieved 2006-06-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ "Open media to connect communities", BBC News, 2005-11-05. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
  43. ^ Wikimedia foundation bylaws. Wikimedia. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  44. ^ Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Wikimedia. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
  45. ^ Marks, Paul (February 3, 2007). "Knowledge to the people.(Jimmy Wales)(Interview)". New Scientist. 193.2589. Reed Business Information Ltd.: 44. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  46. ^ Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales accused of expenses rort, Asher Moses, March 5, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald
  47. ^ "San Francisco Chronicle".
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  49. ^ "Wiki boss 'edited for donation'". Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  50. ^ Wikia. Main Page, 2007-05-12. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  51. ^ a b ""Why Is This Man Smiling?"". Fast Company. March 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-02."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."
  52. ^ Lewine, Edward (2007-11-18). "The Encyclopedist's Lair". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 2007-11-23. 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.
  53. ^ Boran, Marie (July 16, 2007). "Wikipedia disrespects experts says co-founder". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  54. ^ a b Knott, Janet (2006-02-12). "Bias, sabotage haunt Wikipedia's free world". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2006-04-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ Sidener, Jonathan. "Everyone's Encyclopedia". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
  56. ^ Meyers, Peter (2001-09-20). "Fact-Driven? Collegial? This Site Wants You". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-10-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)"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," said Larry Sanger of Las Vegas, who founded Wikipedia with Mr. Wales.
  57. ^ Larry Sanger. "What Wikipedia is and why it matters". Retrieved 2006-04-12. {{cite web}}: Text "Sanger, Larry" ignored (help)
  58. ^ a b c Bergstein, Brian (2007-03-25). "Sanger says he co-started Wikipedia". MSNBC. Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-03-26. The nascent Web encyclopedia Citizendium springs from Larry Sanger, a philosophy Ph.D. 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. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)—Brian Bergstein.
  59. ^ a b "Know It All". The New Yorker. 2006-07-31. Retrieved 2008-01-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
    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).
  60. ^ Larry Sanger (2005-04-18). "The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir". Slashdot. Retrieved 2005-04-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "Sanger, Larry" ignored (help)
  61. ^ Mitchell, Dan (2005-12-24). "Insider Editing at Wikipedia". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-03-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  62. ^ King, Ian. "'A Wiki web they've woven'". vancouver.24hrs.ca. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
  63. ^ a b Cadenhead, Rogers. "Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1". Retrieved 2006-10-15.
  64. ^ "Wikipedia diff showing modification by Mr. Wales". Retrieved 2006-10-15.
  65. ^ Blakely, Rhys. "Wikipedia founder edits himself". Times Online. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
  66. ^ Wales, Jimbo (2004-09-18). "Edit by Jimbo Wales at Wikimedia Foundation". Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  67. ^ Wales, Jimbo (2004-09-18). "Edit by Jimbo Wales at Wikipedia". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  68. ^ "Wales claim birthdate is not August 8, 1966". Wikipedia. 2006-07-11. Retrieved 2007-08-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  69. ^ "Jimmy Wales's date of birth". Researcher's Note. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004-09-18. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  70. ^ Wales, J. "More birthdate nonsense". User talk:Jimbo Wales, 2007-08-07. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  71. ^ "Jimmy Wales Will Destroy Google". Retrieved 2007-05-11.
  72. ^ Wales, Jimmy (1992-09-23). "Re: Objectivism of Ayn Rand". Newsgroup: talk.philosophy.misc. Bv1u8x.Bnv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  73. ^ "Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia Founder". Q&A, companion site for a CSPAN series. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
  74. ^ "Jimmy Wales Joins Socialtext Board of Directors; Wikipedia Founder to Advise Leader in Enterprise Wiki Solutions" (Press release). SocialText. 2005-10-03. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
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  76. ^ Knox College Honorary Degrees, via Knox.edu.
  77. ^ "EFF Honors Craigslist, Gigi Sohn, and Jimmy Wales with Pioneer Awards". Kansas City infoZine News. 2006-04-28. Retrieved 2006-06-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  78. ^ Ewalt, David M. (2007-01-23). "The Web Celeb 25". Retrieved 2007-04-23.
  79. ^ "Jimmy Wales - Speakers - Participants".
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  81. ^ Die Quadriga - Award 2008
  82. ^ Video of Jimmy Wales on Charlie Rose, Google, 2006-10-04. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  83. ^ "10 Questions: Jimmy Wales". Time Magazine. March 21, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-24. The key is to look at the quality of articles. The quality of Wikipedia today, compared with three years ago, is a dramatic improvement. But people do need to be aware of how it is created and edited so they can treat it with the appropriate caution.—Jimmy Wales.
  84. ^ Colbert, Stephen; Jimmy Wales (May 24, 2007) Guest appearance (Video). The Colbert Report. Retrieved on October 31, 2008.
  85. ^ Coleman, Alistair (2007-12-07). "Students 'should use Wikipedia'". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-01-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  86. ^ "Stephen Fry in America". 2008-10-12. 51 minutes in. BBC. BBC 1. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
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