“It is very difficult for me to buy into the notion that gamergate is”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
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Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal Wales is an American and British internet entrepreneur and former financial trader. He is best known for co-founding Wikipedia, a nonprofit free encyclopedia, and Fandom, a for-profit wiki hosting service. He has also worked on Bomis, Nupedia, WikiTribune, and Trust Café.
business · Co-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966) · businessperson · entrepreneur · Wikimedian · computer scientist · researcher · orator · merchant · also Jimmy Wales, Wales
Born 7 August 1966 · Q181
93 published statements · 0 followers
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I have no plans at all to be running an asylum. This is a serious encyclopedia project. We *do* have to make our changes conservatively and slowly, so as to make sure that we preserve our open spirit to the maximal degree possible. But some people are just not suitable for editing here, and that's just a simple brute fact.
20262 items
“would have never approved [the] sweeping surveillance program [publicized by Snowden]”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
20251 item
Wales's book The Seven Rules of Trust was published in October 2025 by Penguin Random House.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
20212 items
On The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, he revealed that he secretly lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for one month after reading Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Workweek
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Protecting strong encryption is essential for protecting the human rights of millions of people around the world.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
20202 items
“I view my role as being very much like the modern monarch of the UK: no real power, but the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Wales said that "I view my role as being very much like the modern monarch of the UK: no real power, but the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn
- #wikipedia
- #event
20181 item
The pro-Palestinian publication Mondoweiss ran an article by Philip Weiss describing Wales as appearing to side with Israel due to a social media post condemning British politician Jeremy Corbyn for being silent about Ha
- #wikipedia
- #event
20173 items
Won President's Medal (2017).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Wales announced that he was launching an online publication called WikiTribune, to fight fake news through a combination of professional journalists and volunteer contributors
- #wikipedia
- #event
“that slow step-by-step change is better and more sustainable and allows us to test new things with a minimum of difficult disruption in society.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
20163 items
Recalled that he wrote the first words on Wikipedia: "Hello world", a phrase computer programmers often use to test new software
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales and eleven other business leaders signed an open letter to American voters urging them not to vote for Donald Trump in that year's presidential election
- #wikipedia
- #event
Career landmark: non-executive director (2016–2017).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
20153 items
Awarded Dan David Prize (2015).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Wales signed up as the committee chair for Democrat Lawrence Lessig's 2016 presidential campaign
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales offered to help Ed Miliband with the Labour Party's social media strategy, but Miliband declined the offer
- #wikipedia
- #event
20147 items
And "The remit of the committee is to hold public hearings and issue recommendations—not just to Google but to legislators and the public
- #wikipedia
- #event
Google appointed Wales to serve on a seven-member committee on privacy in response to Google v
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales strongly reacted to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)'s ruling on the right of individuals to request the removal of information from Google's search results
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales spoke on a panel at a Clinton Global Initiative University conference held at Arizona State University, along with John McCain, Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Harvard University student S
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales elaborated on his role on Wikipedia
- #wikipedia
- #event
Published “Defining consensus: A systematic review recommends methodologic criteria for reporting of Delphi studies” in Journal of Clinical Epidemiology — cited 3,136 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
In response to an email from a computer science student claiming that Wikipedia has a "complete lack of any sort of attempt at neutrality regarding Gamergate", Wales allegedly wrote: "It is very difficult for me to buy i
- #wikipedia
- #event
20134 items
Won UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal (2013).
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Awarded Internet Hall of Fame (2013).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Won: 2013 with 2013 UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal (2013).
- #wikipedia
- #honour
- #club
- #title
Wales told The New York Times that the dispute is "the dumbest controversy in the history of the world"
- #wikipedia
- #event
20123 items
Wales married Kate Garvey at Wesley's Chapel in London on October 6, 2012.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
Wales has lived in London since 2012, and became a British citizen in 2019.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
The Home Secretary of the UK was petitioned by Wales regarding his opposition to the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer to the US
- #wikipedia
- #event
20113 items
Wales delivered an hour-long address at The Sage Gateshead in the United Kingdom to launch the 2011 Free Thinking Festival on BBC Radio Three
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Leonardo Award (2011).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize (2011).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
20102 items
“s policy of freedom of information. In 2010, Wales criticized whistle-blower website WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange, saying that their publication of Afghan war documents”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Wales criticized whistle-blower website WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange, saying that their publication of Afghan war documents "could be enough to get someone killed"; furthermore, he expressed irritatio
- #wikipedia
- #event
20092 items
Awarded Nokia Foundation Recognition Award (2009).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
“the dumbest controversy in the history of the world”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
20084 items
Awarded Quadriga (2008).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
That "Dialing down is not an option for me
- #wikipedia
- #event
He had a brief relationship with Canadian conservative columnist Rachel Marsden in 2008 that began after Marsden contacted Wales about her Wikipedia biography.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
That began after Marsden contacted Wales about her Wikipedia biography
- #wikipedia
- #event
20072 items
Wales testified before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Young Global Leaders (2007).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
200613 items
Awarded EFF Award (2006).
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
“I frequently counsel people who are getting frustrated about an edit war to think about someone who lives without clean drinking water, without any proper means of education, and how our work might someday help that person. It puts flamewars into some perspective, I think.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Hacemos que Internet no apeste.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“We are growing from a cheerful small town where everyone waves off their front porch to the subway of New York City where everyone rushes by. How do you preserve the culture that has worked so well?”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“[Wikipedia es] como una salchicha: puede gustarte el sabor, pero no necesariamente quieres ver cómo la hacen.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Traducción: «Hacer algo como esto es por supuesto un asunto muy, muy importante sin precedentes en la Wikipedia en inglés.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Wiki editing thrives on local knowledge, but 'local' in an epistemological sense, not necessarily in a geographical sense. For example, I personally know a lot more about world news on topics that interest me and could synthesize much better in those areas, than I know about local politicians where I live”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“Traducción: «Unas pocas cosas son absolutas e innegociables, sin embargo. El PVN por ejemplo.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“When someone just writes 'f**k, f**k, f**k', we just fix it, laugh and move on. But the difficult social issues are the borderline cases — people who do some good work, but who are also a pain in the neck.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“I have no plans at all to be running an asylum. This is a serious encyclopedia project. We *do* have to make our changes conservatively and slowly, so as to make sure that we preserve our open spirit to the maximal degree possible. But some people are just not suitable for editing here, and that's just a simple brute fact.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:it
- #multi-edition
“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.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:it
- #multi-edition
“Si se aprueba, esta ley dañará la Internet libre y abierta y traerá nuevas herramientas para la censura de portales internacionales en Estados Unidos [...] Será la primera vez que la Wikipedia en inglés lidera una protesta de esta envergadura y se trata de una decisión que no hemos tomado a la ligera.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
“Quiero dar una enciclopedia gratis y libre a cada persona del planeta.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:es
20051 item
With Brian Lamb, Wales described his childhood private school as a "Montessori-influenced philosophy of education", where he "spent lots of hours poring over the Britannica and World Book Encyclopedias"
- #wikipedia
- #event
20041 item
Wales and then-fellow member of the WMF Board of Trustees Angela Beesley founded the for-profit company Wikia
- #wikipedia
- #event
20031 item
Career landmark: Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees (2003–2006).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
20012 items
With Larry Sanger and others, he launched Wikipedia, which grew rapidly
- #wikipedia
- #event
“s designation as a co-founder. Sanger and Wales were identified as co-founders as early as September 2001 by The New York Times, and both were described as founders in Wikipedia”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
19982 items
And after becoming disillusioned with the housing market there, moved in 2002 to St
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wales moved to San Diego in 1998, and after becoming disillusioned with the housing market there, moved in 2002 to St.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
19972 items
They were married in Monroe County, Florida, in March 1997, and had a daughter before separating in 2008.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
Published “Global Optimization by Basin-Hopping and the Lowest Energy Structures of Lennard-Jones Clusters Containing up to 110 Atoms” in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A — cited 2,936 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
19962 items
Wales co-founded Bomis, which funded the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003)
- #wikipedia
- #event
And two partners founded Bomis, a web portal featuring user-generated webrings and, for a time, softcore pornography
- #wikipedia
- #event
19951 item
And having accumulated capital through "speculating on interest-rate and foreign-currency fluctuations", Wales decided to leave the realm of financial trading and became an Internet entrepreneur
- #wikipedia
- #event
19941 item
Wales took a job with Chicago Options Associates, a futures and options trading firm in Chicago, Illinois
- #wikipedia
- #event
19921 item
Founded an electronic mailing list devoted to "Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy"
- #wikipedia
- #event
19862 items
Studied at University of Alabama (1986).
- #wikidata
- #education
Studied at Auburn University (1983–1986).
- #wikidata
- #education
19831 item
Studied at Randolph School (1979–1983).
- #wikidata
- #education
19661 item
Born 1966-08-07.
- #wikidata
- #birth
190018 items
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2014 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimedia Conference 2017 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimedia Conference 2016 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Studied at Indiana University.
- #wikidata
- #education
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimedia Conference 2012 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimania 2007 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimania 2005 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Founder's seat of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Studied at Indiana University Bloomington.
- #wikidata
- #education
Career landmark: Participated in Wikimania 2006 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone
Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 (tournament / event).
- #wikidata
- #milestone