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Misplaced Pages is only a waste of time | |||
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VANDALIZING THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE IS ONLY A WASTE OF TIME | |||
Vandals forever | |||
Jimmy Wales is the (co-)founder of Misplaced Pages, and thus receives a high degree of attention here. This article is a magnet for vandals. Keep in mind, administrators watch this article more closely than the average. | |||
-->{{Infobox Celebrity | |||
| name = Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales | |||
| image = Jimmy Wales.jpg | |||
| caption = Jimmy Wales (April 2006) | |||
| birth_date = | |||
| birth_place = ], ] | |||
| death_date = | |||
| death_place = | |||
| occupation = President of the ] | |||
| salary = | |||
| networth = | |||
| website = <!-- Please don't turn this into an internal link, see below--> | |||
| footnotes = | |||
}}'''Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales''' is the founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the ],<ref name="wmfbylaws">{{cite web|author=Wikimedia Foundation Inc.|title=Bylaws|publisher=wikimediafoundation.org|url=http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/bylaws.pdf|accessdate=2006-05-21}}</ref> a ] corporation that operates the free online encyclopedia, ], and several other ] projects. He is also founder of the for-profit company ], which is legally unrelated to Wikimedia. | |||
In May 2006, Wales was named one of '']'' magazine's 100 most influential people.<ref name=influence>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187286,00.html|title=Jimmy Wales: The (Proud) Amateur Who Created Misplaced Pages|date=]|accessdate=2006-04-30|last=Anderson|first=Chris}}</ref> | |||
==Early life and education== | |||
Wales was born in ]. His father, now retired, was a ] manager, while his mother, Doris, and grandmother, Erma, ran a small ], "in the tradition of the ],"{{fact}} <!--quotations need a reference-->where Wales was educated. There were four children in his grade most of the time, so the school grouped together first through fourth grades, and fifth through eighth grades. | |||
A 2005 ''Time'' magazine article incorrectly reported that Wales was ].<ref>{{cite news|title=It's a Wiki, Wiki World|author=Taylor, Chris|publisher=]|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1066904-3,00.html|accessdate=2005-05-29}}</ref> Strictly speaking he was not, but he did note that his schooling experience was "in a sense similar",{{fact}} <!--needs a reference-->since his mother and grandmother were his primary teachers. The school's philosophy of education was significantly influenced by the ], and students had a fair amount of freedom to study whatever they liked. Wales has said that he spent many hours poring over the '']'' during this time.<ref name="newsweek1">{{cite news|url=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6298340|title=It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki|author=Brad Stone|publisher=]|date=]|accessdate=2006-05-20}}</ref> | |||
===Preparatory school and university=== | |||
After eighth grade, Wales went to ], a ], which was an early supporter of computer labs and other technology for student use. 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."{{fact}} <!--needs a reference--> He received his ] from ] and his ] from the ]. <!--do we know what kind of Master's and in what subject?-->Later, he took courses offered in the ] ] programs at the University of Alabama and ]. He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies, but did not write the ] required to earn a Ph.D. | |||
==Career== | |||
Wales went on to become a ] and ] ] in ], and within six years had earned enough to "support himself and his wife for the rest of their lives."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Book Stops Here|author= Pink, Daniel H|publisher=]|url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/wiki.html?pg=3|accessdate=2006-06-28}}</ref> | |||
In 1996, Wales founded a search portal called ], which also sold adult content until mid-2005. He was asked in a September 2005 '']'' interview about his previous involvement with what the interviewer, ], called "dirty pictures". In response, Wales described Bomis as a "guy-oriented search engine."<ref name="qanda">{{cite web|title=Interview with Jimmy Wales|author=]|url=http://qanda.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1042|work=]|accessdate=2006-03-10}}</ref> | |||
<!-- I do not remember the correct citation form for an interview right now, someone might need to correct this --> | |||
In an interview with '']'', he also explained that he disputed the categorization of Bomis content as "soft-core pornography": "If ] movies are ], it was porn. In other words, no, it was not."<ref>{{cite web|author=Cadenhead, Rogers|title=Misplaced Pages Founder Looks Out for Number 1|url=http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828/wikipedia-founder-looks-out-number-1|accessdate=2005-12-19}}</ref> He is no longer actively involved in the company. | |||
In March 2000, he started a peer-reviewed, open-content encyclopedia, ] ("the 💕"), and hired ] to be its editor-in-chief. While Wales was CEO, Bomis donated over ]100,000 (primarily through salaries and providing free Internet access) to ] and ], and continued supporting them into 2002. | |||
==Misplaced Pages and the Wikimedia Foundation== | |||
], ], during a shooting break of a documentary film on Misplaced Pages created by French-German TV station ].]] | |||
{{main|History of Misplaced Pages}} | |||
Using a wiki to create an encyclopedia was publicly proposed by ] on ], ], and Wales worked on setting one up, starting it on ], ]. Misplaced Pages was at that point a ]-based site intended for collaboration on early encyclopedic content for submission to ] for peer review, but Misplaced Pages's rapid growth soon made it the dominant project and Nupedia was mothballed. Sanger dropped out of the project in 2002, posting a resignation on his Misplaced Pages user page.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/User:Larry_Sanger|title=User Page|author=]|accessdate=2006-04-12}}</ref> He has since criticized Wales's approach to the project,<ref>{{cite web|author=]|title=Why Misplaced Pages Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism|publisher=]|url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25|date=]}}</ref> describing Wales as "decidedly anti-elitist". | |||
Wales later took issue with this description in a C-SPAN interview,<ref name="qanda" /> describing himself as not anti-elitist but "perhaps anti-credentialist. To me the key thing is getting it right. And if a person's really smart and they're doing fantastic work, I don't care if they're a high school kid or a Harvard professor." | |||
In mid-2003, Wales set up the ], a ]-based ], to support Misplaced Pages and its younger sibling projects. He appointed himself and two business partners who are not active Wikipedians to the five-member board; the remaining two members are elected community representatives. This move relieved him and Bomis from the increasing financial burden of supporting Misplaced Pages while keeping his leadership position. | |||
In 2004, Wales was quoted as saying that he had spent around US$500,000 on the establishment and operation of his Wiki projects. By the end of its February 2005 fund drive, the Wikimedia Foundation was supported entirely by grants and donations. Wales has become increasingly involved with promoting and speaking about its projects, and to this end, he travels to conferences and Wikimedia functions, such as "Wikimeets" and ]. The Foundation's travel budget was US$25,000 in 2005; how much of this total was used by Wales himself has not been published.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wikimediafoundation.org/Budget/2005|title=Wikimedia Foundation's 2005 Budget|accessdate=2006-04-12}}</ref> On ], ], he gave a talk at ]'s LongNow Foundation entitled "Vision: Misplaced Pages and the Future of Free Culture," where he discussed the philosophical underpinnings of Misplaced Pages, his support for the ] movement, and the difficulties the Wikimedia Foundation may confront as it grows in size. | |||
===Controversy=== | |||
]'s '']'' with ], in which he first said "We make the Internet not suck".]] | |||
While Larry Sanger referred to himself as the co-founder of Misplaced Pages as early as January 2002,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/Wikipedia_and_why_it_matters|author=]|title=What Misplaced Pages is and why it matters|accessdate=2006-04-12 }}</ref> and so did the Misplaced Pages community,<ref>When Wales dropped his initial opposition to having an article about himself (], ]) the article that was written said that he "is an Internet entrepreneur, most famous for his founding, with Larry Sanger, of Misplaced Pages ... Wales became famous after he co-founded Misplaced Pages in January 15, 2001". ({{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Jimmy_Wales&oldid=5755427|author=Various Authors|title=Jimmy Wales|date=]|accessdate=2006-06-06}}) This stood unchallenged until ], ].</ref> Wales says he has always called himself the sole founder of Misplaced Pages. The press frequently referred to Sanger and Wales as co-founders, but this began to change after Sanger's departure. For example, a 2004 '']'' magazine article stated that " created Misplaced Pages", without mentioning Sanger.<ref name="newsweek1" /> In 2006, Wales told the '']'' that "it's preposterous" to call Sanger the co-founder.<ref>{{cite web|author=Janet Knott|title=Bias, sabotage haunt Misplaced Pages's free world|url=http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=4|publisher=]|date=]|accessdate=2006-04-12}}</ref> Sanger has strongly contested this assertion, claiming that, in addition to developing Misplaced Pages in its early phase, he also had the idea of applying the wiki concept to the building of a 💕. It is undisputed that he also coined the name of the project. He has said: "I remember very clearly the evening when I got the idea for Misplaced Pages." 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."<ref>{{cite news|author=]|title=The Early History of Nupedia and Misplaced Pages: A Memoir|publisher=]|url=http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/164213|date=]|accessdate=2005-04-18}}</ref> Wales has credited a Bomis employee named ] as the person who "initially came up with the idea to make the encyclopedia wiki-based."<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy||title=Edit to Misplaced Pages article "Jimmy Wales"|publisher=]|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Jimmy_Wales&diff=next&oldid=29849184|date=2005-12-02}}</ref> | |||
In late 2005, a related controversy arose regarding Wales and the Misplaced Pages entry on himself. After ''Wired'' Magazine picked up on work from ], Wales confirmed that he had (visibly and under his own name) edited his own biography on Misplaced Pages, a practice generally frowned upon within the Misplaced Pages community and even by Wales himself.<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title=Jimmy Wales response in "Daniel C. Boyer on wikipedia" thread|work=wikien-l mailing list|url=http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=wikien-l&m=105999934110753&w=2|date=]|accessdate=2006-06-09}}</ref> | |||
Wales's edits<ref>Jimmy Wales' edits of , , and , 2005.</ref> were in line with his view that Larry Sanger should not be considered a co-founder of Misplaced Pages. When some other editors undid his edits, Wales repeated them twice. His edits changed specific references to Misplaced Pages's origins as well as the description of Bomis. Wales said in the ''Wired'' interview, "People shouldn't do it, including me. I wish I hadn't done it."<ref name="wirednews">{{cite web|author=Hansen, Evan|title=Misplaced Pages Founder Edits Own Bio|work=Wired News|publisher=Wired|url=http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html|accessdate=2006-02-14}}</ref> The article said: "Wales has also repeatedly revised the description of a search site he founded called Bomis, which included a section with adult photos called 'Bomis Babes'."<ref name="wirednews" /> | |||
===Motivations behind Misplaced Pages=== | |||
In an interview with ], Wales explained the purpose of Misplaced Pages by saying, "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."<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title="Misplaced Pages Founder Jimmy Wales Replies"| publisher=]|url=http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/28/1351230|date=]|accessdate=2006-06-07}}</ref> Likewise, in a December 2005 appeal for donations to Wikimedia, Wales explained his motivation for his Misplaced Pages work by saying "I'm doing this for the child in Africa."<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title="A Personal Appeal from Misplaced Pages Founder Jimmy Wales"|publisher=wikimediafoundation.org|url=http://wikimediafoundation.org/Personal_Appeal|accessdate=2006-06-01}}</ref> | |||
In response to criticisms about the inconsistency of these motivations with Wales' adherence to ]'s ] (see ] in this article), Wales replied, "Do we have a source for me claiming that my 'Misplaced Pages activities do not serve a selfish end'? No, we do not. (…) For what is it worth, I think it is in my rational self-interest to care about what happens to kids in Africa, and far from being destructive of my self-interest, it is beneficial to my self-interest."<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title="Talk:Jimmy Wales"|work=en.wikipedia.org|publisher=]|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Talk:Jimmy_Wales&diff=55321582&oldid=55105689|accessdate=2006-06-07}}</ref> | |||
==Philosophical and political views== | |||
Wales has been a passionate adherent of the ] of ]. When asked by Brian Lamb in his appearance on '']'' 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 ], qualifying his remark by referring to the ] 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.<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title="Q & A: Jimmy Wales"|url=http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1042|accessdate=2006-06-05}}</ref> From 1992 to 1996, he ran the electronic mailing list "Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy,"<ref>{{cite newsgroup|author=Wales, Jimmy|title=Re: Objectivism of Ayn Rand|date=] ]|newsgroup=talk.philosophy.misc|id=Bv1u8x.Bnv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu|url=http://groups.google.com/group/talk.philosophy.misc/msg/8c5e626c70a213f8?dmode=source}}</ref> and in 2002, he began moderating ''Atlantis'',<ref>The wetheliving.com website is down as of ] - the prior cite is {{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050207071329/www.wetheliving.com/mailman/listinfo/atlantis|title=Jimmy Wales begins moderating Atlantis mailing list|date=unknown}}</ref> an Objectivism-related mailing list on the Objectivist community site ''We the Living''. | |||
==Other activities== | |||
Inspired by the success of Misplaced Pages, Wales has founded the for-profit company ] (separate from ]), which hosts various wikis and manages the ] project. | |||
He was appointed a fellow of the ] at ] in 2005. On ], ], according to a press release,<ref>{{cite news|title=Misplaced Pages Founder Joins Socialtext Board|date=] ]|publisher=]|url=http://www.socialtext.com/weblog/051003wikiwales.html}}</ref> Wales joined the ] of ], a provider of wiki technology to businesses. In 2006, he joined the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization ].<ref>{{cite news|title=Creative Commons Adds Two New Board Members|date=] ]|publisher=]|url=http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/5840}}</ref> | |||
Wales lives in ] with his wife and daughter. | |||
==Awards== | |||
], by '']'', a daily Internet ].]] | |||
Wales received an ] from ] on ], ]. The ] awarded him a Pioneer Award on ], ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/14632|title=EFF Honors Craigslist, Gigi Sohn, and Jimmy Wales with Pioneer Awards|date=]|publisher=Kansas City infoZine News|accessdate=2006-06-05}}</ref> | |||
Wales was the first person listed in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section of the ], ] special edition of '']'' ("The lives and ideas of the world's most influential people"), listing ].<ref name=influence /> | |||
==Published works== | |||
*Robert Brooks, Jon Corson, and J. Donal Wales. , in ''Advances in Futures and Options Research'', volume 7, 1994. See also ]. | |||
==References== | |||
<div class = "references-small"><references /></div> | |||
==Further reading== | |||
<div class = "references-small"> | |||
{{Spoken Misplaced Pages|Jimmy Wales.ogg|2005-04-06}} | |||
{{commons|category:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales}} | |||
{{wikiquote}}<!-- -------------- --> | |||
{{wikinews|Interview with Jimbo Wales}} | |||
*<!-- please do not make this an internal link; see ] and this article's talk page for reasons --> | |||
*</div> | |||
===News media=== | |||
<div class = "references-small"> | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-06-30-wiki_x.htm|title=It's a Wiki world out there for the Web's groupmind|publisher=]|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2005/09/26/focus4.html|title=St. Petersburg tech brain creates 'wiki' world with online encyclopedia|publisher=Tampa Bay Business Journal|author=Michael Hinman|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/|title=Misplaced Pages founder admits serious quality problems|publisher=]|author=]|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://www.npost.com/interview.jsp?intID=INT00126|title=Interview with Jimmy Wales, WikiPedia Founder|publisher=nPost.com|author=Nathan C. Kaiser|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6298340/site/newsweek/|title=It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki|publisher=]|author=Brad Stone|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1136024385322320.xml&coll=2|title=Alabamian is brain behind Misplaced Pages|publisher=The Birmingham News|author=Joseph D. Bryant|date=]}} | |||
*{{cite news|url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1962714,00.html|title=Misplaced Pages Chief considers taking ads|publisher=]|author=Rhys Blakely|date=]}}</div> | |||
===Audio/Video=== | |||
<div class = "references-small"> | |||
* ], ] - hosted by ] | |||
* Video of Jimmy Wales talk given at the Oxford Internet Institute - recorded ] ] | |||
* 40 minutes from a talk Jimmy held at Stanford on ] ] available as an avi in torrent form and licensed under the ] (]: , ) | |||
* - recorded ] ] | |||
* on Wednesday, ], ] | |||
* 9 minutes, from Media Alliance event held in ] on ] ] | |||
*, ], ] | |||
* about Community & politics & future plans & other things, ], ] | |||
* recorded ]], posted ]] | |||
*, ], ]. Podcast by ] . | |||
* for in San Francisco, ] ] | |||
* on ], ], ]</div> | |||
==External links== | |||
*{{nndb name|id=953/000114611|name=Jimbo Wales}} | |||
<!-- Metadata: see ] --> | |||
{{Persondata | |||
|NAME=Wales, Jimmy Donal | |||
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Wales, Jimbo | |||
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=American ] ], ] pioneer; founder of ] | |||
|DATE OF BIRTH= | |||
|PLACE OF BIRTH=] | |||
|DATE OF DEATH= | |||
|PLACE OF DEATH=}} | |||
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Revision as of 06:29, 5 July 2006
Misplaced Pages is only a waste of time
Vandals forever