Empowerment Through Education

Wikipedia founder and internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales discusses his passion for the free access to the "sum of all human knowledge," and the lengths to which Wikipedia influences the world. Founder Jimmy Wales describes Wikipedia as a neutral place for people to come before they debate, to find out the facts in a "mild, smooth" way. Jimmy Wales uses a Venn diagram, which depicts Wikipedians as the crossover of intelligence, obsession and free time, and elaborates on his passion for accessible, useable knowledge.

Jimmy Wales defines Wikipedia as not a textbook, but as something used in conjunction with a textbook, to get a quick introduction to a topic before delving in fully. Wales also denotes that Wikipedia is not a social network, and outlines the unique engagement of young people in the overall project.

Wikipedia functions on a model of large community, with 100,000 contributors in approximately 200 languages worldwide. Wikipedia (at the time of this keynote) has 50 employees, none of whom are directly related to the content, with even the design and article of the day chosen by the community.