Back Jimmy Wales Afrikaans Jimmy Wales ALS ጂሚ ዌልስ Amharic Jimmy Wales AN जिमी वेल्स ANP جيمي ويلز Arabic جيمى ويلز ARZ জিম্মী ৱেলছ Assamese Jimmy Wales AST जिमी वेल्स AWA
Jimmy Wales | |
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.jpg) Wales in 2019 | |
| Born | Jimmy Donal Wales August 7, 1966 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. |
| Other names | Jimbo (screen name)[1] |
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| Successor | Florence Devouard (as Chair of Wikimedia Foundation) |
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| Children | 3 daughters |
| Awards | See below |
| Website | Official website  |
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Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the nickname Jimbo Wales, is an American–British[3] Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the for-profit wiki hosting service Fandom (formerly Wikia). He has worked on other online projects, including Bomis, Nupedia, WikiTribune, and WT Social.
Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, where he attended Randolph School, a university-preparatory school. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in finance from Auburn University and the University of Alabama respectively. In graduate school, Wales taught at two universities; he departed before completing a PhD to take a job in finance and later worked as the research director of Chicago Options Associates.
In 1996, Wales and two partners founded Bomis, a web portal primarily known for featuring adult content. Bomis provided the initial funding for the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003). On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Wikipedia, a free open-content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity. As its public profile grew, Wales became its promoter and spokesman. Though he is historically credited as a co-founder, he has disputed this, declaring himself the sole founder.
Wales serves on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the charity that he helped establish to operate Wikipedia, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat. For his role in creating Wikipedia, the world's largest encyclopedia, Time named him one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2006.
- ^ Garside, Juliette (August 3, 2014). "Jimmy Wales: digital champion of free speech". The Observer. London. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
- ^ Williams, Christopher (April 25, 2017). "Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales exits Guardian board over conflict of interest with Wikitribune news site". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.
- ^ Jimmy Wales [@jimmy_wales] (September 16, 2019). "I just became a UK citizen, quite happy about that. It occurs to me that perhaps a few MPs should actually take the "Life in the UK" test and study the manual!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.