Business Daily Business Daily meets: Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales
11 snips
Nov 28, 2025 
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and a key figure in the Wikimedia Foundation, shares the fascinating journey of creating the world's largest free online encyclopedia. He discusses the wiki model's revolutionary collaborative approach and how it shapes knowledge today. Wales addresses the challenges of AI-generated content, political criticisms, and the impact of social media on public perception. He emphasizes Wikipedia's independence and the importance of community resilience while maintaining an optimistic outlook on technology's potential.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Space Town Shaped A Young Geek
- Jimmy Wales grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, where the space program shaped a tech-curious community.
- He credits early exposure to the World Book encyclopedia and a culture of science for his lifelong interest in knowledge and tech.
From Slow Newpedia To Open Wiki
- Newpedia was a top-down, slow project that failed to attract contributors.
- Switching to wiki software let volunteers edit directly and quickly accelerated article creation.
Wikipedia As Global Knowledge Infrastructure
- Wikipedia functions as global infrastructure relied on for knowledge and AI grounding.
- Wales sees the platform's impact as enormous and foundational for other technologies.