Bomis and Nupedia- Foundation stones of Wikipedia
- Along with a friend of his Jimmy started a web portal called Bomis which featured adult stuff and was of male interests. The funds that were generated through Bomis were used for financing of Nupedia started in the year 2000 and itsadvance version which we presently known as Wikipedia.
- Nupedia was a very important step towards Wikipedia because it was where all of it started. Jimmy hired his friend Larry Sengar for the sake of Nupedia
- who was pursuing his PhD from Ohio State University.
- They started with Nupedia and considered it as a “peer review and open content” encyclopedia where volunteer expert writers can write knowledge giving stuff about anything and everything and are displayed as a web portal along with ads to generate money.
- The articles were peer reviewed very intensely which checked quality but made operating it uninteresting.
People reluctant to participate in that model of writing due to intense criticism which gave the indication to Jimmy Nupedia won’t work. - That was when it was realised it was time to generate a more open platform.
The birth of Wikipedia
With the initiation of the new millennium Jimmy Wales along with his partner Larry Sanger gifted the world with Wikipedia a non profit making web portal which provided the world open and free web content which was welcomed whole heartedly by public and was loved, which is reflected in the popularity it enjoyed as soon as it was launched.
From the very beginning Wales knew that Wikpedia will help him attain his passion of making the largest encyclopedia but there scary thoughts always, like the fear of what Wikipedia will produce will turn out as total rubbish or because it had the model of free culture moment where anybody can openly edit content online.
But he was relieved because of the support he received from the free moment sympathisers and the help received by the early editors who helped in regulating Wikipedia.So this is how Wikipedia came out as a success and is loved by the world.
Jimmy Wales as of today
- One of the trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation and has the title of ‘community founder’ given by the board of the foundation which is a NPO as well which is acting as the backbone of Wikipedia today.
- The work of giving the world largest encyclopedia ever, Jimmy Wales is among the hundred most influential people as declared by the Times magazine in the year 2006.
- For the sake of getting profit in the year 2004, Jimmy Wales co-founded “Wikia” an initiative for profit wiki hosting service.
- Wales is criticised for removing the name of Larry Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia and information on Bomis as well as for editing his own biography on Wikipedia a practiced forbidden on Wikipedia.
- Has been married thrice.
- Has received the Pioneer award, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize and is in the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.