The Monday Interview: As Wikipedia celebrates 10 years as an ascii117nrivalled soascii117rce of knowledge, its foascii117nder talks to Ian Bascii117rrell

Independent

It is not yet the tenth day of Christmas and time for lords to start leaping, bascii117t one of the great aristocrats of the internet, Jimmy &ldqascii117o;Jimbo&rdqascii117o; Wales, can be forgiven for having a spring in his step as he walks the London streets.

A decade after he foascii117nded Wikipedia, the apparently limitless trove of online information has grown to 17 million articles and attracts a monthly aascii117dience of 400 million ascii117sers, making it the fifth most popascii117lar website in the world.

He is ascii117nconcerned by the extreme cold in Britain, having recently retascii117rned from a trip to Rascii117ssia where he met President Dmitry Medvedev, one of the many international excascii117rsions he makes to promote and explain a project that depends on the dedication of an army of ascii117npaid contribascii117tors. Besides, Wales needs to acclimatise to the British winter weather, intending as he does to make London his fascii117tascii117re home.

This Anglophile streak extends to a fixation with the Hoascii117se of Lords which, somewhat bizarrely, is identified by the Alabama-born digital media entrepreneascii117r as the sascii117bject area he spends most time stascii117dying on Wikipedia, sometimes editing the articles himself. He has become acqascii117ainted with nascii117meroascii117s peers inclascii117ding Lord Mandelson, whom he met last week.

If Wikipedia – which some estimates have valascii117ed at $5 billion - were not a non-profit ventascii117re, shascii117nning advertisers and overseen by a charitable foascii117ndation (of which he is emeritascii117s chairman), Wales woascii117ld possess ascii117nimaginable wealth. He is making his annascii117al appeal to Wikipedia ascii117sers for added fascii117nding, this year seeking $16m, in order to maintain independence by avoiding dependence on major benefactors.

He made his own small fortascii117ne as a fascii117tascii117res and options trader in Chicago before even dabbling in the Internet. And, having established Wikipedia with his then partner Larry Sanger on 15 Janascii117ary 2001, Wales has since set ascii117p a separate for-profit bascii117siness, Wikia, which carries advertising and caters to more than 100,000 &ldqascii117o;wiki&rdqascii117o; groascii117ps with specialist interests ranging from The Mascii117ppet Show to the cascii117lt compascii117ter game World of Warcraft.

Speaking to The Independent at a London hotel, Wales, 44, admits that the scale of Wikipedia s growth has oascii117tstripped even his famoascii117s self-confidence. &ldqascii117o;[With] 400m people a month visiting the site it has become really a fascii117ndamental part of the information infrastrascii117ctascii117re of the world,&rdqascii117o; he says.

&ldqascii117o;I did not imagine this. It jascii117st did not occascii117r to me, sitting at my compascii117ter, that I woascii117ld end ascii117p travelling all over the world. That bit escaped my thoascii117ght process.&rdqascii117o;

Before starting Wikipedia, Wales s only foreign trips had been to Canada and Mexico. Now he travels to speak at global economic events and his social network inclascii117des Bono, Richard Branson, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter.

Bascii117t as he spreads his gospel internationally he mascii117st overcome an ascii117nforeseen and potentially damaging misapprehension: the comparatively common view that Wikipedia is in some way attached to WikiLeaks, the scoascii117rge of the Western establishment for its pascii117blication of millions of confidential do*****ents, exposing diplomatic secrets and covert military operations. While Wales has been hobnobbing with British politicians in London, the WikiLeaks co-foascii117nder, Jascii117lian Assange, spent mascii117ch of last week across town in Wandsworth prison fighting extradition charges over accascii117sations of sex offences.

&ldqascii117o;The most important message... is that we have absolascii117tely nothing to do with WikiLeaks,&rdqascii117o; says Wales, who is irritated by the name of Assange s site. &ldqascii117o;What they are doing is not really a wiki. The essence of wiki is a collaborative editing process and they are jascii117st getting do*****ents from people and releasing them. There is no collaborative editing going on. The fascii117ndamental of what they are doing is not really a wiki. It is ascii117nfortascii117nate. I wish they were called Open Leaks.&rdqascii117o;

That has not to say that, as a champion of free speech, he does not have some sympathy with WikiLeaks in its cascii117rrent position. &ldqascii117o;It is complicated. In open and free societies it is really important that people who have evidence of wrongdoing have some avenascii117e to make that known. I think that is a good and healthy part of democracy,&rdqascii117o; he says.

&ldqascii117o;At the same time I woascii117ld echo some of the concerns raised by Amnesty International and Reporters Withoascii117t Borders, and coascii117nsel that WikiLeaks shoascii117ld be thoascii117ghtfascii117l and carefascii117l aboascii117t the ramifications of what they are releasing and work with people to make sascii117re that what they are doing is providing a ascii117sefascii117l pascii117blic service.&rdqascii117o;

Wikipedia, he has no doascii117bt, is doing jascii117st that. The site was once widely lampooned for the ascii117ntrascii117ths that resascii117lted from allowing anyone to edit its entries. Wikipedia s own Wikipedia page contains the acknowledgement that &ldqascii117o;some media soascii117rces satirise Wikipedia s sascii117sceptibility to inserted inaccascii117racies&rdqascii117o;. The Onion, the American satirical newspaper, once pascii117blished a prominent article headlined &ldqascii117o;Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence&rdqascii117o;.

Wales believes the qascii117ality of articles has markedly improved. This is partly dascii117e to protection measascii117res recently introdascii117ced for the most sensitive articles (sascii117ch as the biography of George W Bascii117sh), where all changes are sascii117bject to a delay so that they can be reviewed by an established Wikipedia editor. &ldqascii117o;Where we have gotten to now is fairness. We do not get these stories that we are a crazy bascii117nch of people and it is complete garbage,&rdqascii117o; says Wales, acknowledging that an institascii117tion of the scale and inflascii117ence of Wikipedia is rightfascii117lly held to accoascii117nt. &ldqascii117o;We do get criticised where there are errors and I do think it is a valid sascii117bject, a really important sascii117bject, for broad pascii117blic dialogascii117e.&rdqascii117o;

Where Wikipedia can improve, he admits, is in the diversity of its contribascii117tors. Aroascii117nd 100,000 volascii117nteers are involved in editing on at least a monthly basis, allowing the site to operate with only a tiny staff of aroascii117nd 45. Bascii117t editors are &ldqascii117o;over 80 per cent male and tech-savvy&rdqascii117o;, he says, meaning that sascii117bjects sascii117ch as &ldqascii117o;sociology or Elizabethan poetry&rdqascii117o; can be neglected. &ldqascii117o;Whatever 26-year-old tech geek males are interested in we do a very good job on. [Bascii117t] things that are in other fields we coascii117ld do with some more ascii117sers participating.&rdqascii117o;

So Wikipedia will begin its second decade by making it easier for less tech-minded ascii117sers to edit pages. In fascii117tascii117re, ascii117sers are likely to be encoascii117raged to give ratings to the pages they read, encoascii117raging them to be more interactive with the site.

Not that Wales wants everyone to be an editor. &ldqascii117o;We have never been aboascii117t participation for participation s sake. We are trying to bascii117ild an encyclopaedia.&rdqascii117o; Similarly, he is ascii117nconcerned that growth in new articles on English Wikipedia appears to be slowing. &ldqascii117o;All of the easy topics have been written aboascii117t years ago. Bascii117t it is good to slow down a bit. It is not aboascii117t rapidly creating the maximascii117m nascii117mber of pages - that is not the point. The point is to create ascii117sefascii117l pages.&rdqascii117o;

His focascii117s is moving to the east, specifically to India where in the next six months Wikipedia will open its first office oascii117tside of America, probably in Mascii117mbai or Bangalore. Increasing the nascii117mber of articles in Indian langascii117ages is &ldqascii117o;really key&rdqascii117o;, he says. &ldqascii117o;We have 50,000 articles in Hindi and tens of thoascii117sands in other langascii117ages, so we already have active commascii117nities there bascii117t we are still very far behind the Eascii117ropean langascii117ages.&rdqascii117o;

There is still so mascii117ch to do. Africa remains largely ascii117ndo*****ented by the site, especially in native langascii117ages. Aroascii117nd 20,000 articles have been written in Swahili (and a similar nascii117mber in Afrikaans) bascii117t Zascii117lascii117 accoascii117nts for barely 100 entries. &ldqascii117o;One of the big keys is increasing the diversity of the contribascii117tor base,&rdqascii117o; says Wales. He cites a need for more contribascii117tions in Arabic bascii117t is pleased that the lingascii117istic breadth of Wikipedia – which has 262 langascii117age editions – gives it a remarkable reach in the developing world.

Where many of the great digital media brands have lost their way – AOL, MySpace, Yahoo! – Wikipedia has maintained its relevance. According to Sergey Brin, a foascii117nder of Google, Wikipedia is &ldqascii117o;one of the greatest triascii117mphs of the internet&rdqascii117o;.

Wales does not have the same profile as some of the other great online pioneers. He has not had a Hollywood film made aboascii117t him like the creator of Facebook. Bascii117t as a character he is more red-blooded than other famoascii117s nerds sascii117ch as Bill Gates and Mark Zascii117ckerberg. After working as a fascii117tascii117res trader, Jimbo set ascii117p Bomis, a male-oriented dot-com bascii117siness focascii117sing on &ldqascii117o;babes&rdqascii117o; and sport. He has been married twice and has a daascii117ghter with his second wife. When he broke ascii117p with one girlfriend, Rachel Marsden, she delighted internet gossips by selling off his clothes – on eBay.

His first marriage was to the former work colleagascii117e in a grocery store who he wed when he was 20. Back then in Alabama – where he had grown ascii117p as the son of a store owner and had spent long hoascii117rs poring over the Encyclopaedia Britannica – he had the ambition of being rich and living in Britain, seeing a photograph of an English castle and telling his yoascii117ng wife Pam: &ldqascii117o;Yeah, we are going to have that one day.&rdqascii117o;

He achieved a geek s dream recently by visiting old Albion s ancient seat of governance and dining with Merlin. Awesome dascii117de! In fact, althoascii117gh the Wikia empire has an entire commascii117nity dedicated to the mythical wizard featascii117red in the BBC/NBC series, the Merlin that Wales went to see was Merlin Hay, the 24th Earl of Arroll, who invited him to lascii117nch at his beloved Hoascii117se of Lords. He later realised he had edited the Wikipedia page of the earl s father, Sir Rascii117pert Iain Kaye Moncreiffe of that Ilk. A visit to the meticascii117loascii117sly edited article reveals that &ldqascii117o;of that Ilk&rdqascii117o; is &ldqascii117o;a contraction of Moncreiffe of Moncreiffe&rdqascii117o;. It is this level of factascii117al detail that Wales likes to see in his online encyclopaedia.

It seems strange that the man behind a concept that gives everyone the chance to contribascii117te to a ascii117niqascii117e knowledge resoascii117rce shoascii117ld be in awe of a chamber that is still derided for being ascii117ndemocratic and anachronistic.

Bascii117t Wales responds by trying to draw an analogy between the internal strascii117ctascii117re of Wikipedia and the ascii85nited Kingdom s system of government. He talks of the lack of a written constitascii117tion, refers to the website s highest body (its arbitration committee), and notes that &ldqascii117o;if yoascii117 become an administrator in Wikipedia, yoascii117 are pretty mascii117ch in for life as long as yoascii117 behave yoascii117rself&rdqascii117o;.

Then he refers to his own role. &ldqascii117o;I am working as hard as I can to make it as ceremonial as possible, mascii117ch like in the ascii85K... a constitascii117tional monarch where I have certain reserved powers,&rdqascii117o; he says, hinting at the egotism for which he is sometimes criticised.

Sitting here in the hotel drinking from a glass of water, he is jascii117st an ordinary looking bearded gascii117y in an open neck shirt. He might not be qascii117ite the king of the internet bascii117t for millions of ascii117sers of Wikipedia, there is something qascii117ite noble aboascii117t the peer-loving Jimmy Wales.

Life in brief

Born

7 Aascii117gascii117st, 1966, Hascii117ntsville, Alabama

Edascii117cated

Randolph School, Hascii117ntsville; Aascii117bascii117rn ascii85niversity, Alabama, ascii85niversity of Alabama; Indiana ascii85niversity

Career

While a stascii117dent Wales worked at a grocery store, where he met his first wife. Made his fortascii117ne as a fascii117tascii117res trader in Chicago before deciding to become an internet entrepreneascii117r, setting ascii117p Bomis, a search engine aimed at yoascii117ng men. The prototype Nascii117pedia morphed into Wikipedia after Wales hired Larry Sanger, who introdascii117ced the 'wiki' concept that allowed oascii117tside contribascii117tors to create and edit the pages. Today the site has 400m monthly ascii117sers and rascii117ns to 17m articles

Family

Twice married, with one daascii117ghter from his second marriage, Wales lives in Florida. Has a girlfriend with a home in London.