Gel speaker update - Jimmy Wales

Sep 13, 2006

Jimmy Wales - speaker at Gel Gel '05 (video) and our recent euroGel conference in Copenhagen - comments on China, Google, and Encyclopedia Britannica... as attendees will remember, he made many of the same points during his presentation at euroGel.

From the Observer, Wikipedia defies China's censors:

Wales said censorship was ' antithetical to the philosophy of Wikipedia. We occupy a position in the culture that I wish Google would take up, which is that we stand for the freedom for information, and for us to compromise I think would send very much the wrong signal: that there's no one left on the planet who's willing to say "You know what? We're not going to give up."'

Separately, the WSJ hosted an e-mail exchanged between Jimmy and
Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

From Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias?, Jimmy writes:

Britannica has long been a standard bearer, and they have done a fine job within their model. But it is time to work in a different model, with different techniques made possible by new technologies but the same goals, to reach ever higher standards.

As I said at euroGel, I consider Wikipedia to be one of the most important projects in the world today - and I'm rooting for Jimmy.

Also see:
• Video of Jimmy Wales at Gel 2005
• Good Experience interview with Jimmy Wales (March 2005)
• August '06 mention of Jimmy
• Gel speakers commenting on Wikipedia
• Gel conference entry at Wikipedia (Wikipedians, please expand it)

• IN: Gel
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