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Jimmy Wales

Kirsty Young talks to Jimmy Wales, internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Wikipedia.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales.

He is best known as the co-founder of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. He grew up in Huntsville, Alabama and was the eldest child of a grocery store manager and his wife who ran a primary school where Jimmy and his siblings were educated. After acquiring a degree in finance and working as a trader in Chicago, his first serious foray into the online world was with the web portal Bomis, before branching out with a project called Nupedia, an online encyclopedia with entries written by scholars and published after undergoing peer review.

Wikipedia launched in 2001 and now exists in 287 languages and is the 7th most accessed website in the world with over 20 billion page views per month. It can be edited by anyone though relies on a core of around 5,000 volunteers who are responsible for the majority of the content. It is Jimmy's aim to create "a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge."

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

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45 minutes

Last on

Fri 29 May 2015 09:00
BBC Radio 4

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Music Played

  • Lynyrd Skynyrd

    Sweet Home Alabama

    • Lynyrd Skynyrd: Greatest Hits.
    • MCA.

  • Mötley Crüe

    Shout at the Devil

    • Decade Of Decadence '81-'91.
    • Elektra.

  • Tanya Tucker

    Delta Dawn

    • Beginner's Guide To Country CD1: Hardcore Country: Cowboys, Cowgirls And Old-Timers.
    • Nascente.

  • Rush

    Tom Sawyer

    • Rush / Chronicles.
    • VERTIGO.

  • Public Enemy

    Fight the Power

    • Def Jam Classics Vol. 2.
    • Def Jam.

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Violin Concerto in A Minor – first movement

      Performer: Les Solistes Romands. Performer: Arthur Grumiaux. Performer: Arpad Gérecz.
      • Bach: Violin Concertos.
      • Philips.

  • Idina Menzel

    Let it go

    • Now That's What I Call Music! 88 CD1.
    • Sony Music.

  • Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash

    Jackson

    • Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter.
    • Columbia ?.

  • BOOK CHOICE

    The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

  • LUXURY ITEM

    A cellar full of Cabernet wine and a glass

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Jimmy Wales
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 24 May 2015 11:16
    BBC Radio 4 FM
  • Fri 29 May 2015 09:00
    BBC Radio 4

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