Ask questions to Jimmy Wales - Cofounder of Wikipedia!

Replies

• 

  just2rock

  Hi Sir...its been a pleasure having you here with us!
  I had some few questions for you:
  1>How you came to found something like this & why with such a name
  2>What challenges you faced in culturing this revolution
  3>Do we have anymore thing to get from you in terms of technical developement & smoother applications/serach engine/knowledge box
  
  Thanks,
  Soumik
• 

  Mahesh Dahale

  Sir.
  its been a pleasure having you here with us!
  
  1) Does the quality of the article gets affected due to "any one can edit " feature in wikipedia ? Or why you provided this feature ?
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  1. What is next in Wikipedia?
  
  2. As the articles are written by many volunteers around the world ,will the accuracy of the articles being written a issue? How do you overcome it?
• 

  safwan

  wow, cool Maddy and Ceans .!!
  my question .
  1 How Wikipedia came into existence ?
  2.When are we gonna see Wikipedia in new look (theme ) Are you(wiki Team) already working on it ?
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  I would like to know, when will the beta version of wikipedia be officially launched??
  
  (Will come back with more questions when I have them.)
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  mad_scientist

  I would like to know, when will the beta version of wikipedia be officially launched??
  
  (Will come back with more questions when I have them.)

  Didn't get your question. Any links or pointers please?
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  I meant the beta interface of wikipedia..
  
  Q. How much spam (articles) do you guys get??
  
  Q. Also, do you employ editors to verify the authenticity of the articles??
  
  
  One more,
  
  Q. How do yo react to people when they question the veracity of articles on wikipedia (probably because anyone can edit them)??
• 

  Rohan_sK

  1. What is your view about maintaining the scientific and technical correctness and adherence to the technical factual explaination on any topic appearing on Wikipedia. Is there a team of qualified people in respective technical fields to confirm to the technical soundness of any article that may be edited by any reader for that matter.
  Whats your opinion and strategy on this so that the world can have a 100% reliable scientific resource at disperse.
  
  2. What are the exsisting features on Wikipedia that you would prefer to change or add new ones for a better experience to the common reader, may be the layout, the look, any new tags or additional features to be included for articles to make them more knowledgable and interesting.
• 

  durga ch

  Q1.
  What is the basis motivation for users to post useful stuff?
  
  Q2.
  How confident were you when you started Wikipedia that it is going to be super useful for the internet-hoggers?
  
  Q3.
  How are the quality and relevance of content maintained? there might be many users who put in data but might be a repetition of something already existing or might not be relevant to the discussion going on?
  Who has the authority to modify such content.
• 

  ms_cs

  how wikipedia earning money?
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  ms_cs

  how wikipedia earning money?

  Wikipedia doesn't earn money. It relies on donations & contributions made by people from all around the world.
• 

  ms_cs

  what obstacles wikipedia faced when it was born and grown? it is really a tedious and difficult task to manage the content and maintaining accuracy of content.. and getting informations from users across world, how wikipedia done this? How it works?
  
  There are lot of persons reading wiki everyday ,..
  I read in news paper once, that there is not huge users from india , I mean number of accounts created by indian peoples and contributions..How you planned to attract users to come forward to cotribute?
  
  What are the future plan's for the wikipedia to make it reach all over the world or to make it best one?
• 

  Anil Jain

  Q. Sire, We understand that Wikipedia is free for the each and everyperson having the internet connectivity. As a co-founder you had great success with Wikipedia, you never thought of commercializing Wiki?
  
  Q. Wiki is unanimously the best online encyclopedia on the web. In the inception phase of Wiki (in mid 90's) there were a lots of competition to Wiki. How wiki survived that tough time and emerged as a winner before end of century?
  
  Q. Sire, We understand that any user having the internet connectivity has rights to update the Wikipedia. It must be a tough job for you guyz to maintain the content at the wiki? How you manage this biggest task?
  
  Q. Wiki is among the most visited website which is hit by millions peopele per day. These hits consists of updating/viewing tasks. How the wiki server manage this much load without degradation in performance?
  
  Q. Now a days, evey second search engine/encyclopedia are merging with IT giants like Google or Microsoft, Any such future plans for wiki for keeping its identity alive?
  
  -CB
• 

  sarveshgupta

  It is a privilege to talk to you Sir
  
  Q1) What are the steps an article goes through when a user submits an article or when someone edits an existing article? Is there any action from your team( a review or something)?
  
  Q2) Where do you see Wikipedia today among all the competitors that have emerged with the time?
  
  Q3) Has the presence or position of Wikipedia on the web changed from past, How?
• 

  sarveshgupta

  Q4) Where do you see Wikipedia in the next five years?
  
  Q5) Is there anything you want Wikipedia has yet to achieve or yet to incorporate?
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  @Mad_Scientist: Shall we close the entries?
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  gimme a couple of days to frame some questions..been a bit busy with exams..
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  mad_scientist

  gimme a couple of days to frame some questions..been a bit busy with exams..

  Don't delay this further 😀 . We're going to wait for long to have response from Mr. Wales.
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  I agree..will frame some questions by friday or saturday..
  
  oh and, how many questions do we intend to ask Mr Wales??
• 

  just2rock

  send as many with prime contents initiated by CE'an first & is repeted later...choose first one then followed with any other vitals that you feel must be answerd...
• 

  tashirosgt

  Does the Wikipedia have a schizophrenic outlook toward being a dry scholarly source of information vs a practical and useful source of information?
  
  For example, some mathematics articles with examples have notes posted by the Wikipedia software (or editors) that chide the article for giving examples. One expects the relatively useless mathematics articles in a traditional encyclopedia not to stoop to help the reader by examples. Shouldn't the web aspire to something better? As an another example, the Wikipedia discourages articles with practical do-it-yourself type information. What is wrong with such articles?
  
  The critical notes that the Wikipedia inserts into its own articles suggest that the Wikipedia has an inferiority complex vis-a-vis traditional printed encyclopedia. They would guide the content to be a rephrasing of statements made in scholarly sources, each backed by appropriate footnotes. But the policy of using an unscreened set of contributors leads to articles that are more lively, opinionated, and interesting.
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  Sorry I've been outta commission for a while. Here are some questions that I'd like to ask him:
  
  Q) How does it fee to be named as one of 25 most influential person on the web by TIMES Magazine??
  (in 2008 he was nominated as one of the 25 most influential persons on the web.)
  
  
  Q) How was the transation fron “NUPEDIA ” to “WIKIPEDIA” and how was this journey? anything interesting or challenging that you would like our members to know??
  
  
  Q) The Wall Street Journal has stated that a number of volunteers, who are editors are leaving wikipedia. How do you intendent to reverse this trend??
  
  
  Q) Does Wikipedia has an ombudsman who has powers to veto controversial details /topics being uploaded in wikipedia???
  
  PS- Biggie I think we have enough questions. We can pick and choose the ones that are good. So I think this thread can be closed.
• 

  Aashish Joshi

  2 more:
  
  Q) Do you think wikipedia has reached a stage where it is reliable enough to be quoted in academic papers and what is being done to ensure the accuracy of information on wikipedia??
  
  
  Q) Internet penetration in third world countries is still very dismal. What do you think is required to be done to improve this trend and ensure that bulk of man kind specially students have an easy and cheap access to the internet?
• 

  Kaustubh Katdare

  This thread is now being closed. Let's hope to hear from Mr. Wales soon. Thanks to everyone who contributed 😀 !