Written by: James Burke
23 February 2008

I have only just discovered the excellent TED website after it came up in a twitter tweet from Jason Calacanis. - this has now become a new source of inspiration for me!

Whilst browsing through the themes available I discovered an excellent talk about Wikipedia presented by it's founder Jimmy Wales.

Jimmy Wales assembled "a ragtag band of volunteers," gave them tools for collaborating, and created Wikipedia, the self-organizing, self-correcting, never-finished encyclopedia of the future. Here, he explains how the collaborative approach works, and why it succeeds. Along the way, he debunks some controversies, explains the "neutral point-of-view policy" and why it is non-debatable; and details the Wikipedia governance model: a democracy with a bit of aristocracy and some monarchy thrown in.

About Jimmy Wales

With a vision for a free online encyclopedia, Wales assembled legions of volunteer contributors, gave them tools for collaborating, and created the self-organizing, self-correcting, ever-expanding, multilingual encyclopedia of the future. Read full bio »