Ideas worth spreading

TEDGlobal 2005

July 2005

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The birth of Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales recalls how he assembled "a ragtag band of volunteers," gave them tools for collaborating and created Wikipedia, the self-organizing, self-correcting, never-finished online encyclopedia.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Participate in Wikipedia. Contribute to the world's largest open-source encyclopedia.

Jimmy Wales recalls how he assembled "a ragtag band of volunteers," gave them tools for collaborating and created Wikipedia, the self-organizing, self-correcting, never-finished online encyclopedia.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Participate in Wikipedia. Contribute to the world's largest open-source encyclopedia.

About the speaker

Founder of Wikipedia

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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.