Ideas worth spreading

The birth of Wikipedia

1,474,262 views | Jimmy Wales • TEDGlobal 2005

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.

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

Jimmy Wales

Founder of Wikipedia

See speaker profile

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.

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.