What Is Jimmy Wales?
Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and Wikia and has had a pretty exciting life. The two sites are the world's largest and most popular general reference sites. The man who founded Wikipedia in 2001 started as a child in Huntsville, Alabama, where he was born on August 7, 1966. He attended public school until his parents divorced when he was only seven. After that, he moved around with his father from town to town in Alabama until they settled in Mountain Brook. During this time, he played tennis and chess competitively but became interested in more creative pursuits like writing and music. At Auburn University, Wales studied finance and marketing (ironic because Wikipedia is free). As an intern for Senator Terry Everett, he dabbled in politics. After graduating from college, he worked as an options trader on Wall Street for two years before returning to Alabama with his father. Jimmy Donal Wales is a man who knows what he wants. And, when he wants something, he goes for it. He started his career as a trader with Chicago Options Associates in 1994. But his self-proclaimed addiction to the Internet led him to write computer code in his free time. It was only a short time before he experienced the full potential of computer networks in fostering large-scale project collaboration. During his studies in Alabama, he became obsessed with multi-user dungeons (MUD), an early form of a text-based role-playing game. This experience later made him decide to become an Internet entrepreneur. We all remember the old days of the Internet. It was more straightforward when you could get by on a dial-up connection and a 56k modem. It was also a time of excitement as the world rushed to embrace this new technology and discover what it could do. People were eager to share their knowledge and experiences with others and willing to work hard to do so! But they didn't have much time for that. They barely had time to sit down and eat dinner with their families. They were so busy working on their projects that they didn't have time for anything else! And then came along Larry Sanger, who had an idea for something that would change everything: An encyclopedia without peer review!
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