Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, reflects on the platform's 25-year journey from a personal crisis to a global phenomenon. In his new book, 'The Seven Rules of Trust', he distills the principles behind Wikipedia's success, including a strong positive purpose, assuming good faith, and radical transparency. Wales recalls how his daughter's birth in 2000, which involved a life-threatening condition, spurred him to abandon the slow peer-review model of Nupedia in favour of Wikipedia's open-editing approach.
Wikipedia now boasts over 7 million English articles and 18 other language versions with more than a million each, making it a cornerstone of the internet. Despite criticisms from figures like Elon Musk, who labelled it 'Wokipedia', and challenges from AI, Wales remains committed to the project's utopian vision: free access to all human knowledge for every person on the planet.
The platform has weathered controversies, such as a false edit linking a Robert F. Kennedy aide to assassinations, to maintain high accuracy levels comparable to academic textbooks. Wales's book aims to offer lessons in trust and cooperation, standing in contrast to the toxicity prevalent in much of today's online landscape.
