Wikipedia founder to speak tonight

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and a UA alumnus, will return to The Capstone on Wednesday, Sept. 8 to discuss his experience in working to launch and maintain the free, open-content encyclopedia that is now a household name.

“I’m excited to return to Alabama. It has been quite a long time since I’ve been to Tuscaloosa. I think it will be fun to walk around the Quad and the campus to see how things have changed. I’m really looking forward to it,” Wales said.

Wales’ visit is the start of the Liberty and Power Lecture Series founded by David Beito, associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences. Wales’ lecture will begin at 7:30 pm in the Ferguson Center Theater. Over the course of the 2010-2011 academic year, the series’ speakers will examine the relationship between government power and individual liberty in recent history.

“History is often written by the victor, but what if this time the story was written by one man who had a lot of experience and knowledge about one aspect of history? This is Dr. Beito’s goal,” said Alina Stefanescu Coryell, project manager of the series.

Coryell said she and Beito chose Wales as their expert to examine the series topic through the lenses of media, technology and the knowledge economy.

“Throughout history, governments have used power to include or exclude certain groups of people and they’ve been able to succeed through various means. Jimmy has had numerous experiences with the censorship and freedom of knowledge offered by Wikipedia, not only from government entities of other countries, but also with those of the academic world,” Coryell said.

“It’s no secret that students go to Wikipedia to learn about a subject and find sources for research, but they don’t dare cite it. Why is that? Why do some academics fear Wikipedia and online peer review? Do they think it will take the expertise out of the information? These are the issues we want to uncover,” Coryell said.

When Beito and Coryell contacted Wales about speaking for the series, Wales said he jumped at the chance.

“I got excited when they asked me to come. This is a topic that is near to my heart. I hope students are able to gain some knowledge about the issue as well as generate some good discussion,” Wales said. “It’s an important topic—our freedom of speech and information—and something we often take for granted. I always enjoy sharing our [Wikipedia’s] experiences with censorship.”

In addition to sharing his experiences with Wikipedia during his lecture entitled, “Power, Liberty, and the Age of Wikipedia,” Wales said he also plans to share more information about how the online encyclopedia works.

“A lot of people have a hard time understanding what we actually are and how we work; I’d like to clear that up,” he said.