Author Archives: Jimmy Wales

Mar 31 2009

Update on Wikia – doing more of what’s working

If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my career, it is to do more of what’s working, and less of what’s not.

In past 24 months, Wikia.com has seen tremendous expansion. Nielsen recently recognized Wikia.com as the fifth fastest growing member community destination in February 2009:

RANK Site Feb 08 Feb 09 % growth
1 Twitter.com 475,000 7,038,000 1382%
2 Zimbio 809,000 2,752,000 240%
3 Facebook 20,043,000 65,704,000 228%
4 Multiply 821,000 2,394,000 192%
5 Wikia 1,381,000 3,758,000 172%
source: Nielsen NetView, 2/09, U.S., Home and Work

Source:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitters-tweet-smell-of-success/ Continue reading →

Jan 20 2009

Jimmy Carter: “Obama can change our reputation in ten minutes”

Note: My daughter recently (December 5th, 2008) had the opportunity to conduct an interview with President Jimmy Carter.  One of her questions to him was about Obama and ended up being about Obama’s speech today.  So I thought I’d post an excerpt.

Kira: With the new president elect Barack Obama, what do you think about him being the new president elect and do you have any advice for him?
Jimmy Carter: Well, I have already talked to his major appointments –  I have talked to the next Secretary of State and the next Security Advisor who will be in the White House with him and I have also yesterday talked with the person who is going to represent him and United States at the United Nations. So, I have already prepared him for some of the things that the Carter Center is doing that he might find helpful. Continue reading →

Feb 28 2008

Free software and social networking

Today at Wikia we have released our social networking features for MediaWiki under the GNU GPL 2.0. The best place to see this running live is at Halopedia, our Halo site.

I am excited about all the stuff going on in this space. With google’s open social initiative, our work in social search and social networking for mediawiki, I think the whole wiki/free culture space is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

By Jimmy Wales • Posted in General
6
Aug 8 2007

My birthdate

So, I notified Britannica about what my birth certificate and driver’s license says, but they refused to change their article unless I was willing to send them copies of the actual documentation! Naturally, I refused to do so.

Fortunately, an enterpising reporter did his homework and so now for the first time the world has a proper source.

I will, nevertheless, still continue to celebrate my birthday as I please. :)

By Jimmy Wales • Posted in General
2
Feb 16 2007

Truth in Numbers

Director Nic Hill is making what looks to be a fabulous film about Wikipedia and Wikipedians worldwide. Truth in Numbers has a wiki at Wikia, and Nic has posted his demo trailer and also his first “vodcast” from the road on his current trip.

He just finished up in China and is headed for Korea. After that he will be meeting me for a week’s travel in India, and then when I am off to Japan he is headed to… well, I forgot. But I am sure you can find out soon enough from the wiki.

Wikipedians may want to bookmark the site and check back often, because Nic and his team are very open to ideas for the film. Just edit the wiki to give ideas. :)