Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia in which the content is generated entirely by users. It is one of the most popular websites in the world, consistently ranking in the top ten most visited sites. According to comScore Media Metrix, it has over 43 million visitors every month.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, spoke last night at The Common Wealth Club in San Francisco. Truth be told, he didn’t really have to. Much of what he said already appears in two articles in, yes, Wikipedia (the article on Mr. Wales and the article on Wikipedia itself).

So, rather than write about Mr. Wales’ speech at the Common Wealth Club, I suppose I could just refer people to Wikipedia.

But Wales said that Wikipedia should not be considered a citable reference or primary source. He told the standing-room-only audience that “when I was in academics, if I tried to cite Encyclopedia Britannica I would have been laughed at and appropriately so.” The same should hold true for Wikipedia, suggested Wales. Wikipedia should be treated merely as a “tertiary” source that serves as a starting point for research, “a source that points people to other things.”

Guided by Wales’ philosophy, I will not refer people to an article in Wikipedia. Instead, I will provide primary information, information that comes directly from Jimmy Wales’ talk. (Perhaps the article on Jimmy Wales in Wikipedia will someday cite this very piece as a reference, pointing people to The Bay Area Intellect. Ah, the irony of Web 2.0.)

Wales began his talk by discussing the origins of Wikipedia. The basic idea grew out of the free software movement. Wales saw that computer programmers were collaborating with each other and creating software that was free for anyone to use. The movement was at first dismissed, but eventually proved its detractors wrong. The software that really runs the Internet today, noted Wales, originated in this remarkable movement.

Wales sought to apply this collaborative model to something other than software. An encyclopedia seemed the obvious choice to him, since it is easily lends itself to collaboration. Wales asked the audience to imagine a collaborative encyclopedia article on the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone working on the article would have a clear vision of what the group was trying to accomplish. The article would have a simple, obvious structure — the history of the bridge, what it is made of, who built it, how much did it cost, etc.

Wales first tried to apply the collaborative model to “Nupedia,” which was an encyclopedia where experts would write the articles for free and volunteer editors would be approved based on their credentials. But the “hurdles to participation were so high,” said Wales, that Nupedia failed. (Wales did not explain what he meant by “hurdles to participation;” presumably, he meant that professionals would not work for free.) Wales then came up with the idea of Wikipedia, an encyclopedia where anyone could write an article and anyone could be an editor, regardless of credentials. Wales’ great fear was that someone else would come up with the same concept and beat him to the punch. That did not happen.

A critical question for a printed encyclopedia is what to include and what to exclude. Not so for Wikipedia, since it is online. Wales said that Wikipedia aims to be as comprehensive as possible, emphasizing that the space limitations imposed on hard-bound volumes do not constrict it. Wikipedia does have limitations, however. The main limitation is verifiability. Wikipedia is not a forum for original research and writing. It will only include articles that can be verified by references to other sources.

Wales spent a great deal of time discussing how Wikipedia insures the accuracy of articles given that practically anyone at all can visit Wikipedia and change the content. He noted that, contrary to popular belief, the articles are not generated by millions of people adding one sentence at a time. What actually happens is that a small group of people, knowledgeable about a particular topic, generate an article, each person adding a substantial amount of text. This small group of people monitors the accuracy of what is written, each member of the group checking what other members write. The group also monitors, and corrects when necessary, the phrases or sentences added by a stray individual.

Interestingly, Wales claimed that it was not difficult to insure and maintain the accuracy of articles on significant topics. That is because, for such topics, there is generally a dedicated group of volunteer editors continually monitoring what is being written. For less important matters, Wales conceded that it was a challenge to insure and maintain accuracy, since few people ever check what is written about them.

Wales took pride in the fact that Wikipedia has become a worldwide phenomenon. He noted that, while there were 1.8 million entries in English, there were 4.2 million entries in other languages.

Not all countries, however, welcome Wikipedia. Wales said that in China, the government attempts to completely block it. Wales considers this foolish and is going to China in September to try to persuade the government to unblock it. Right now, he said, “the only way to exist in China is to agree to censor. And we are not going to do that. Ever.”

Wales closed his talk by stating that Wikipedia’s ultimate goal is to provide “free access to the sum of all human knowledge for every single person on the planet.” Grandiose? Yes. Articles contained in an encyclopedia — any encyclopedia — do not impart knowledge, but only information. Nevertheless, Wikipedia, despite its obvious faults, is a remarkable accomplishment. We can all hope for the day when no country prevents its citizens from learning from, and contributing to, this free, collaborative, online source of information.

Just in case a volunteer editor of Wikipedia decides to use this piece as a reference for the Wikipedia article on Jimmy Wales, or for the article on Wikipedia itself, I thought it would be helpful if I made the citation conveniently available by putting it here: Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, Speaks at The Common Wealth Club, TheBayAreaIntellect.com (July 2007).