A’ight, our weblog is not officially online. But there is somewhat of an urgent need for me to write up today’s DG PuK keynote speech given by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia (as y’all know). The topic is rather broad: ”Wikipedia, Wikia and The Future” (sic!). I guess Jimmy has given this speech a couple of times now, for he never even updated some dates on the slides. Ah, what do you know, he’s some sort of pop idol, so it doesn’t really matter what he talks about. Let’s not focus to much on what he was saying but on how he presented his and apparently the common interest of mankind or, in better words, how he persuaded the audience to embark on his philosphy.
So, there is Wikipedia, there is Wikia, and a search engine like project under the, I assume, working title Wikia Search. We all know Wikipedia, some of us have visited Wikia, and none of us have actually used Wikia Search. My feeling is that there is not a lot there, at least not yet. Jimmy was very excited that Jeremie Miller, who brought us Jabber, is on bord for the new project. OK, that’s one. But it takes a lot more people to bring a Google Killer to life. (Jimmy doesn’t see his project as a threat to Google, particularly since Google is a lot more than just a search engine.) He was reluctant to disclose any details about how Wikia Search will work. It will rely on GPL software, which means all page rank or whatever algorithms are transparent. It will offer open APIs, so anyone can make use of it. And its content will be licensed just the way Wikipedia is. All very honorable steps in building a success story.
Apropos honor. Jimmy is cautious about overrelying on hard- and software. It’s the people, always the people, so, honor to the people. Community of passion in analogy to community of practice comes to mind. Not the least because love and passion are two central issues in Jimmy’s philosophy. Such a universal belief in the greater good of people is unique, somewhat naive, but certainly inspiring.
After the keynote and the usual answers & questions I had the chance to have lunch with Jimmy. My first impression that he’s a genuinely nice guy wasn’t disappointed. There is passion in all he says, that’s for sure. In his own words, literally, he’s just a guy who hangs out with rock stars (Bono, for one) and politicians (Tony Blair etc.). Don’t we all.