Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales won the Tech4Good Special Award, for inspiring others to use technology for good. Wikipedia is a not for profit project written and edited by millions of volunteers. It is used by millions of people every day and is the fifth most popular website on the planet.
Commenting on the awards, Jimmy Wales noted the potential of people-led innovation. He said, “the growth of mobile in the developing world is connecting hundreds of millions of people who could never be reached before. They’re coming online for the first time and joining the global conversation; they’re using Twitter or Facebook or Wikipedia, they’re reading newspapers. People are now finally able to get organised against the tyrants that rule over them and the kleptocrats that steal money from them. They begin to gain the opportunity to gain some power, and I think that’s incredible.”
Wikipedia is the 5th most popular website on the planet. It gets over 550 million hits every month, offering millions of people free access to a wealth of knowledge. It is entirely not for profit and maintained by tens of thousands of volunteers, who publish, edit and maintain information in almost 200 languages.
