Jimmy Wales, the American co-founder of Wikipedia, turns 60 on Friday, August 7, 2026. The birthday is being marked in Danish media with a look back at how the online encyclopedia made reference knowledge free to use.
Avisen Danmark, in an article distributed by the news agency Ritzau, reports that Wales reaches the milestone on Friday. The outlet notes that the online encyclopedia was created 25 years ago by Wales together with co-founder Larry Sanger.
The same article points out that many Danes searching online for a date or a historical event end up on Wikipedia. The site receives millions of visitors worldwide every day, according to Avisen Danmark. Weekendavisen has reported that Wales and Sanger founded Wikipedia in 2001 with the aim of producing neutral, balanced entries for everyone.
According to Avisen Danmark, Wales said at a TED Talk in 2005 that the project began with the idea that everyone in the world should have free access to all knowledge. The stated plan was a living, multilingual reference work built from material supplied by volunteers.
Anyone can create an account and add content, provided it can be verified. New material must come from reliable sources, and claims that can be disputed require citations. The rules are intended to secure a principle of neutrality, so entries do not carry extreme viewpoints.
Personal opinions turned out not to be the largest problem, Avisen Danmark writes. The bigger issue was users adding incorrect information. At the 2005 TED Talk, Wales said the main divide was not between the political left and right, but between the careless, whom he called idiots, and the thoughtful.
Funding and staff
Wikipedia is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation and is not tied to commercial interests, according to Avisen Danmark. Funding comes from donations by private individuals, foundations and similar contributors.
In the first years, running the site cost around 5,000 dollars a month, with one full-time employee. That corresponds to just under 33,000 kroner at the current exchange rate, the outlet notes.
Avisen Danmark reports that Wikipedia now has 685 employees in 44 countries and a budget of 240 million dollars, or close to 1.6 billion kroner.
Wales was born in Huntsville in the American state of Alabama. He moved to London in 2012 and became a British citizen in 2019, according to the same report.
He married Kate Garvey in 2012 and has two daughters with her. Wales also has a daughter from an earlier marriage.
