Monday, February 4, 2008

Dinner date with Jimmy Wales


Okay for those who don't know who Jimmy Wales is (there were quite a few of my friends who didn't!), he is the founder of Wikipedia. Yes, the very site you would go to if you wanted to know about a career option u are looking at like logistics or to look up what a heinie is.

MJ says that it is not the best site to look up when you want details and research. But its an undisputed fact that wiki is the most sought after.

And yes I was lucky enough to meet the man who founded it and made it possible for one and all to add on to the online encyclopedia.

Jimmy Wales is in the country to address a few universities on various issues regarding the internet. As he was in Chennai, two of my friends and me caught up with him at an informal get together at dinner. Thanks to Kribs else we would have missed out on the oppurtunity.
Seated at a table for 10, Jimbo sat at the head of the table. There were quite a few biggies from the IT industry along with two other reporters.

Krib's introdruction of us as the Crème a la crème journalism students was quite a boost. It was an overwhelming thought to meet Jimbo (his preferred nick) as we didn't know what we would talk about. But he put us at ease by drawing us into the conversation right away.

Discussing the motivations of why one would want to sign up with wikipedia to the problems of handling edits made by mischief-mongers. We covered most of the wiki ground.

Asked if wiki would soon go the video or audio way, he wasn't too keen on it. Citing reasons like difficulty editing such pieces on the basis of bias and information or even updating an audio/video piece. He said the technology for editing this hadn't been developed. He also said that to add on information it did be difficult.
He wasn't too keen on any content being linked to blogs as a source of information due to various reasons. Or adding a podcast. He said they were still in the nascent stage and wiki had a long way to go for all of that.
He also believed that it is easier for a person to read text while multitasking, than it would be to hear a podcast or watch a video.

When asked what his take on the new google software 'knol' which is alleged to resemble wiki. He said he didn't feel threatened in any way as it was not similar to wiki at all. Would it change the cartel of google search w.r.t wiki? He replied that wiki was a non-profit organisation and it really did not matter.

Discussing the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, he played safe and said one couldn't really say if it would work or not at this point in time. He did agree that they were two different companies in terms of work culture and all, but one never knows what could happen. He also said that Google was number 1 as a search engine, but Yahoo mail still has many more users to their credit. gmail doesn't. But he also acknoledged that the gap was fast being bridged.

David Appasamy, Communications Manager of Sify, said "The two companies are so disparate, that its tough to merge the two." According to Appasamy, Yahoo! has been on a decline for the past two years and the bid by Microsoft seems to be an act of desperation from their side.

Well, there were many more things that were spoken about, but more of that when am done writing the story with my colleague Bratatee. Shall post the story, so all you people have nothing to worry about.

You will get the inside story along with pictures. :) Till then goodluck and goodnight.

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