Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, for the first time in Romania

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is coming to Romania for the first time to hold a conference on how he managed to set up the most accessed online platform in the world.

15 years after the Wikipedia was launched, Jimmy Wales will lecture in Bucharest on March 22^nd within a McCann/ Thiess event presented by Vodafone Romania.

Wales is expected to reveal the philosophy behind Wikipedia and how he succeeded in shaking up the way people around the world have access to so many information by just one click.

“Wikipedia is growing every day, with the same pace as the people’s desire to know more and faster. We couldn’t even imagine 15 years ago that there will be a place where you can find an answer to any question. Hadn’t been for a bold idea and a visionary man who believed in it, we couldn’t have talked about Wikipedia today. That’s why we bring Jimmy Wales in Romania for the first time,” said Bogdan Enoiu, Director General McCann WorldGroup Romania.

Every month, over 80,000 volunteers worldwide are contributing to writing over 7,000 new articles on a daily basis, accessed by over 500 million unique visitors. At present, Wikipedia encompasses more than 36 million articles, available in 280 languages, for free.

Ranked in the Time’s top 100 most influential personalities, Wales is an American entrepreneur, member of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society within Harvard University and member of MIT Center of Collective Intelligence. A true visionary and hi-tech passionate, Wales set up Wikipedia in 2001, starting from a radical idea to imagine ourselves in a world where every single person on the planet has free access to the entire humankind’s knowledge. Wikipedia ranks 5^th among the most accessed online platforms after Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook. It is followed by Amazon, Apple and eBay.

The event is due on March 22^nd, as of 5 p.m. at the Epika Hall, Grand Cinema Baneasa & More din Baneasa Shopping City. The conference is supported by the official sponsor BRD Groupe Société-Générale and by PRO TV, as media sponsor.