Wikipedia Founder Looks Ahead

BOSTON, Mass (09/12/08) -- The founder of Wikipedia outlined his vision for a new type of search engine Thursday night for a capacity crowd at Suffolk University’s Ford Hall Forum.

Jimmy Wales described his work in creating a Wikipedia-style search engine – one that lets users have a say about the results being generated. The new project, called Wikia Search, allows people to rank, delete and edit results with only a click of the mouse, Wales said.

“You can actually improve the search results in real time,” he said.

Traditional search engines, Wales said, force users to accept whichever links the site views as important. But the Internet should not work that way, he continued. It should allow users to contribute their own ideas.

“Myspace, Facebook, YouTube,” Wales said, listing several popular Web sites. “They’re all read-write. They’re all places where you can actually come participate and help build something for whatever reason you might have. Search is still read only.”

Wikia Search is still in its infancy, Wales said, having just reached its first day with 100,000 search requests.

“That means we’re essentially nonexistent,” he said, “but it is a community project and it’s growing. We’re excited about it.”

Wales also discussed Wikia communities – 6,000 groups each devoted to a different topic. If Wikipedia is a general interest encyclopedia, Wales said, Wikia is like a library with encyclopedias dedicated to specific areas. The number of Wikia communities is growing quickly, Wales said.

During his lecture, he showed the audience the Muppet Wikia, a collection of 15,271 articles all having to do with Muppets.

“It’s basically an encyclopedia of the entire world from the Muppet perspective,” he said.

Journalist Christopher Lydon introduced Wales and led a question and answer session after the lecture. Lydon highlighted the great influence Wikipedia has had on society’s ideas about knowledge.

“The idea of thousands and thousands of people checking, contributing, adding and arguing is in itself a profound revision of our ideology of who we are and who has authority,” Lydon said.

The Web site’s significant impact is what led the Ford Hall Forum to invite Wales to speak, said Alex Minier, the executive director, in a telephone interview. The Forum is the nation’s oldest public lecture series, and it has hosted many influential figures, ranging from Al Gore to Robert Frost to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We essentially try to pick the most compelling thinkers, doers, experts and opinion leaders who are making headlines today,” Minier said. “We try to see who’s out there, who’s making news, who’s on the cutting edge of interesting questions and invite them to speak.”

People of all ages filled the 400-seat auditorium Thursday night, and many expressed great appreciation for Wales’ ideas about the Internet. Bob Defillippi, a management professor at Suffolk University, said Wales is revolutionizing the way people share knowledge.

“This is like having Bill Gates here 20 years ago,” Defillippi said. “I was very moved by having him here.”

Audience member Susan Sered said she loves the way Wales has made knowledge accessible to more people.

“It’s the most democratic way of accumulating information that I’ve ever heard,” Sered said. “He’s one of my heroes.”