123-404: Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales , is an American Internet entrepreneur , webmaster , and former financial trader . He is a co-founder of the non-profit đź’•, Misplaced Pages , and the for-profit wiki hosting service Fandom (formerly Wikia). He has worked on other online projects, including Bomis , Nupedia , WikiTribune , and WT Social . Wales
246-690: A Master of Real Estate Development program. one of the few in the Southeast. The program has filled a void of professional real estate education in Alabama. Modern Healthcare ranked Auburn University's Physicians Executive M.B.A. (PEMBA) program in the College of Business ninth in the nation among all degree programs for physician executives, according to the Journal's May 2006 issue. Among M.B.A. programs tailored specifically for physicians, AU's program
369-417: A web portal known for featuring erotic photographs. Bomis provided the initial funding for the free peer-reviewed encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003). On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Misplaced Pages, a free open-content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity. As its public profile grew, Wales became its promoter and spokesman. Though he is historically credited as
492-538: A " Labour sympathizer". In 2015, he offered to help Ed Miliband with the Labour Party's social media strategy, but Miliband turned him down. In 2015, Wales signed up as the committee chair for Democrat Lawrence Lessig 's 2016 presidential campaign . In 2016, Wales and eleven other business leaders signed on to an open letter to American voters urging them not to vote for Donald Trump in that year's presidential election . In May 2017, Wales said on Quora that he
615-727: A 2005 memoir for Slashdot that "the idea of an open-source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis. Of course, other people had had the idea", adding, "the actual development of this encyclopedia was the task he gave me to work on." Sanger worked on and promoted both the Nupedia and Misplaced Pages projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002; Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as "chief organizer" of Misplaced Pages on March 1 of that year. Early on, Bomis supplied
738-572: A PhD, something he ascribed to boredom . In 1994, Wales took a job with Chicago Options Associates , a futures and options trading firm in Chicago, Illinois. Wales has described himself as having been addicted to the Internet from an early stage, writing computer code during his leisure time. During his studies in Alabama, he had become an obsessive player of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs)—a type of virtual role-playing game —and thereby experienced
861-466: A central authority. Wales reconsidered Hayek's essay in the 1990s while reading about the open source movement , which advocated for the collective development and free distribution of software . He was particularly moved by " The Cathedral and the Bazaar ", an essay which was later adapted into a book of the same name , by one of the founders of the movement, Eric S. Raymond , as it "opened [his] eyes to
984-457: A child, Wales enjoyed reading. When he was three, in 1968, his mother bought a World Book Encyclopedia from a door-to-door salesman. As he grew up and learned to read, it became an object of reverence, but Wales soon discovered that the World Book had shortcomings: No matter how much was in it, there were many more things that were not. World Book sent out stickers for owners to paste on
1107-614: A co-founder, he has disputed this, declaring himself the sole founder. Wales serves on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, the charity that he helped establish to operate Misplaced Pages, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat. Wales gives an annual "State of the Wiki" address at the Wikimania conference. For his role in creating Misplaced Pages, Time named him one of " The 100 Most Influential People in
1230-419: A community checking and rechecking all facts". In October 2019, Wales launched an ad-free social network, WT Social . The Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression is a UK-based charity established by Wales to fight against human rights violations in the field of freedom of expression . Wales founded the charity after receiving a prize from the leader of Dubai , which he felt he could not accept given
1353-820: A few other older buildings, is the Shelby Center for Engineering Technology. Phase I of the Shelby Center opened in the Spring of 2008, with regular classes being held starting with the Summer 2008 term. A new Student Center opened in 2008. In recent years, the university has been replacing or renovating older buildings. Completed in August 2017, the Mell Classroom Building was attached to the Ralph Brown Draughon Library, offering
SECTION 10
#17327732429871476-625: A former vice president and general manager at eBay , on June 5, 2006. Penchina declared Wikia to have reached profitability in September 2009. In addition to his role at Wikia, Wales is a public speaker represented by the Harry Walker Agency. He has also participated in a celebrity endorsement campaign for the Swiss watchmaker Maurice Lacroix . On November 4, 2011, Wales delivered an hour-long address at The Sage Gateshead in
1599-640: A đź’• of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language,' that's who I am. That's what I am doing. That's my life goal." In May 2010, the BBC reported that Wales had relinquished many of his technical privileges on Wikimedia Commons (a Misplaced Pages sister project that hosts much of its multimedia content) after criticism by the project's volunteer community over what they saw as Wales's hasty and undemocratic approach to deleting sexually explicit images he believed "appeal solely to prurient interests". In mid-2003, Wales set up
1722-606: A new flexible learning space. A brand-new 89,000 square foot building for the school of nursing was also finished in 2017; it features active learning classrooms, skill and simulation labs, and public gathering areas. In 2019, two significant projects were finished: the Brown Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center, which includes classrooms, student study spaces, a wind-tunnel laboratory, meeting spaces, and departmental spaces for professional development and labor relations; and
1845-504: A noted U.S. pioneer in wireless communication and Auburn alumnus, made a $ 25 million gift to the college and announced plans to spearhead an additional $ 150 million in support. This gave Auburn the first Bachelor of Wireless Engineering degree program in the United States. Auburn University was the first university in the Southeast to offer the bachelor of software engineering degree and the master of software engineering degree. Auburn
1968-564: A panel at a Clinton Global Initiative University conference held at Arizona State University , along with John McCain , Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Harvard University student Shree Bose . The topic of discussion was "the age of participation" and the ability of an increasingly large number of citizens to "express their own opinions, pursue their own educations, and launch their own enterprises." Wales exhorted young people to use social media to try to bring about societal change, and compared government suppression of
2091-518: A personal political philosophy at the time of the interview, Wales labeled himself a libertarian , qualifying his remark by referring to the Libertarian Party as "lunatics", and citing "freedom, liberty, basically individual rights, that idea of dealing with other people in a manner that is not initiating force against them" as his guiding principles. In a 2014 tweet, he expressed support for open borders . An interview with Wales served as
2214-437: A plan with more declining balance to use at standalone restaurants and food trucks, or a combination of both. Campus dining utilizes the popular mobile food ordering application, Grubhub . Auburn campus dining is engaged in sustainability practices such as minimizing food waste and reducing food packaging , and campus dining also participates in a local campus community garden for both sustainability and freshness. Auburn
2337-471: A practice generally discouraged on Misplaced Pages. In a 2004 interview with Slashdot , Wales outlined his vision for Misplaced Pages: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." Although his formal designation is board member and chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wales's social capital within
2460-426: A quality comparable to that of professional encyclopedias. The idea was to have thousands of volunteers writing articles for an online encyclopedia in all languages. Initially, we found ourselves organizing the work in a very top-down, structured, academic, old-fashioned way. It was no fun for the volunteer writers because we had a lot of academic peer review committees who would criticize articles and give feedback. It
2583-656: A request from the People's Republic of China to censor "politically sensitive" Misplaced Pages articles—other corporate Internet companies, such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft , had already yielded to Chinese government pressure. Wales stated that he would rather see companies such as Google adhere to Misplaced Pages's policy of freedom of information. In 2010, Wales criticized whistle-blower website WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange , saying that their publication of Afghan war documents "could be enough to get someone killed"; furthermore, he expressed irritation at their use of
SECTION 20
#17327732429872706-507: A result, in 1872 the school was renamed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. Under the act's provisions, land-grant institutions were also supposed to teach military tactics and train officers for the United States military. In the late 19th century, most students at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama were enrolled in the cadet program, learning military tactics and training to become officers. Each county in
2829-478: A total of 4,800 residents. On-campus residents are served by 79 resident assistants, 13 housing ambassadors and many other graduate assistants and full-time university employees. Auburn's one-of-a-kind campus recreation center features a five-story cardio tower, one-third of a mile indoor running track, basketball courts, an outdoor leisure pool, cardio and fitness zones, a rock climbing wall, weight training areas and outdoor recreation spaces. Athletic Business named
2952-481: A university-preparatory school in Huntsville, graduating at sixteen. He said that the school was expensive for his family, but that "education was always a passion in my household ... you know, the very traditional approach to knowledge and learning and establishing that as a base for a good life." He received his bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University in 1986. He began his Auburn education when he
3075-510: A web portal featuring user-generated webrings and, for a time, erotic photographs. Wales described it as a "guy-oriented search engine" with a market similar to that of Maxim magazine; the Bomis venture did not ultimately turn out to be successful. Though Bomis had at the time struggled to make money, it provided Wales with the funding to pursue his greater passion, an online encyclopedia. While moderating an online discussion group devoted to
3198-486: Is altruistic , which he defines as "sacrificing your own values for others", and he states that the idea that "participating in a benevolent effort to share information is somehow destroying your own values makes no sense to me". On December 11, 2007, Wales testified before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs . He also submitted written testimony to
3321-484: Is "the dumbest controversy in the history of the world". In late 2005, Wales edited his biographical entry on the English Misplaced Pages . Writer Rogers Cadenhead drew attention to logs showing that in his edits to the page, Wales had removed references to Sanger as the co-founder of Misplaced Pages. Sanger commented that "having seen edits like this, it does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history. But this
3444-412: Is a centrist and a gradualist , and believes "that slow step-by-step change is better and more sustainable and allows us to test new things with a minimum of difficult disruption in society." In May 2022, Wales said that he did not identify with any particular political label. In May 2024, in the run-up to the 2024 United Kingdom general election , he was a joint signatory of a public letter of support for
3567-438: Is a futile process because, in our brave new world of transparent activity and maximum communication, the truth will out." Wales was also observed to have modified references to Bomis in a way that was characterized as downplaying the sexual nature of some of his former company's products. Though Wales argued that his modifications were solely intended to improve the accuracy of the content, he apologized for editing his biography,
3690-484: Is a leading institution nationally as it pertains to addressing and solving student food insecurity . All Auburn students have access to the Campus Food Pantry in the event students face food insecurity. Auburn's initial Campus Master plan was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in 1929. For most of the early history of Auburn, boarding houses and barracks made up most of the student housing. Even into
3813-490: Is a serious reconsideration of the U.K. extradition treaty that would allow this sort of nonsense in the first place." In August 2013, Wales criticized UK Prime Minister David Cameron 's plan for an Internet porn filter, saying that the idea was "ridiculous". In November 2013, Wales also commented on the Snowden affair , describing Edward Snowden as "a hero" whom history would judge "very favourably"; additionally, Wales said
Jimmy Wales - Misplaced Pages Continue
3936-760: Is also part of the complex. Completed in August 2022, the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center combines instructional and laboratory space with operational food venues and hotel spaces in which students can obtain experiential real-world training. The new college of education building, scheduled to open in 2024 and located on the site of the former Hill dorms, is one of the projects currently under construction. This building will include collaborative classrooms, instructional laboratories, up-to-date technology, and administrative spaces for faculty and staff. The new 265,000 square foot $ 200 million STEM+Ag Complex will replace older STEM-related and agricultural science facilities on
4059-478: Is also the second oldest university flight program in the United States. The Old Rotation on campus is the oldest continuous agricultural experiment in the Southeast, and third oldest in the United States, dating from 1896. In addition, the work of David Bransby on the use of switchgrass as a biofuel was the source of its mention in the 2006 State of the Union Address . The university recently began
4182-412: Is essential for protecting the human rights of millions of people around the world." In May 2022, in response to Elon Musk's proposed acquisition of Twitter , Wales said that "I think he's got some good and bad ideas, based on his public statements", adding that "On the other hand, Twitter in five years' time could be much better than it is today, or Twitter could be dead in five years' time, depending on
4305-588: Is famous for harassment. Stop and think about why." In November 2019, Wales accused Twitter of giving preferential treatment to high-profile figures such as Trump and Elon Musk for not banning or blocking them for their controversial statements. In May 2020, Wales criticized Trump for threatening to regulate social media companies. In September 2021, Wales said that Facebook and Twitter should combat misinformation and abuse on their platforms by deploying volunteer moderators to monitor controversial posts. In October 2021, Wales said that "Protecting strong encryption
4428-726: Is governed by the Auburn University Board of Trustees as a member of the Auburn University system. The Alabama Legislature chartered the institution as the East Alabama Male College on February 1, 1856, coming under the guidance of the Methodist Church in 1859. Its first president was Reverend William J. Sasnett , and the school opened its doors in 1859 to a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten. Auburn's early history
4551-656: Is inextricably linked with the Civil War and the Reconstruction -era South . Classes were held in "Old Main" until the college was closed due to the war when most of the students and faculty left to enlist. The campus was a training ground for the Confederate Army, and "Old Main" served as a hospital for Confederate wounded. To commemorate Auburn's contribution to the Civil War, a cannon lathe used for
4674-427: Is multi-day series of programs taking place over the first days of each semester period designed to welcome both new and returning students. Hey Day is one of Auburn's most longstanding traditions, dating back to World War II, where the entire campus community wears nametags and greet one another. Only 11% of Auburn students qualify for a federal Pell grant , even though Alabama has one of the highest poverty rates in
4797-565: Is one of the state's two flagship public universities. The university is one of 146 U.S. universities classified among " R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity ". Auburn was chartered in 1856, as East Alabama Male College , a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South . In 1872, under the Morrill Act , it became the state's first land-grant university and
4920-489: Is primarily arranged in a grid-like pattern with several distinct building groups. The northern section of the central campus (bounded by Magnolia Ave. and Thach Ave.) contains most of the College of Engineering buildings, the Lowder business building, and the older administration buildings. The middle section of the central campus (bounded by Thach Ave. and Roosevelt Dr.) contains the College of Liberal Arts (except fine arts) and
5043-808: Is ranked second. One of the leading literary journals in the region, the Southern Humanities Review has been published at the university by members of the English faculty, graduate students in English, and the Southern Humanities Council since 1967. Auburn hosts the Encyclopedia of Alabama ' s editorial offices and servers and the Alabama Humanities Foundation holds copyright to the encyclopedia's original content. In 2019, Auburn
Jimmy Wales - Misplaced Pages Continue
5166-549: Is the case with some CEOs hired by companies started by entrepreneurs. Auburn University Auburn University ( AU or Auburn ) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama , United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a total enrollment of more than 34,000 students with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second-largest university in Alabama . It
5289-507: The TechCrunch media outlet interviewed Wales on the subject, as he had been invited by Google to join an advisory committee that the corporation had formed as an addition to the formal process that the ECJ requested from Google to manage such requests. The May 2014 ECJ ruling required swift action from Google to implement a process that allowed people to directly contact the corporation about
5412-585: The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), a non-profit organization founded in St. Petersburg, Florida , and later headquartered in San Francisco, California. All intellectual property rights and domain names about Misplaced Pages were moved to the new foundation, whose purpose is to support the encyclopedia and its sister projects. Wales has been a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees since it
5535-581: The 1970s, boarding houses were still available in the community. It was not until the Great Depression that Auburn began to construct the first buildings on campus that were residence halls in the modern sense. As the university gradually shifted away from agricultural and military instruction to more of an academic institution, more and more dorms began to replace the barracks and boarding houses. Auburn's on-campus student housing consists of 30 residence halls in nine residential neighborhoods, housing
5658-490: The 93rd best national university overall in the U.S., tied for 47th among public universities, and 164th in "Best Value Schools". USNWR graduate school rankings USNWR departmental rankings Auburn is a charter member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), currently composed of 15 of the largest Southern universities in the U.S. Among the other 12 pre-2024 merger peer public universities, Auburn
5781-678: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, and football was played as a school sport. Eventually, football replaced polo as the main sport on campus. The college was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1899, largely because of Broun's influence. On October 1, 1918, nearly all of API's able-bodied male students 18 or older voluntarily joined the United States Army for short-lived military careers on campus. The student soldiers numbered 878, according to API President Charles Thach, and formed
5904-518: The College of Education, mostly within Haley Center. The southern section of the central campus (bounded by Roosevelt Dr. and Samford Ave.) contains most of the buildings related to the College of Science and Mathematics, as well as fine arts buildings. Several erratic building spurts, beginning in the 1950s, have resulted in some exceptions to the subject clusters as described above. Growing interaction issues between pedestrians and vehicles led to
6027-456: The Internet to a human rights violation. On May 26, 2014, Google appointed Wales to serve on a seven-member committee on privacy in response to Google v. Gonzalez , which led to Google's being inundated with requests to remove websites from their search results. Wales said he wanted the committee to be viewed as "a blue-ribbon panel " by lawmakers and for the committee to advise the lawmakers as well as Google. In 2017, Wales announced that he
6150-451: The Nupedia model was not going to work. In January 2001, Sanger was introduced to the concept of a wiki by extreme programming enthusiast Ben Kovitz after explaining to Kovitz the slow pace of growth Nupedia endured as a result of its onerous submission process. Kovitz suggested that adopting the wiki model would allow editors to contribute simultaneously and incrementally throughout the project, thus breaking Nupedia's bottleneck. Sanger
6273-559: The Senate Committee entitled "E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration and Access". On May 14, 2014, Wales strongly reacted to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)'s ruling on the right of individuals to request the removal of information from Google's search results . He stated to the BBC that the ruling was "one of the most wide-sweeping internet censorship rulings that I've ever seen". In early June 2014,
SECTION 50
#17327732429876396-503: The State of Alabama for financial reasons. The Reconstruction-era Alabama government placed the school under the provisions of the Morrill Act as a land-grant institution , the first in the South to be established separately from the state university. This act provided for 240,000 acres (971 km ) of Federal land to be sold to provide funds for an agricultural and mechanical school. As
6519-624: The U.S. Marine Corps . Auburn is one of only seven universities in the Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Program, and has historically been one of the top ROTC producers of Navy nuclear submarine officers. In addition to the ROTC graduates commissioned through Auburn, two master's degree alumni from Auburn, four-star generals Hugh Shelton and Richard Myers , served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in
6642-632: The UK Labour Party. Wales cites Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek 's essay, " The Use of Knowledge in Society ", which he read as an undergraduate, as "central" to his thinking about "how to manage the Misplaced Pages project". Hayek argued that information is decentralized —that each individual only knows a small fraction of what is known collectively—and that as a result, decisions are best made by those with local knowledge, rather than by
6765-520: The US public "would have never approved [the] sweeping surveillance program [publicized by Snowden]", had they been informed or asked about it. During the Gamergate controversy in 2014, in response to an email from a computer science student claiming that Misplaced Pages has a "complete lack of any sort of attempt at neutrality regarding Gamergate", Wales allegedly wrote: "It is very difficult for me to buy into
6888-597: The United Kingdom to launch the 2011 Free Thinking Festival on BBC Radio Three . His speech, which was entitled "The Future of the Internet", was largely devoted to Misplaced Pages. Twenty days later, on November 24, Wales appeared on the British topical debate television program Question Time . In May 2012, it was reported that Wales was advising the UK government on how to make taxpayer-funded academic research available on
7011-976: The United States. Less than 5% of the student population is Black, even though 30% of the college-age population in Alabama is Black. In 2021, Auburn opened the $ 26 million Central Dining Hall spanning 48,000 square feet with capacity for more than 800 seats and eight different meal stations. Outside of the Central Dining Hall, Auburn students have a wide array of dining options including other dining halls in Foy Hall and The Village residential neighborhood. Students may also visit popular restaurant chains like Chick-fil-A and Starbucks in addition to locally owned and operated food trucks at various locations across campus. All Auburn students have access to meal plans, accessible to use at all on-campus dining locations. Students may choose to purchase plans with meal swipes for access to campus dining dollars or opt for
7134-579: The WMF's Knowledge Engine project as a conflict of interest for Wales, whose business Wikia might benefit from having the WMF spend a lot of money on research in respect to search. Wikia attempted to develop a search engine but it was closed in 2009. In 2004, Wales and then-fellow member of the WMF Board of Trustees Angela Beesley founded the for-profit company Wikia . Wikia is a wiki farm —a collection of individual wikis on different subjects, all hosted on
7257-405: The Misplaced Pages community has accorded him a status that has been characterized as benevolent dictator , constitutional monarch and spiritual leader . In two interviews with The Guardian in 2014, Wales elaborated on his role on Misplaced Pages. In the first interview, he said that while he "has always rejected" the term "benevolent dictator", he does refer to himself as the "constitutional monarch". In
7380-414: The Misplaced Pages initiative. Many of the early contributors to the site were familiar with the model of the free culture movement , and, like Wales, many of them sympathized with the open-source movement . Wales has said that he was initially so worried about the concept of open editing, where anyone can edit the encyclopedia, that he would awaken during the night and monitor what was being added. Nonetheless,
7503-468: The Misplaced Pages project has seen him flying internationally on a near-constant basis as its public face. When Larry Sanger left Misplaced Pages, Wales's approach was different from Sanger's. Wales was fairly hands-off. Despite involvement in other projects, Wales has denied intending to reduce his role within Misplaced Pages, telling The New York Times in 2008 that "Dialing down is not an option for me ... Not to be too dramatic about it, but, 'to create and distribute
SECTION 60
#17327732429877626-614: The World " in 2006. Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama , on August 7, 1966; however, his birth certificate lists his date of birth as August 8. His father, Jimmy Sr., was a grocery store manager, while his mother, Doris Ann ( née Dudley ), and his grandmother, Erma, ran the House of Learning, a small private school in the tradition of the one-room schoolhouse , where Wales and his three siblings received their early education. As
7749-636: The academic section of the Student Army Training Corps. The vocational section was composed of enlisted men sent to Auburn for training in radio and mechanics. The students received honorable discharges two months later following the Armistice that ended World War I . API struggled through the Great Depression , having scrapped an extensive expansion program by then-President Bradford Knapp . Faculty salaries were cut drastically, and enrollment decreased along with state appropriations to
7872-438: The cadre of early editors helped create a robust, self-regulating community that has proven conducive to the growth of the project. In a talk at SXSW in 2016, he recalled that he wrote the first words on Misplaced Pages: " Hello world ", a phrase computer programmers often use to test new software. Sanger developed Misplaced Pages in its early phase and guided the project. The broader idea he originally ascribes to other people, remarking in
7995-411: The case of truthful, non-defamatory information obtained legally, I think there is no possibility of any defensible "right" to censor what other people are saying. It is important to avoid language like "data" because we aren't talking about "data"—we are talking about the suppression of knowledge. Wales then provided further explanation, drawing a comparison with Misplaced Pages: "You do not have a right to use
8118-489: The closure of a significant portion of Thach Avenue to vehicular traffic in 2004. A similarly sized portion of Roosevelt Drive was also closed to vehicles in 2005. In an effort to make a more appealing walkway, these two sections have been converted from asphalt to concrete. The general movement towards a pedestrian only campus is ongoing, but is often limited by the requirements for emergency and maintenance vehicular access. The current period of ongoing construction began around
8241-667: The college ranked 67th among all engineering programs. Auburn's Economics Department (formerly in the College of Business, now in the College of Liberal Arts) was ranked 123rd in the world in 1999 by the Journal of Applied Econometrics . Auburn was rated ahead of such international powerhouses as INSEAD in France (141st) and the London Business School (146th). Auburn's MBA Program in the College of Business has annually been ranked by U.S. News & World Report magazine in
8364-545: The college. By the end of the 1930s, Auburn had essentially recovered but then faced new conditions caused by World War II . As war approached in 1940, there was a great shortage of engineers and scientists needed for the defense industries. The U.S. Office of Education asked all American engineering schools to join in a "crash" program to produce what was often called "instant engineers". API became an early participant in an activity that eventually became Engineering, Science, and Management War Training (ESMWT). Fully funded by
8487-688: The cover feature of the June 2007 issue of the libertarian magazine Reason . In that profile, he described his political views as "center-right". In a 2011 interview with The Independent , he expressed sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy London protesters, saying, "You don't have to be a socialist to say it's not right to take money from everybody and give it to a few rich people. That's not free enterprise." Dan Hodges in The Daily Telegraph has described Wales as
8610-482: The decisions he makes." During the COVID-19 pandemic , Wales stated on Misplaced Pages that the consensus in the mainstream media surrounding the lab leak theory seemed to have shifted from "this is highly unlikely, and only conspiracy theorists are pushing this narrative" to "this is one of the plausible hypotheses." Wales has visited Israel over ten times. He has said that he is "a strong supporter of Israel". In 2015, he
8733-455: The education of engineers at the undergraduate level, and in recent years has been ranked as high as the 10th largest undergraduate engineering program in the U.S. in terms of the number of undergraduate degrees awarded on annual basis. The Ginn College of Engineering is now focused on expanding the graduate programs, and was recently ranked 60th nationally university with doctoral programs in engineering by U.S. News & World Report . Last year,
8856-735: The financial backing for Misplaced Pages, and entertained the notion of placing advertisements on Misplaced Pages before costs were reduced with Sanger's departure and plans for a non-profit foundation were advanced instead. Wales has said that he is the sole founder of Misplaced Pages, and has publicly disputed Sanger's designation as a co-founder. Sanger and Wales were identified as co-founders at least as early as September 2001 by The New York Times and as founders in Misplaced Pages's first press release in January 2002. In August of that year, Wales identified himself as "co-founder" of Misplaced Pages. Sanger assembled on his personal webpage an assortment of links that appear to confirm
8979-435: The first African-American student, Harold A. Franklin, who had to sue the university to gain admission to the graduate school and who was denied a degree after he completed his master's thesis; he was belatedly awarded the master's in history in 2020. The first degree granted to an African-American was in 1967. According to Auburn University's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, African-Americans comprise 1,828 of
9102-477: The five-year period following the end of the war, enrollment at API more than doubled. Recognizing the school had moved beyond its agricultural and mechanical roots, it was granted university status by the Alabama Legislature in 1960 and renamed Auburn University, a name that better expressed the varied academic programs and expanded curriculum that the school had been offering for years. However, it
9225-479: The former Hill site. It will offer new space for cutting-edge wet and dry research labs, collaboration spaces, shared lab support spaces, and instructional labs for six departments. The complex is scheduled to open in 2025. The STEM + Ag complex represents Auburn's largest-ever investment in academic facilities. Academics at the university are organized into 13 colleges and a graduate school : The 2024 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranks Auburn as tied for
9348-407: The foundation was both the "dumbest and the smartest" thing he had done. On one hand, he estimated that Misplaced Pages was worth US$ 3 billion but on the other hand, he weighed his belief that the donation made its success possible. In 2020, Wales said that "I view my role as being very much like the modern monarch of the UK : no real power, but the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and
9471-563: The foundation, saying that Wales accounted for every expense and that, for items for which he lacked receipts, he paid out of his pocket; in private, Devouard upbraided Wales for "constantly trying to rewrite the past". Later in March 2008, former Novell computer scientist Jeff Merkey said that Wales had edited Merkey's Misplaced Pages entry to make it more favorable in return for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation, an allegation Wales dismissed as "nonsense". In early 2016, Misplaced Pages editors perceived
9594-427: The government and coordinated by Auburn's Dean of Engineering, college-level courses were given in concentrated, mainly evening classes at sites across Alabama. Taken by thousands of adults – including many women – these courses were highly beneficial in filling the wartime ranks of civilian engineers, chemists, and other technical professionals. The ESMWT also benefited API by providing employment for faculty members when
9717-429: The integrity of Nupedia's information and damage the credibility of the encyclopedia. Despite this the wiki project, dubbed " Misplaced Pages " by Sanger, went live at a separate domain five days after its creation. Originally, Bomis planned to make Misplaced Pages a profitable business. Sanger initially saw Misplaced Pages primarily as a tool to aid Nupedia development. Wales feared that, at worst, it might produce "complete rubbish". To
9840-465: The internet at no cost. His role reportedly involved working as "an unpaid advisor on crowdsourcing and opening up policymaking", and advising the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the UK research councils on distributing research. In January 2014, it was announced that Wales had joined The People's Operator as co-chair of the mobile phone network. On March 21, 2014, Wales spoke on
9963-733: The last decade. Both officers received their commissions elsewhere, and attended Auburn for an M.S. (Shelton) and M.B.A. (Myers). Auburn has graduated six astronauts (including T.K. Mattingly of Apollo 13 fame) and one current and one former director of the Kennedy Space Center . 1972 Auburn Mechanical Engineering graduate Jim Kennedy, currently director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, was previously deputy director of NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Several hundred Auburn graduates, primarily engineers and scientists, currently work directly for NASA or NASA contractors. Hundreds of Auburn engineers worked for NASA at MSFC during
10086-606: The law to prevent Misplaced Pages editors from writing truthful information, nor do you have a right to use the law to prevent Google from publishing truthful information." Wales concluded with an indication of his ideal outcome: "A part of the outcome should be the very strong implementation of a right to free speech in Europe—essentially the language of the First Amendment in the U.S." The January/February 2006 issue of Maximum PC reported that Wales refused to comply with
10209-668: The manufacture of cannons for the Confederate Army and recovered from Selma, Alabama , was presented to the college in 1952 by brothers of the Delta Chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. It sits today on the lawn next to Samford Hall . The school reopened in 1866 after the end of the Civil War, its only closure. In 1872, control of the institution was transferred from the Methodist Church to
10332-405: The most successful fundraising campaign in school history. Auburn University is ranked 6th most LGBTQ-unfriendly campus by The Princeton Review in its 2020 rankings of the 386 American campuses that it surveys. Auburn's College of Architecture pioneered the nation's first interior architecture degree program; its dual degree Architecture & Interior Architecture degree was the first in
10455-482: The name " wiki ": "What they're doing is not really a wiki. The essence of wiki is a collaborative editing process". In 2012, the Home Secretary of the UK was petitioned by Wales regarding his opposition to the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer to the US. After an agreement was reached to avoid the extradition, Wales commented, "This is very exciting news, and I'm pleased to hear it ... What needs to happen next
10578-778: The nation's first FAA approval to operate a new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight School as part of the Auburn University Aviation Center. The College of Business's Department of Aviation Management and Supply Chain Management is the only program in the country to hold dual accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI). Created over 65 years ago, Auburn's flight program
10701-460: The nation. Of special mention is the School's Rural Studio program, founded by the late Samuel Mockbee . The Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has a 134-year tradition of engineering education, consistently ranking in the nation's largest 20 engineering programs in terms of numbers of engineers graduating annually. The college has a combined enrollment of close to 4,000. In 2001, Samuel L. Ginn ,
10824-448: The notion that gamergate is 'really about ethics in journalism' when every single experience I have personally had with it involved pro-gg people insulting, threatening, doxxing , etc." and that the movement "has been permanently tarnished and highjacked [sic] by a handful of people who are not what you would hope." Wales defended his comments in response to backlash from supporters of Gamergate, saying that "it isn't about what I believe. Gg
10947-501: The opening of a new Graduate Business Building, which includes flexible classrooms and lecture halls, student study pods, team areas, and offices for the college's MBA program. Most recent developments include an $ 83 million academic classroom and laboratory complex with a seating capacity of 2,000 students in 20 adaptable classrooms and laboratories, six EASL classrooms, and five lecture halls.A new 800-seat central dining hall with reservable dining and study areas as well as retail options
11070-400: The orientation to college life and Auburn. Successfully Orienting Students is designed for college students transferring into Auburn from another academic institution. First-year Auburn students also have the opportunity to participate in seminars with other first-year students and learning communities. Other prominent campus events and activities include Welcome Week and Hey Day. Welcome Week
11193-608: The pages to update the encyclopedia, and Wales was careful to put the stickers to work, stating, "I joke that I started as a kid revising the encyclopedia by stickering the one my mother bought." During an interview in 2005 with Brian Lamb , Wales described his childhood private school as a " Montessori -influenced philosophy of education", where he "spent lots of hours poring over the Britannica and World Book Encyclopedias ". There were only four other children in Wales's grade , so
11316-612: The peak years of the "space race" in the 1960s, when the Saturn and Apollo moon programs were in full development. Auburn University owns and operates the 423-acre (1.71 km ) Auburn University Regional Airport , providing flight education and fuel, maintenance, and airplane storage. The Auburn University Aviation Department is fully certified by the FAA as an Air Agency with examining authority for private, commercial, instrument, and multiengine courses. In April 2015, Auburn University received
11439-514: The philosophy "colours everything I do and think", he has said, "I think I do a better job—than a lot of people who self-identify as Objectivists—of not pushing my point of view on other people." When asked by Brian Lamb about Rand's influence on him in his appearance on C-SPAN 's Q&A in September 2005, Wales cited integrity and "the virtue of independence" as personally important. When asked if he could trace "the Ayn Rand connection" to
11562-428: The philosophy of Objectivism in the early 1990s, Wales had encountered Larry Sanger , a skeptic of the philosophy. The two had engaged in detailed debate on the subject on Wales' list and then on Sanger's, eventually meeting offline to continue the debate and becoming friends. Years later, after deciding to pursue his encyclopedia project and seeking a credentialed academic to lead it, Wales hired Sanger—who at that time
11685-400: The possibilities of mass collaboration ." From his background in finance, and working as a futures and options trader, Wales developed an interest in game theory and the effect of incentives on human collaborative activity. He identifies this fascination as a significant basis for his developmental work on the Misplaced Pages project. He has rejected the notion that his role in promoting Misplaced Pages
11808-400: The potential of computer networks to foster large-scale collaborative projects. Inspired by the successful initial public offering of Netscape in 1995, and having accumulated capital through "speculating on interest-rate and foreign-currency fluctuations", Wales decided to leave the realm of financial trading and became an Internet entrepreneur. In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis ,
11931-465: The public." When asked about his view on the ECJ's "right to be forgotten" ruling, Wales replied: I think the decision will have no impact on people's right to privacy , because I don't regard truthful information in court records published by court order in a newspaper to be private information. If anything, the decision is likely to simply muddle the interesting philosophical questions and make it more difficult to make real progress on privacy issues. In
12054-413: The removal of information that they believe is outdated or irrelevant. Google's Larry Page stated that 30 percent of requests received by Google since the ruling was made were categorized as "other". Wales explained in email responses that he was contacted by Google on May 28, 2014, and "The remit of the committee is to hold public hearings and issue recommendations—not just to Google but to legislators and
12177-517: The right to warn." Wales's association with the foundation has led to controversy. In March 2008, Wales was accused by former Wikimedia Foundation employee Danny Wool of misusing the foundation's funds for recreational purposes. Wool also stated that Wales had his Wikimedia credit card taken away in part because of his spending habits, a statement Wales denied. Then-chairperson of the foundation Florence Devouard and former foundation interim Executive Director Brad Patrick denied any wrongdoing by Wales or
12300-506: The same website. It hosts some of the largest wikis outside Misplaced Pages, including Memory Alpha (devoted to Star Trek ) and Wookieepedia ( Star Wars ). Another service offered by Wikia was Wikia Search , an open source search engine intended to challenge Google and introduce transparency and public dialogue about how it is created into the search engine's operations, but the project was abandoned in March 2009. Wales stepped down as Wikia CEO to be replaced by angel investor Gil Penchina ,
12423-403: The school combined the first- through fourth-grade students, and the fifth- through eighth-grade students. As an adult, Wales was sharply critical of the government's treatment of the school, citing the "constant interference and bureaucracy and very sort of snobby inspectors from the state" as a formative influence on his political philosophy. After eighth grade, Wales attended Randolph School ,
12546-492: The second, he elaborated on his "constitutional monarch" designation, saying that, like Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II , he has no real power. He was also the closest the project had to a spokesperson in its early years. The growth and prominence of Misplaced Pages made Wales an Internet celebrity . Although he had never traveled outside North America before the site's founding, his participation in
12669-418: The state was allowed to nominate two cadets to attend the college free of charge. The university's original curriculum focused on engineering and agriculture. This trend changed under the guidance of William Leroy Broun , who taught classics and sciences and believed both disciplines were important for the growth of the university and the individual. In 1892, two historic events occurred: women were admitted to
12792-399: The status of Sanger and Wales as co-founders. For example, Sanger and Wales are historically cited or described in early news citations and press releases as co-founders. Wales was quoted by The Boston Globe as calling Sanger's statement "preposterous" in February 2006, and called "the whole debate" "silly" in an April 2009 interview. In 2013, Wales told The New York Times that the dispute
12915-577: The strict censorship laws there, but claims he was not allowed to give back. As of 2016, the charity's CEO is Orit Kopel. Wales has previously referred to himself as an Objectivist , referring to the philosophy of writer Ayn Rand in the mid-20th century that emphasizes reason , individualism , and capitalism . Wales first encountered the philosophy through reading Rand's novel The Fountainhead during his undergraduate period and, in 1992, founded an electronic mailing list devoted to "Moderated Discussion of Objectivist Philosophy". Though he has stated that
13038-455: The student body was significantly diminished by the draft and volunteer enlistment. During the war, API also trained U.S. military personnel on campus; between 1941 and 1945, Auburn produced over 32,000 troops for the war effort. Following the end of World War II, API, like many colleges around the country, experienced a period of massive growth caused by returning military personnel taking advantage of their GI Bill offer of free education. In
13161-419: The surprise of Sanger and Wales, within a few days of launching, the number of articles on Misplaced Pages had outgrown that of Nupedia , and a small collective of editors had formed. It was Jimmy Wales, along with other people, who came up with the broader idea of an open-source, collaborative encyclopedia that would accept contributions from ordinary people. Initially, neither Sanger nor Wales knew what to expect from
13284-596: The top ten percent of the nation's more than 750 MBA Programs. The Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI) offices were once located in the business department of Auburn University, and the LvMI continues to work with the university on many levels. ROTC programs are available in three branches of service: Air Force, Army, and Navy/Marine Corps with the latter being the only one in Alabama. Over 100 officers that attended Auburn have reached flag rank (general or admiral), including one, Carl Epting Mundy Jr. , who served as Commandant of
13407-501: The university's 24,864 undergraduates (7.35%) as of 2013 and 49 of the 1,192 full-time faculty (4.1%) as of 2012 . AU has decreased its African American faculty percentage from 4.3% in 2003 to 4.1% today, since the settlement of legal challenges to the underrepresentation of African Americans in AU's faculty in 2006. In 2018, the university began a speaker series to promote racial diversity named Critical Conversations. The Auburn campus
13530-575: The year 2000. All recently constructed buildings have used a more traditional architectural style that is similar to the style of Samford Hall, Mary Martin Hall, and the Quad dorms. The Science Center complex was completed in 2005. This complex contains chemistry labs, traditional classrooms, and a large lecture hall. A new medical clinic opened behind the Hill dorm area. Taking the place of the old medical clinic and
13653-584: Was 16 years old. He then entered the PhD finance program at the University of Alabama before leaving with a master's degree to enter the PhD finance program at Indiana University Bloomington . At the University of Alabama, he played Internet fantasy games and developed his interest in the web. He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies but did not write the doctoral dissertation required for
13776-455: Was a doctoral student in philosophy at Ohio State University —to be its editor-in-chief , and in March 2000, Nupedia ("the 💕"), a peer-reviewed , open-content encyclopedia, was launched. The intent behind Nupedia was to have expert-written entries on a variety of topics and to sell advertising alongside the entries to make a profit. The project was characterized by an extensive peer-review process designed to make its articles of
13899-540: Was also the only school to offer a degree in the 2000s for Polymer & Fiber Engineering, combining medical research, advanced composites, sustainability and recycling and other disciplines into an advanced material science offering for undergraduates through doctorate degrees. Despite significant corporate sponsorship, such as from Under Armour, the undergraduate offering of the department was disbanded and absorbed into other departments leaving options for higher degrees. Auburn has historically placed much of its emphasis on
14022-609: Was awarded one of the Dan David Prizes , an international award of $ 1 million given yearly at Tel Aviv University (10 percent of the prize goes to doctoral students). Wales was chosen for spearheading what the prize committee called the "information revolution." List of Internet entrepreneurs An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet -based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as
14145-511: Was born in Huntsville, Alabama , where he attended the Randolph School . He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in finance from Auburn University and the University of Alabama , respectively. In graduate school, Wales taught at two universities; he departed before completing a PhD to take a job in finance and later worked as the research director of Chicago Options Associates . In 1996, Wales and two partners founded Bomis ,
14268-475: Was excited about the idea, and after he proposed it to Wales, they created the first Nupedia wiki on January 10, 2001. The wiki was initially intended as a collaborative project for the public to write articles that would then be reviewed for publication by Nupedia's expert volunteers. The majority of Nupedia's experts, however, wanted nothing to do with this project, fearing that mixing amateur content with professionally researched and edited material would compromise
14391-408: Was formed and was its official chairman from 2003 through 2006. Since 2006 he has been accorded the honorary title of chairman emeritus and holds the board-appointed " community founder's seat " that was installed in 2008. His work for the foundation, including his appearances to promote it at computer and educational conferences, has always been unpaid. Wales has often joked that donating Misplaced Pages to
14514-434: Was launching an online publication called WikiTribune , to fight fake news through a combination of professional journalists and volunteer contributors. Wales described it as "news by the people and for the people", and that it will be the "first time that professional journalists and citizen journalists will work side-by-side as equals writing stories as they happen, editing them live as they develop, and at all times backed by
14637-406: Was like handing in an essay at grad school, and basically intimidating to participate in. In an October 2009 speech, Wales recollected attempting to write a Nupedia article on Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert C. Merton , but being too intimidated to submit his first draft to the prestigious finance professors who were to peer review it. Wales characterized this as the moment he realized that
14760-409: Was popularly called "Auburn" for many years before the official name change, much like the University of the South has long been popularly called "Sewanee". For example, what is now Jordan-Hare Stadium was called "Auburn Stadium" when it opened in 1939. Auburn University was racially segregated prior to 1963, with only white students being admitted. Integration began in 1964 with the admittance of
14883-468: Was ranked first by The Princeton Review 's list of happiest students on college campuses thanks in part to its wide variety of campus activities and events. Campus activities and events begin with orientation and training sessions for new Auburn students. Auburn offers two orientation programs, Camp War Eagle and Successfully Orienting Students. Camp War Eagle is offered to incoming freshmen and guests of incoming freshmen, helping familiarize students with
15006-399: Was ranked fourth in the 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report . By 2018 this had risen to $ 778.2 million, thanks to a $ 500 million "It Begins at Auburn" growth campaign began in 2005, the most successful in school history. By 2017, the university raised over $ 1.2 billion in the "Because This is Auburn" campaign, being the first university in Alabama to raise over $ 1 billion as well as
15129-541: Was renamed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama . In 1892, it became the first four-year coeducational school in Alabama and in 1899 was renamed Alabama Polytechnic Institute . In 1960, its name was changed to Auburn University to acknowledge the varied academic programs and larger curriculum of a major university. In 1967, the Alabama legislature chartered an additional campus in Montgomery which
#986013