Jimmy Wales Acceptance

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Jimmy Wales’ Internet Hall of Fame acceptance speech "I regret that I cannot be there with you today to accept in person this great honor. But I feel that in reality I cannot accept this in my name alone, but must call out to the incredible community of Wikipedians all around the world who are the heart and soul of this great project. Wikipedia is not just about me - and to be honest, although I'm a really fast typist (ha ha), the percentage of Wikipedia that I have written is miniscule! The original vision statement for Wikipedia is for all of us to 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. Recently we reached a new milestone with more than 500 million people per month reading Wikipedia. 500 million. That's across more than 200 languages. We still have a long way to go, particularly in the languages of the developing world, but our community can justifiably have pride in knowing that, together, in a spirit of rational inquiry, calm discussion, and dialog, we have changed the world for the better. Wikipedia manages to do all this as something still quite unique on the Internet. 500 million users supported by a budget that amounts to less than a penny per person per month. This is only possible because of the incredible spirit and hard work of tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide. We seek to be a beacon of reason, of freedom of speech, in a world which is constantly facing threats to both. Thank you again for this incredible honor, and my congratulations go out to the other recipients as well." .

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