It was announced today that Jimmy Wales will appear at a public event in Trinity College Dublin on Thursday, 26 October to celebrate Ireland’s Internet Day 2017.
Now in its third year, Ireland’s Internet Day, which coincides with international Internet Day, aims to promote awareness, knowledge, use and understanding of the internet in Ireland by its citizens, businesses and communities. It highlights the achievements of Irish and international internet entrepreneurs and the impact on society of the internet innovations and technologies.
Mr Wales, previously ranked as one of TIME Magazine’s most influential people in the world, founded the free encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, in 2001. Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website globally and counts half a billion unique visitors each month. He is also the president of Wikia, a for-profit wiki hosting company that allows users to build their own specialised wikis typically relating to a specific interest or ‘fandom’.
Mr Wales will discuss the fight against fake news, the launch of his recent news website WikiTribune, and how threats to online knowledge-sharing can be combated with evidence-based journalism. The event will be hosted by the IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the company that manages and maintains Ireland’s country domain name.
Speaking today, Chief Executive of IEDR, David Curtin said, "IEDR is delighted to host Ireland’s third annual Internet Day, and to welcome the visionary internet icon Jimmy Wales to Ireland, to join us for the celebration. Alongside the founders of Google, Facebook and Twitter, Jimmy Wales has been one of the most important contributors to the modern internet age. Through Wikipedia, the sum of human knowledge is available to us in hundreds of different languages from the convenience of our smartphones and computers, for free and in real time."
He added, "Mr Wales’s vision of a more open internet, accessible to everyone, is something that aligns with IEDR’s objectives for the internet in Ireland and the overarching theme of Internet Day. We want to make the internet more accessible to individuals and to businesses the length and breadth of the country, be they in the centre of Dublin or rural Roscommon."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
