Jimmy Wales, the man behind the world’s best-known free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, will be in Bristol tomorrow [Thursday 13 January] for a public talk to mark the project’s ten year anniversary. 

The event, hosted by the University of Bristol in association with Bristol Festival of Ideas, HP Labs, Bristol City Council and Wikimedia UK, will give members of the public a rare opportunity to hear about the project’s remarkable history and its plans for future development from its founder.

A decade ago the idea of a constantly updated online multilingual encyclopedia, which would be collaboratively written by tens of thousands of people and read by hundreds of millions, was a dream.

Since then, Jimmy Wales has inspired others to join him, and has formed a 100,000-strong online volunteer community, which has built Wikipedia into a worldwide force for free learning and general education, run with modest resources, engaging communities worldwide.

With 17 million articles, 7.3 million freely licensed images and 410 million unique visitors the site is now firmly established but where will it go next?

The event, entitled ‘Wikipedia at 10: Jimmy Wales talks about the development and future of Wikipedia’, is now fully booked, however a link to a live webcast of the event will be available via the University's Public and Ceremonial Events Office website.