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Jimmy Wales accepts Dan David Prize

Jimmy Wales accepting the 2015 Dan David Prize
Jimmy Wales accepting the 2015 Dan David Prize

Jimmy Wales and five others accepted the 2015 Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University on May 17. The laureates had been announced earlier this year (See previous Signpost coverage). First awarded in 2002, the prize "recognizes and encourages innovative and interdisciplinary research that cuts across traditional boundaries and paradigms. It aims to foster universal values of excellence, creativity, justice, democracy and progress and to promote the scientific, technological and humanistic achievements that advance and improve our world." The prize comes with US$1 million, ten percent of which goes to doctoral and postdoctoral scholarships.

In an interview (May 20) with the Jerusalem Post, the Post noted that "Wales wants Wikipedia to be an agent of change, and he believes it has the tools to help set oppressed societies free and bridge conflicts." Wales spoke of the progress and obstacles Wikipedia has faced in providing access to citizens of restrictive governments like Russia and China. Wales mentioned that a group of Russian and Ukrainian editors had peacefully met together despite the conflict between their two governments. He said "The overwhelming bulk of people in the world are perfectly nice people who wouldn’t do horrible things. So the possibility exists to create spaces where that overwhelming majority of perfectly sensible people dominate, and that’s the big lesson from Wikipedia – that people can collaborate, people can behave themselves."

Wales discussed some of the same themes in a May 18 op-ed in Haaretz written with Orit Kopel, CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation. They write about how "oppressive regimes" attempt to fight against the access to information brought to their citizens by the Internet and Wikipedia. The conclude:

The piece singles out Kazakhstan for specific criticism, noting that the government has the ability to "block websites and shut off communication networks without a court order" and restricted journalists from "publishing information about the corruption of public officials", and that bloggers and activists fear "government reprisal". In previous years, Wales has been criticized for alleged links to the Kazakh government after naming a government official the 2011 Wikipedian of the Year (see previous Signpost coverage). The Jimmy Wales Foundation, which has little Internet presence besides a LinkedIn page and a Twitter account, is dedicated to the "fight against human rights violations in the field of freedom of expression". It was formed following criticism of Wales' acceptance of the 2014 Knowledge Award from the United Arab Emirates, a government which, according to Human Rights Watch, "has continued to crack down on freedom of expression and association" (see previous Signpost coverage).

Similar issues came up in an article (May 18) from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about Wales' views and the encyclopedia's coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Wales declared "I’m a strong supporter of Israel" for "all of the standard reasons — the support for freedom of speech is very important to me, the rights of women, proper democracy. You can support all those things while still having criticism of actions and policies that aren't good." Of course, Wales also supported presenting the issue neutrally on Wikipedia: "You present what all sides have said and leave it to the reader to come to the answer." G, AK

In brief

An African dwarf frog



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