About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).

Friday, April 27, 2007

Wikipedia meetup with Jimmy Wales


Well, that was a pleasant breakfast meeting! I was pretty nervous through the whole event, worrying whether everything would fall into place properly, since I'd taken it on myself (well, sort of) to organise this gig. But it all seemed fine. Jimmy Wales was good value - soft-spoken but very friendly and articulate, and very willing to share his knowledge and experience with the group who turned up. There were about twenty of us, none of whom I'd met before, so I'm not sure that I've remembered many of them, but hopefully there'll be other occasions.

The Blue Train worked as an excellent venue for a breakfast meeting. I realised later that I'd underpaid my share of the bill by a couple of dollars (ah yes, I did have a coffee as well as my eggs benedict), so in addition to giving the place this free plug I'll have to leave a generous tip next time I'm there. Thanks to whoever miscalculated in the other direction, because the bill was covered. :)

The photos I took were pretty rushed and didn't come out very well, alas, but this one of Jimbo talking to the group isn't too bad.

Next time Jimbo is in Melbourne, whenever that may be, we must all twist his arm to stay a little longer so we can show him around and demonstrate that Australia is not just a big corporate hotel.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"and very willing to share his knowledge and experience with the group who turned up."

Kind of a funny quote when said about the founder of wikipedia.

Russell Blackford said...

You mean of course he would be?

Anonymous said...

Exactly - it would be somewhat ironic if the founder of wikipedia was someone who refused to share his own personal knowledge.

Russell Blackford said...

Yeah, I didn't phrase it very well. I guess I had in mind his willingness to talk about it all at some length, over breakfast, when prodded by eager questioners. I mean, I wouldn't have expected him to be secretive, or something, but I might have been a lot less enthusiastic at that hour of the day with a big day ahead of me. :)