With more than 720,000 articles, the Russian-language section on Wikipedia is one of the site's largest. According to site founder Jimmy Wales, it is also one of the fastest-growing. Wales came to Russia in the middle of June to talk with the local wiki-community about freedom of speech, copyright protections and the future of the media.
The month before his visit to Russia, Wales participated in the eG8, a precursor to the G8 meetings in Deauville, France. In deference to the increasing role the web is playing in politics and economics today, French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited the heads of the world’s leading Internet companies to gather in Paris to discuss the future of the Internet and its place in society. In addition to Wales, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman of the board of Google Eric Schmidt and representatives from Microsoft, the BBC and eBay also participated in the meeting.
“Unfortunately Sarkozy thinks that the Internet must be controlled and regulated,” Wales said, describing the eG8 discussions during his press conference in Moscow. “At the G8 meeting, President Medvedev was the only person to say anything sensible whatsoever.”
Medvedev’s enthusiasm for all things online is one reason Wales is so excited about the future of the Internet in Russia. At his press conference, Wales suggested that all the journalists who planned to write about the event title their stories “Medvedev is the only world leader who actually understands the Internet.” » | Vsevolod Pulya | Tuesday, June 21, 2011
