So there’s a new Guardian interview with Jimmy Wales out (to promote his new book, with an affiliate link for the Guardian in it) titled “‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?”* that’s making the rounds here.
For those who only read the headlines, here’s a TL;DR: No. There is no such thing as decent tech baron, that’s an oxymoron.
From the article itself:
“‘I’m actually quite in favour of business and capitalism and all that.’ (He’s currently president of Fandom, an ad-funded entertainment site that hosts user-edited pages, owned by private equity firm TPG Capital).”
And:
“Does he still regard Musk, the world’s richest man, as a friend? ‘Friends is probably a little strong. I mean, not, not that –‘ he sputters, editing himself in real time. ‘I want to be careful how I say that, only because I’ve met him maybe five or six times, so that I would
... show moreSo there’s a new Guardian interview with Jimmy Wales out (to promote his new book, with an affiliate link for the Guardian in it) titled “‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’: is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?”* that’s making the rounds here.
For those who only read the headlines, here’s a TL;DR: No. There is no such thing as decent tech baron, that’s an oxymoron.
From the article itself:
“‘I’m actually quite in favour of business and capitalism and all that.’ (He’s currently president of Fandom, an ad-funded entertainment site that hosts user-edited pages, owned by private equity firm TPG Capital).”
And:
“Does he still regard Musk, the world’s richest man, as a friend? ‘Friends is probably a little strong. I mean, not, not that –‘ he sputters, editing himself in real time. ‘I want to be careful how I say that, only because I’ve met him maybe five or six times, so that I would be overstating to say friends. We’ve been friendly, and even now he’s much nicer to me in private than you might think. I mean, he’s got a big public persona, and that’s a little bit different from the private Elon, who I think is more thoughtful.’”
Also, some more background:
mastodon.ar.al/@aral/115445244…
#JimmyWales #wikipedia #theGuardian #bookPromotion #capitalism #ElonMusk #adTech #zeroRating #Facebook #Meta #surveillanceCapitalism #regulation
* theguardian.com/technology/202…
In an online landscape characterised by doom and division, the people’s encyclopedia stands out – a huge collective endeavour giving everyone free access to the sum of human knowledge.
David Shariatmadari (The Guardian)
@iaruffell Although, do remember this is the same man who partners with Facebook to legitimise their zero-rating with Free Basics (m.facebook.com/help/5109971356…)* and who told me, publicly on Twitter back in the day, that he doesn’t believe in any form of regulation whatsoever. (Sadly, that link is dead with my Twitter account so you’ll just have to take my word that for one. But it’s not like he was hiding it and he’d likely confirm it today if you asked him.)* You have to set your VPN to somewhere like Peru to see the information presented in the first screenshot. Otherwise you’ll get the page you see in the second.
