Jimmy Wales, founder of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Buenos Aires highlighted the need to promote access to a "free culture" based on traditional social values such as faith and responsibility.
In a lecture entitled "Wikipedia, Wikia and the future of free culture," Wales said digital work in a community made up of many people means supporting the same values that operate in society.
"We must rely on faith and hope that everyone is responsible for their own actions," Wales said, adding that if it is wrong to members of a real or digital community "will never move forward."
Wales, who was today awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI de Argentina, said the international success of Wikipedia is based on "all people on the planet free access to knowledge and the ability to edit information.
"We are an NGO, a project with the globalized world we foster knowledge with a strong sense of responsibility", he analyzed.
Wales, who reflected on the reliability problems waking Wikipedia maintenance by their nature collective, stressed that it is important to validate the information before applying for academic purposes.
"Wikipedia has to function as a starting point when working, but then it is very important to validate the information," he said.
The encyclopedia, which currently has 800 million users worldwide, consists of more than 500,000 articles written in various languages and under the premises of "simplicity, neutrality and usefulness."
It is also an advertising-free site with the aim, according to its founder, to "maintain the purity of spirit that makes him a humanitarian mission," so that its funding comes exclusively from private donations and institutional.
Currently the most viewed topics are related to pop culture, especially in Europe and Japan, geography and gender.
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