Founder of Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia has challenged the idea of the encyclopedia, which, through the freedom of the Internet, is no longer a hierarchical tool for knowledge. The Web site broadcasts communally built knowledge, and by allowing the community to govern itself—to add information without an excess of rules or guidelines, to create relevant entries, and share information on what the community values—Wales and his colleagues have built an active, thriving model for the type of inspired activity upon which innovations in culture depend.