Jimmy Wales: Mr Wikipedia on today's blackout

Today, if you need to search online for anything from the capital of Zanzibar to the nationality of Justin Bieber's great-grandfather, you might find yourself at something of a loss. Wikipedia, one of the world's most popular websites, is in the middle of a 24-hour blackout.

The community-based internet encyclopaedia and its 20 million articles (available in 283 languages and compiled by anyone with access to the site) went dark in a protest against proposed US anti-piracy laws - which may affect free speech rights.

However, the site is still available on mobile phones and this morning users could access articles by pressing stop before the blackout page loads. But the site's founder Jimmy Wales, named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people on the planet, estimates the blackout will still be seen by 30-40 million people.

"Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," he said in an official statement, "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA [the Stop Online Piracy Act] endangers free speech both in the United States and abroad."

Few realise that Alabama native Wales, 45, is in the process of making London his home. Most days he can be found working out of his Baker Street office. But revolutionising the way the world shares information aside, Wales's move to London was for reasons closer to the heart. This summer he plans to marry his fiancée Kate Garvey, the mother of his second child - a director at Freud Communications.

"We just talked about it yesterday that we'd better hurry up and lock something in," he tells me as he sits in a café close to the couple's Marylebone home, which they share with their one-year-old daughter. Although exceptionally private when it concerns his personal life, Wales confirms that he and Garvey plan to marry in the capital, "possibly in June", which will cement their reputation as one of London's premier power couples.

Garvey is a former special adviser to Tony Blair. From 1997 until 2005 she ran the former prime minister's diary and was one of Blair's trusted inner-circle of fierce female aides. In his autobiography, Blair recalls a moment that showcased Garvey's personality, with her barking: "'Buy ice cream from that van there, one for you, one for Gordon - to show togetherness and being normal'. He replies, 'I don't like Mr Whippy ice cream except with a flake, and does Gordon look like your average ice cream buyer?' Garvey retorts: 'Just do it. And no flake. It'll make you look greedy'."

"Kate is a combination of being bubbly but also shrewd and strategic," adds a close acquaintance.

"She livened up No 10 under Blair - she'd be the one to say something irreverent or a bit rude when everyone else was being earnest - plus she has a very powerful network of friends around town. From being a woman in Camp Blair, she has prospered in her own right, partly because she's genuinely friendly and doesn't make enemies." The wedding, if it happens in June, could hardly come at a busier time for Garvey, who will oversee Freud's promotion of both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics this summer.

Despite their rapidly rising profiles, Wales doesn't have billions in the bank. (And unlike Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he hasn't inspired a Hollywood film.) Wikipedia, if it were not a charity, would have a price tag in the billion-dollar range but Wales - a former financial trader - has never taken a salary from the organisation. In 2003 he voluntarily surrendered all his rights to the Wikimedia Foundation.

The site first launched in January 2001 and is funded almost entirely by donations from users.

The foundation has an idealistic code of practice, on a mission to bring the internet revolution to untouched corners of the globe. Wales divides his time between London and the US, which he visits regularly to see his daughter, Kira, 10, who lives with his second wife, Christine Rohan, in Florida.
He says he has it easier than someone with a regular job in being able to organise his time, but admits the burden of constant flights is "really tough". "I have to travel a lot, so I'm away from home a lot. That's hard, emotionally," he says.

But back in London Wales is excited by the exploding start-up scene focused on Old Street's Silicon Roundabout, where he has seen "a lot of energy and a lot of people doing interesting things". London's "geographical proximity" and vast cultural offerings beat the "sprawling and empty" Silicon Valley.

"I would say nobody really wants to live in Palo Alto [home to Facebook, incubator to Google and PayPal]. There's nothing in terms of cultural amenities that would be of interest to creative, highly intellectual people," he says.

He recently saw Three Days in May at Trafalgar Studios - "a very engaging and interesting history lesson"- and says he "loves to hate a lot of the stuff at Tate Modern". "Just around the corner from here is the Wallace Collection, which is brilliant. I took my parents there - I was excited to show them that. All of these things together mean that if you're looking for a stimulating environment with different people and art to fuel the soul, London's a great city in a way that Silicon Valley isn't."

He is also currently promoting his new "barely profitable" for-profit company, Wikia, an advert-funded "wiki farm" where geeks can contribute to hyper-detailed articles about their passions.
Meanwhile, in London this week, Wales is getting the chance to chastise Lord Bell's PR firm, Bell Pottinger, which was caught last month manipulating Wikipedia entries relating to its clients, making several hundred illicit edits.

Wales says: "I'm going over there in a couple of days, which is part of why I'm so busy, because I'm preparing. It's actually the first of many visits that I'm going to do as I'm starting a programme of outreach to people in PR. There's a lot of wrongdoing where people embarrass their clients and they annoy us. They're going to get quite a stern lecture from me."

Although Bell Pottinger was eventually caught red-handed and its edits reverted, Wales still has regrets: "They got away with it for quite a long time. There were a couple of cases where we failed. They put in something outrageous, and it stayed in for months. Most cases, they were reverted immediately and warned not to do that. But nobody put all the pieces together."

Another firm, Portland Communications, which this month tried to remove references to client Stella Artois's lager as "wife beater" from Wikipedia, will get a visit from Wales in due course.

Still an active editor, or "Wikipedian", Wales also helps out when individuals find their own pages to be inaccurate. He ran into Ed Miliband's wife Justine at a children's party when she pointed out that Wikipedia mistakenly had her down as attending the private Nottingham High School for Girls. "She didn't complain, she just laughed about it. I said, 'That's terrible. We should fix that'."

But doesn't he ever look enviously at Zuckerberg's billions and wish he hadn't given his golden egg away?

"No, no, no," he exclaims with a smile. "I know Mark, I like him a lot, he's a nice guy. But my life is quite interesting.

"I'm a computer geek, ultimately, and so I've got my computer and I travel all the time. I see the world, I do interesting things. I don't know what I'd do with more money."

Neither would he know what to do with more fame. Unlike Zuckerberg, Wales, dressed in a crisp white shirt and fedora, can make his way home, back up Baker Street, unrecognised.