• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 26, 2011

That's the way OMMA Global New York opening keynoter Jimmy Wales stated the difference between what Wikipedia does and the rest of online publishing.

"We're not commercial, really for the same reasons why libraries, national arts, and churches aren't," he said, suggesting that the goal with Wikipedia was to give every single person on the planet a free encyclopedia. In fact, he calls it, "a temple of the mind." And since we know that most minds cannot tolerate advertising agencies in their temples, Wales said that's why he spun off Wikia, to create the same kind of passionate, community-driven content as Wikipedia, but with advertising adjacencies as a source of revenues to support the whole proposition.

"When we started Wikia, we actually had some concerns about whether people would contribute in a meaningful way. And they do," he said.