The Puck: Venture Capital and Beyond
Episode 111: Jimmy Wales
AI Summary
In Episode 111, host discusses the evolution of online knowledge sharing with Wikipedia co‑founder Jimmy Wales, covering the platform’s impact on information accessibility, challenges around misinformation, and the future of open‑source collaboration. Wales shares insights on the balance between community governance and commercial pressures, emphasizing the importance of transparency and user empowerment. The conversation also touches on the role of emerging technologies, such as AI, in shaping how encyclopedic content is created and curated.
Episode Description
What does it take to build trust on the internet—at global scale?
In Episode 111 of The Puck: Venture Capital & Beyond, Jim Baer sits down with Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, to explore why trust—not technology—is the true foundation of open systems.
Wales reflects on Wikipedia’s evolution from a scrappy experiment into one of the most trusted information sources in the world, and why neutrality, transparency, and purpose matter more than algorithms or scale. The conversation centers on ideas from his new book, The Seven Rules of Trust, including how institutions earn trust, how they lose it, and what it takes to build systems that last.
Baer and Wales also dive into:
Why trust across journalism, politics, and business is collapsing
How Wikipedia governs bias without a single “editor-in-chief”
The role of funding models in preserving independence
Why AI systems struggle with transparency and attribution
What the decline of local journalism means for democracy
How open debate—done fairly—can be a path toward social cohesion
In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, outrage, and information overload, this episode offers a sober, thoughtful look at how trust is built—and why it remains indispensable.
Show Notes
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