Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Explains Its Mission To Be Mainstream

Wikipedians plan more outreach for teachers, better tools for developers and simpler editing tools to increase their audience

Wikipedia is expanding its major new 'open data' initiative, expanding tools that allow developers to use its content on other websites and simplifying its editing tools to appeal to more mainstream web users.

The 12-year-old website is also planning more outreach work to educate teachers and students, as well as those in museums and libraries, how to use the site.

Speaking in London on Monday, co-founder Jimmy Wales said Wikipedia was part "of the edutech gold rush" and that students would learn not by reading but by editing the site. New editing tools being introduced later this year will make editing simpler, he said, and encourage more people to get involved in editing articles.