Jimmy Wales of a Chicago futures and options firm. In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis, an adult web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. The company would provide the initial funding for the peer-reviewed free encyclopedia, Nupedia (2000–03), and its successor, Wikipedia. On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Wikipedia—a free, open content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity; as Wikipedia's public profile grew, he became the project's promoter and spokesman. He is historically cited as a co-founder of Wikipedia, though he has disputed the "co-" designation, declaring himself the sole founder. Wales serves on
Web Summit first five years the event was held in Dublin, Ireland. In September 2015 Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit co-founder, announced that Web Summit would be held in Lisbon starting in 2016. In October 2018, the Portuguese government announced a ten-year contract extension with the Web Summit. According to Forbes, the Web Summit is the best technology conference on the planet. Web Summit 2017 took place in the Altice Arena in Lisbon from November 6 - 9. The event promised to bring 60,000 attendees from over 160 countries together. 1,000 speakers were initially confirmed for the conference and, finally, over 1200 spoke.