Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, will speak Thursday in Minneapolis at a forum put on by St. Mary's University.
Gardner's topic: "Why Wikipedia Matters." Wikipedia's role in information sharing and the future of information gathering and retrieval are part of her speech.
The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation operates several Wiki sites, including Wikipedia.
The focus of the event, the Hendrickson Institute for Ethical Leadership Forum 2012,is to to learn why freedom of information and content management matters, organizers say.
It runs from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Event Center, 2540 Park Ave., Minneapolis. General admission is $30 ($20 for SMU alumni and employees and $10 for students).
Before the speech, there will be two panels on information sharing, starting at 1:30 p.m.
Local leaders will discuss "From Free to Fee and Other Info Age Challenges," looking at access to information, intellectual property and the "consumer as the product."
The second panel, "InnovationLive: Can 3M’s Strategy Work for You?" will have a discussion of knowledge creation, capture and distribution within a large corporation, and how other groups can benefit from 3M’s strategy.