It's the world's largest online encyclopedia with more than 14 million articles and founder Jimmy Wales can say that he's the man behind Wikipedia's creation.

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/15/1801_blog_art.jpg caption ="Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales."]

Whether you want to learn about snails or a genetic algorithm, Wikipedia has been the answer that many people have been waiting for.

The open source resource allows any individual to become an 'editor' of the site and allows users to write, edit and publish information on a huge variety of topics.

The idea of Wikipedia was that it was meant to be "a open source, collaborative encyclopedia, open to contribution by ordinary people."

Jimmy Wales had his start in the finance industry until finally getting his feet wet in the online world in 1996. After experimenting with open source technology he joined forces with Larry Sanger in 2001 and launched Wikipedia.

Wales initially thought the project wouldn't be a success, but after only a few days, the number of entries skyrocketed and Wikipedia had its first group of online editors.

Although the site is generally regarded as one of the best success stories of creative collaboration through an open source model, there has been some criticism of how easy it is to vandalize entries.

We'd like to know what you think?

Are you a fan of Wikipedia? Do you think its open source model is too easy to abuse? How do you think the online encyclopedia has changed the internet?

Please leave your questions for Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales below