I agree with the points Fred, Mathias, and Neil already made.
In addition:
"Not only that but Wikipedia is setting a blistering pace with a thousand new articles being added each day."
It's 3758 new per day over all (although it is 1048 per day for the English version) as of the end of April. http://en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm
"He added a few canny rules-of-order: Whenever someone edits an article, a new version of the article is created and saved."
Revision histories are fairly standard in wiki software, so I wouldn't say Jimmy added that. It was present, in a less useful form, in the UseMod software which predates Wikipedia.
"Despite meteoric growth, Wikipedia has remained an all-volunteer outfit, financed by donations."
This isn't strictly true anymore. We do have two paid staff now - Brion Vibber on development and server work, and Chad Perrin on hardware work in the Florida colocation facility. Part of the funding comes from grants, sponsorship, and paid-for services such as an OAI feed. The majority of financing is still from donations though.
Angela.
-- Angela Beesley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Angela