I’ve not edited on Wikipedia before, nor was I planning to, but it came up in one of my classes as an assignment. Here’s how it went.
I started the assignment this past Monday. First on the list was to find an article about something non-controversial that I am interested in or knowledgeable about, and that which I could add accurately cited information from a credible source.
This was the hard part, and I knew it would be, so I got started immediately. There are millions of Wikipedia articles. How could I find one article that I can add some bit of cited information?
This led me to asking more questions, “Where should I get my information? What kind of information do I have in my possession?” I turned to my bookshelf and scanned.
I settled on The Birds of America, a book of illustrations by John James Audubon. Underneath the illustrations was information about each bird. I thought, “How convenient. I have everything I need right here.”
I then cracked open the book, and typed into Wikipedia the first bird that I didn’t recognize. I quickly found out that information on birds in Wikipedia is pretty robust. Not only was every single article I looked up overloaded with information, but it looked as if my book-originally published in 1937-had outdated information.
I rerouted. I opened Wikipedia and tried finding an article in the Task Center, clicked the random article link several times (located underneath Wikipedia’s main menu), and then went to the Wikipedia:Stub page.
Stubs were endless, and I was totally overwhelmed. I had to take a break.
I thought back to a video that the professor supplied as “learning materials” earlier in the course. Molly White’s Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes was a big help to me throughout this whole process, but was also key to how I found the information that was ultimately used in editing my first article.
In the video, Molly uses a book she got from the library about garden insects. She opened the book, and landed on an insect that had information she was able to apply to its Wikipedia page.
I headed for the local library. There is one not far from my home. I talked to a librarian who pointed out the nonfiction sections to me. I searched for about thirty minutes before landing on two books; one about bats (mammals), and one about mushrooms.
Fortunately, my library card was still up to date. I went home and did what Molly did. I opened the book, chose a random bat, found its article in Wikipedia, and it just so happened to be in need of information that I was able to supply.
It worked!
Next, I wrote on the Talk page of the article what I proposed to do.
I did not get any responses to my comment. In the screenshot below, you can see the date I posted my comment 15 April 2024, and in the bottom right-hand corner of the screenshot there is the date on my computer that reads 4/18/2024.
This is to let my teacher know there has been no response during the few days the comment has been posted.
I then went ahead and made the changes, added citation, and published the changes to the article.
I’ve enjoyed the experience. Now, not only am I an official Wikipedia editor, but I already know what my favorite editing jobs are: adding information with citation, and basic spelling and grammar errors.
I have set my suggested edits to my favorite topics; biology, earth and environment. I have already received suggestions that I think are very interesting. I’ve wanted to be more engaged with these topics for a long time, and I think this is the perfect opportunity to do just that.
After this project, the level of trust I give to Wikipedia is about the same as before, but my perspective has changed. I now see Wikipedia as much more fun and interactive, much more flexible. I don’t see the article’s information being as permanent as I used to.
I’ve known it’s possible for anyone to change information on a Wikipedia page by adding to it for a long time, but doing it myself brought that possibility to life.
And I want to keep going.
Dan Gillmor, looks like you’ve created another Wikipedia editor for life!
