Wikipedia Project - Final Post

Over the semester, I have made a variety of edits to Wikipedia. The project showed me that editing Wikipedia is very simple. It is interesting how users do not even need to create a username or sign-in to edit a Wikipedia page. Many people use Wikipedia, but I think few of those people ever consider adding or changing information on Wikipedia. While reading the required blogs, I found a post, "Wikipedia. Just how popular is it?, on the Global Neighbourhoods Blog. The article claims that over one third of online Americans have consulted Wikipedia. Rubel says he believes Wikipedia is 100% accurate as it will eventually correct itself. I think that the community nature of Wikipedia makes it very accurate, and it will only become more accurate and information rich as more and more users understand the ease involved in editing.

Although I found Wikipedia simple to edit, the edits I made generated little reaction from the community. All four articles that I chose had very little information when I began the series of edits. The topics are all very narrow, and there is not much information available. From travel and an internship, however, I knew a bit about each of my topics. Through the course of the semester I was able to add any information I have on the topics. Below I will discuss the evolution of each article:


Paderno del Grappa: While studying abroad, I lived in Paderno del Grappa for over three months. I decided that this would be a good Wikipedia article to edit since when I began editing the article there was so little information. I added everything I knew about Paderno, but since it is such a small town, the article is still very brief. I also added two links to external sites so anyone researching the town will be able to gather additional information. Since the time I began editing the article, only one other user edited the Paderno page. This user only added more information to the article, and did not change any of the information I contributed. After editing the Paderno del Grappa page several times, the page provides a more clear picture of where the town is located, the population, and the schools in the town.

Violet Oakley: This Wikipedia page also began with very little information. Through my series of edits, I added information about the artist's life, works of art, the group of artists to which she belonged, and external links. From the time I began edits, this article also received little reaction from the community. One user Wikilinked dates I added to the article, but did not make any other changes. The other community member who made changes to the Oakley page had previously made numerous additions to this page. This person simply added an infobox with general information about Oakley. It was nice to see positive additions to the article.

Edwin Austin Abbey: During the course of my edits to this Wikipedia page, no community members made any changes or added additional information. Like the others, this article contained very little information when I began the edits. I added information about Abbey's life, education, works of art, and links to outside sources. Although the article is still brief and classified as a "stub" by Wikipedia, I feel as though the article now provides a much more comprehensive overview of the artist.

Henry Chapman Mercer: Through my series of edits to the Henry Chapman Mercer article, no other members of the Wikipedia community made any contributions. Of the four, this article began as the weakest. I added information about Mercer's life, his works of art, an information box, outside links, and re-arranged the article so it is presented in a meaningful order. The article now provides much more information about Mercer, however, more could still be added. The information I added about Mercer is related to his works in the Pennsylvania Capitol Building. The Wikipedia article now slants toward that information, and not some of his other important commissions. This proves the importance of additions from many sources in Wikipedia.

Overall, my edits to Wikipedia generated little (or no!) reaction from the community. The Global Neighbourhoods Blog linked above claims Wikipedia to be 100% accurate. While this may be true for popular topics, my experience shows that for some topics, members of the community may not be watching. As Wikipedia becomes increasingly popular, more and more people will make changes to the site when they notice faulty information. I hope that my contributions provide useful information to Wikipedia users, and users add more information down the road. I have found editing Wikipedia to be very simple, and I will certainly add or change information on other Wikipedia articles in the future.