Did you know that anybody can edit Wikipedia? It seems wrong, but it’s true. That’s what makes it so cool/collaborative/dangerous/terrifying! For a school assignment I was tasked with making a minor edit to an existing Wikipedia page, and I’m proud to say that I have completed that task. I’m officially a Wikipedia editor!
Here’s how I did it:
First, I had to decide what page I should edit. This was the hardest part and I immediately became an amnesiac with no memory of any interests, knowledge or facts in my brain. So I took my professor’s suggestion of editing the page about my hometown. My hometown is small, but it qualifies as a city and has a pretty detailed Wikipedia page already. So I devoured that page trying to find something that was missing, or wrong.
Next, I went down rabbit holes. This was the most fun part. My city, Baraboo, is known for a few things, but primarily for being the home of the Ringling Brothers Circus, which is lame. Fortunately, no one had inundated Baraboo’s page with circus data. I noticed the list of famous people from Baraboo, and spotted someone who I went to school with, but had never heard of their infamy. So then I wondered why my friend from high school, who has been a successful and critically acclaimed musician for decades, was not listed.
This was perfect. I would add my old friend, Sarah Saturday, and her music/performance art project, Gardening, not Architecture, to the list of famous Barabooans (or as I like to call us, Baraboobians). All I had to do was find a source.
After hours of research, I could potentially write a primer on Sarah’s musical career but could not cite a single source tying her to Baraboo. Unfortunately, on Wikipedia, knowing something because you saw it with your own eyes does not count as a credible source. You also can only post facts. This is not the White House. There are rules.
I gave up on Baraboo celebrities, and noticed a glaring omission. There was not a single mention of the Ho-Chunk Nation (HCN) on the page. The Ho-Chunk are an Indigenous tribe whose ancestral land covered a large portion of Wisconsin. Today, the Ho-Chunk people have a large community in the Baraboo area, and are a significant cultural presence.
The Ho-Chunk flag flies at Baraboo High School, and their language, Hoocąk, is taught in Baraboo schools. They needed representation on the Baraboo page! There was just that pesky problem of finding a source, which was harder than I thought, but eventually, I was able to tie Ho-Chunk Nation to Baraboo properly with a page from the Wisconsin Department of Education. Thanks, Gov!
According to the assignment, we needed to comment on the Talk page, to let people know we were going to make a change and await feedback. I found this to be very stressful. What if someone said HCN should not be on the page? Obviously they would be wrong, but then what would I do? I didn’t want to start a WikiFight on my first day as a Wikipedian. I posted my intention to edit the page, and then hardened my resolve to get HCN the representation it was due. I waited for responses and was prepared to go rogue and edit anyway, if anyone dared to say I shouldn’t.
Fortunately, fellow Wikipedian, JackFromWisconsin, was welcoming and encouraging, which was just what I needed to finish the job.
In all seriousness, I enjoyed being a Wikipedia editor. It really feels like doing something important. I really did feel nervous about it. Until I found something I just didn’t feel like there was anything I could contribute and I didn’t want to do it wrong. Fortunately, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and I feel good about contributing.
