Wikipedia is Not Finished, But Its Needs are Changing
Earlier this fall, a very interesting and not too-academicky paper on how Wikipedia's article about the War of 1812 (by historian and Wikipedian Richard Jensen) somehow begat an Atlantic web story with the wishy-washy subheading "Wikipedia is Nearing Completion, in a Sense” which begat this less subtle, more alarming headline in the UK Independent: "Is Wikipedia Complete?”
Wikipedia doomsaying is a popular pastime among technology writers (one can't exclusively rely on Apple doomsaying, after all) and this isn't even the first go around for this particular variant. But this one is more annoying than the usual complaint that Wikipedia is losing editors, because proclaiming Wikipedia complete is more likely to suggest that one shouldn't consider get involved. Why bother? Wikipedia's finished.
Of course, it's not. The Atlantic’s Rebecca J. Rosen acknowledges this briefly, quoting Jensen as follows:
Wikipedia is now a mature reference work with a stable organizational structure and a well-established reputation. The problem is that it is not mature in a scholarly sense.
Just so. Yes, Wikipedia already has more than 4 million articles in the English language. The problem is that a great many of them just aren't very good. An article may exist, but it might not contain much information. It may contain some decent information, but some of it may be wrong. It may have been correct at one time, but has since become outdated. Or an article may have lots of information, but it may not be well-organized. Just because an article exists does not mean the job is done. What it really means is the job of cultivating that specific slice of human knowledge—whether about the War of 1812 or the 18½ minute gap or 8½—has only just begun.
The problem Wikipedia faces is that it has many, many more readers than editors (only 6% of readers have ever tried, according to a 2011 survey) even if the line between them is supposedly no thicker than choosing to click the "Edit" button at the top of a page.
For almost any topic you can thing of, it can seem like there is already an article. What's more, the topics which are most well-known, especially those related to current events, tend to be extremely well-developed and already saturated with editors. An edit on a page like President of the United States is likely not to last long before someone else comes along and changes it. The uncomfortable truth is that the veteran editor is probably right, insofar as Wikipedia's standards are concerned. But that doesn't make it any less discouraging to new editors.
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So, where can new Wikipedians gain confidence, knowledge of Wikipedia's editing style, and make edits that really make a difference? The answer lies with Wikipedia's vast collection of underdeveloped articles—those far outside of the daily news cycle, focused on topics dating to the pre-Wikipedia age, and which could be much better, but have lacked for sustained interest from foregoing editors.
As someone who reads Wikipedia daily, I come across these all the time. I also decided to ask some colleagues about what kind of article categories might be particularly neglected. Here are just a few topics that we see (and please note that we are all native English speakers from the U.S. and UK in our late 20s and early 30s, so YMMV) where new editors can dive in and start adding information and sources:
1990s rock albums: A surprisingly large number of rock albums from the '90s have just a stub article—one that has very little information other than a basic description of the album. Follow the link, start by clicking on titles that you're familiar with, and it won't take long to find one that needs some help. The wider Internet has no shortage of reviews from music publications, which should be just what you need to add new details.
1990s comedy films: There's a theme here, and one that speaks to the demographics of Wikipedia: the missing age group of 29- to 40-year-olds has left the encyclopedia with a gap in its collective knowledge: the 1990s! Once again, you can follow the link, pick any film and help improve it. Just remember: you can't use IMDb (not a reliable source!) but you probably can use articles IMDb links to.
Historical novels: If you're not into reminiscing about the 1990s, perhaps you'd like to look back a bit further in time. In which case, the historical novel stubs listed here might be right up your alley—or galley, since there are a few of C.S. Forester's nautical-themed Hornblower novels listed here...
Fairy tales: Still on a literary note, a surprising number of articles on well-known fairy tales are lacking references or still in stub form. See if any of your childhood favorites need some work.
Cartoonists: Biographies are a good topic area for any beginner on Wikipedia and there are no shortage of sub-topics to choose from that need development. There's a whole list of cartoonists here whose articles are currently just stubs, why not dive in and see if there's one you're familiar with?
If you're thinking about starting to edit Wikipedia and the thought of trying to improve a whole article seems overwhelming, here's a few ideas for small fixes that you can make in any article of your choosing:
Read through an article and fix any typos or formatting errors.
Remove any obvious vandalism or pure nonsense you come across.
Look at information in infoboxes (the sidebars that appear at the top right of articles) and check that it is correct and up-to-date.
Rewrite sentences that don't make sense or are obtusely worded.
Fact-check: choose a claim from an article with no citation, then find a book or another quality source to verify the statement.
I fully acknowledge that all of the above is easier said than done. Even though Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit, that doesn't mean everyone does. But it is possible for anyone to learn, given the right inspiration. With this post—and who knows, maybe more like it to come?—I'd like to help others find it.