As ED of the Wikimedia Foundation, I get to meet Wikimedians all over the world. It didn’t take me long to see the commonalities among them – after only about six months, I believed –probably mostly wrongly– that I could pick out Wikimedians in airports and coffeeshops. I find the commonalities among Wikimedians fascinating, and also the recurring patterns I see in different Wikimedia communities. One such pattern is the very young editor.
The average Wikipedian is in his or her mid-twenties. Lots are teenagers, particularly editors who function in “wikignome” roles. But every now and I then I run across someone who started editing at an unusually young age – for example, there’s a Korean editor who started at seven, and an Israeli who started at eight.
A few days ago at the Wikipedia Academy in Stockholm, I met another: User:Calandrella [1], who started editing Wikipedia at the age of 10. He’s now 15. He told me that when he began, the thing he liked most about Wikipedia was that it took him seriously despite his age. He was able to make whatever contributions he was capable of, and they were judged on their merits.
Today, Calandrella’s made more than 10,000 edits. He’s been active on Wikipedia, Commons, Wikinews and Wiktionary, in Swedish, English, German, Norwegian and Spanish. He’s written about Pokemon, Harry Potter, anime, manga, computer games, and lots of other topics.
We know quite a bit about why people edit Wikipedia. They have an altruistic desire to share information with other people, they like learning new things themselves, and they are fussy types who are irritated by errors and feel compelled to fix them. We know that people like Calandrella appreciate that Wikipedia’s a meritocracy.
But I think there’s something else going on for the very young editors. It used to be that unusually smart kids were typically kind of isolated and lonely, until they met others as smart as them, either in university or later. I think that one of the unsung benefits of the internet, and Wikipedia in particular, is that it makes it possible for smart kids to connect with other people who are equally curious, who share their intellectual interests, and take them seriously, in a way that would’ve been completely unavailable to them 10 years earlier. I think that’s really good for them – it opens up the world for them and makes it possible for them to start making an intellectual contribution, much earlier than they would have been able to otherwise.
[1] Calandrella, Wikipedia tells me, is a genus of lark in the Alaudidae family. Swedish Wikipedians are very very proud of their coverage of birds: they say it’s better than that of the English Wikipedia :-)
We need more stories like this, thank you!
Sounds like war. :^)
You’ve certainly got me sussed Sue :)
Hi Sue; it is nice to see you will be visiting Dubai from Dec 1-6. Please see the page Wikipedia:Meetup/Dubai 1 for the meetup you proposed. I think you will be pleased to see the eager Wikipedians ready to attend it. For a first ever meetup in this city, it’s a good starting point. Maybe we can continue such meetups in the future :)
[…] biblioteket intervjuade Sue Gardner. Gardner själv skrev om Calandrella och Wikipedia Academy (och i ett tidigare inlägg om wikipettrar, som jag skrivit om […]
I really agree with this text. I’m not as unusual as Calandrella, but started editing at the age of 12 or 13, and was drawn quite quickly into it, because of the meritocracy (Wikipedia didn’t care about my age), and today, 2-3 years later, I have done 25,000 edits and become an administrator. I love it..
(By the way, the bird coverage on Swedish Wikipedia is actually very good, or at least, many bird articles are featured in some way.)
i think users/readers should agree to some adverting on Wikimedia sites to supplement effortas. As Sue Gardner says:
The funds would be significant help thereby reducing dependency on donations., yet it keep Wikipedia running. Numerous others have been using sites everyday, everywhere.
This may be somewhat off topic but I really wonder, how many WikiMedians are in the Asberger’s spectrum? For the high functioning sticklers to facts and details, Wiki is the creative outlet, so to speak.
It’s good for grownups also. More precisely, it’s good for smart folks to meet people who are about twice as smart as they are, as happened to me on some Sudoku forums. Being in the presence of brilliance is humbling but rewarding.
Nice post.
Hi, thanks for all that you do.
Grateful for Wikepedia ~ and it circle of projects.
I realize this post isn’t on topic : ) but I couldn’t find any other way to send you, or another staff person a message, so here it is. I am not a web professional… but something i’ve been waiting (and waiting to appear…) is a free wiki for ethical consumers so that we can wield the little power we have (how we spend our money) in shaping the world. It seems like an ideal format (a wiki) for getting out information on products/sources etc. People are constantly spending $ with really awful companies because they are overwhelmed and simply don’t have time to do the research to realize what it means that they put there money there as a consumer or as an investor. It would be wonderful to unleash the power of worldwide consumers who care to be able to centrally log their research ~ so you could go someplace and search “shoes” or “running shoes” and get info on the most socially responsible brands etc. concentrated in one place with the accumulated wisdom and research of others being shared. for example this info will get lost in the shuffle, unless its placed somewhere joe public would know it could find it: (http://www.annarbor.com/passions-pursuits/running-companies-go-green/)
I haven’t found anything like this. also there are many people who don’t know, for example ~ why should you try to shop whole foods? or a food coop? what’s the point? or when you buy delmonte canned fruit ARE you supporting a company that now owns Blackwater under a new improved name? (apparently not as this arrangement didn’t work out but it took me a long time to figure this out ) ~ and what are the alternative brands associated with?
This of course would have been better 10 years ago… but a volunteer written “ethical consumer’s report” would be such a godsend.
okay, so you probably get a lot of wishlists. Just thought i’d try, in case. I have no idea how to do this, or would have tried to set it up myself ~ looks like you make your software accessible for free ~ but at this point in time, don’t have the background or time to figure it out… but thought you might know folks who could.
Anyhow ~ wishing you the best in your continued work, it is very valuable ~
Monica
That bird focus at se.wp is due to the heritage of Linnaeus, no doubt.