Googling people is often interesting. One thing I’ve noticed is that in the search results it seems people are showing up a lot more on various kinds of databases, business networking groups, social networking groups (of course) and so forth. Is this a growing phenomenon? Are people joining more of theses, or are various network entries automatically generated? (I ask this as someone who walked away from facebook, for example. Perhaps I’ll talk more about why some other time…)
In this vein, I forgot to mention that a little while ago I discovered that I have a Wikipedia entry. I am not sure how I feel about this, but it is (I suppose) flattering that someone took the time to add this to the things out there on the web about me. (I don’t think it was automatically generated.) I’d previously assumed that if an ordinary person had a Wikipedia entry it must mean that they wrote it themselves. After all, who would be interested enough to write one about someone else? Seems that I was wrong. Well, the entry is mercifully short, and while the facts are sort of oddly chosen (and arranged), no editorial arguments have ensued between, er, enthusiasts about any details, inconsequential or otherwise.
Counting my blessings.
Now, I used to say the same thing (i.e. such entries must have been self-written) about random imdb entries. As I write this, I wonder… wait…Let me just check…. Oh. Seems I have one there too. (Wow. That was a true live-blogging moment!) Annoyingly I am Clifford Johnson (II). Two!! How dare they?! The entry is horribly out of date (as you know from this blog, I’ve been doing a ton of TV and film work over the last three or four years, and not just on The Universe), so I am guessing that maybe it was made some time ago, perhaps automatically.
I think I’ll stop looking now. Back to the Project. (Which is going well, by the way!)
-cvj
And Hurrah! for personal blogs! 😀
Cheers,
-cvj
I moved on to other things mostly because I found I liked doing what Wikipedia policy calls “original research“:
This makes sense for what Wikipedia is trying to be, but after a while, I realized it doesn’t describe what I wanted to do. If I thought up a new interpretation of a scene in a novel, say, I’d like to write it down and hear what people think about it; this sort of fun, not terribly consequential writing is better suited to a personal blog than to Wikipedia. So, I drifted off.
Hi Blake,
Interesting.
Did you stop doing it because of the editing issues, or is there no connection to that?
Cheers,
-cvj
I spent a couple years as a pretty active Wikipedian, and in my experience, obvious vandalism (like the Liechtenstein example above) gets corrected quickly. If somebody points out a technical mistake in a science article, somebody will generally be along to patch it up fairly soon. The more bothersome issues stem from the fact that each article grows by piecewise additions, each contributed by somebody in their free time. (Everybody just has to mention their favourite Calvin and Hobbes joke in the article on Calvin and Hobbes, so the page drowns under cruft until somebody gets irritated enough to dredge it back into shape.) Consequently, the coherence length of a Wikipedia article can be remarkably low. You’re never guaranteed that the sign and normalization conventions used at the top of a page will still be in force at the bottom. And, as for structure across multiple articles, forget about it.
This means that learning a new subject for the first time from Wikipedia can be harder than it should be.
WoW!
Exactly… who has the time? But… I suppose it is a good thing that there are devoted editors like that…
Cheers,
-cvj
@Clifford, You might find this amusing: Many months ago, I tried to convince a friend that any error he introduces to a somewhat well-read Wikipedia entry will be fixed within minutes. As he was from Liechtenstein, we substituted the name of the speaker of the parliament (Landtag) there with my dog’s name (Bobbi Windsor). It was corrected within *90 seconds*.
A lot of pages are “watched” by those interested, so lists of recent changes are generated in order to keep track and react. I know. I know. Who has the time….
That’s really funny! On a side note… What a great name for a town!
-cvj
As a school librarian, I once had all the kids in the class I was teaching sign up for Wikipedia accounts and edit the page of their choice, with the thought of “What better way to show the limitations of Wikipedia?” One of our students managed to get our IP address blocked within 5 minutes because of his editing. It really brought out the idea that if a 15-year-old kid in Parachute, Colorado could edit a page, perhaps they shouldn’t use it as a main source for research.
Last year, I didn’t make it to one summer concert (my son was in honor band in the fall, though, at Harris Concert Hall). This year, they’re doing Beethoven’s 6th, Dvorak’s 8th, and Copland’s Appalachian Spring, so yes, I will be attending as much as possible.
Hey Jude,
I glanced at the Wiki page, and that’s as far as it’ll go with me. I confess that I don’t know anything about revision histories and so forth (I’ve never done anything with wiki pages except point to them from time to time, etc) and so I’ll keep it at that unless I have to. I trust that people involved are reasonably well-meaning and am hardly a controversial enough person to be too concerned about gross inaccuracies (or whether anyone would care about them much). Thanks though!
Are you going to the music festival this year? Sadly I will miss it again.
Cheers,
-cvj
Actually, it’s perfectly fine to edit your Wikipedia page, if say they get something drastically wrong such as saying that you’ve died. That happened to Julius Lester, a children’s author, although I’m not certain if he edited it himself. Did you know the people mentioned in your revision history?
I found your imdb page awhile ago, probably because I periodically check this guy’s imdb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0348515/ (Damon Gupton) and when we met at the Aspen Music Festival, we briefly discussed having both seen his narration of Peter and the Wolf. I remember him not just because he was outstanding, but also because I find it interesting that he has dual careers in acting and conducting.
I see.
Truth be told, in my less charitable moments I sometimes think of the whole of Wikipedia as a faux pas.
🙂
-cvj
I believe it’s a Wikipedia faux pas to even edit the page which is about you, let alone to write it.