Wikimania Submissions: Authors we love – an ode to an endangered species on Wikipedia

Meine erste Wikimania-Submission dieses Jahr: was so alles aus komischen Ideen am Rande von Gesprächen entstehen kann. Großer Dank an Frank, von dem bisher die meiste Arbeit kommt.

Im Original auf dem Wikimania-Wiki. Wer eventuell nach London kommt, kann sich auch gerne bei den Unterstützern dort eintragen.

Mindestens genausogut: nennt und geile Artikel und super Autoren. Das kann man auch, wenn man nicht in London ist.

Oder noch besser: eine eigene Submission einreichen.

Title of the submission
Authors we love – an ode to an endangered species on Wikipedia

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation

Author of the submission

• Dirk Franke
• Frank Schulenburg

Username

• Southpark
• Frank Schulenburg

Country of origin

• Germany
• Germany/United States

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

• Wikimedia Deutschland
• Wiki Education Foundation

Personal homepage or blog

• http://www.iberty.net
• http://www.wikiphotographer.net

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

In the early days of Wikipedia, everybody knew: authors are the backbone of our encyclopedia. Today, with a growing number of roles, organizations, committees, and meta-discussions, authors tend to be sidelined. They are simply taken as granted. Just take a look at the monthly and annual reports or blogs of different Wikimedia organizations and you will notice that the work of content producers is rarely being featured. The many activities that are happening on the meta-level seem to be more significant, more important to what some people call “the movement”.
In our presentation, we will make the case that paying more respect to the people who write Wikipedia is crucial for the survival of this “endangered species”. We will show examples of how people from different cultures and language communities work tirelessly on improving content in their specific areas of expertise. And we will also showcase a select number of mind-blowing articles that result from this effort.
Our presentation will not only pay respect to amazing individuals from different countries but also encourage people to rethink their attitude towards Wikipedia’s content-producers. We believe that if you truly recognize the work of these volunteers, great things can happen. But this is not the main reason for why we’d like to bring authors back to the center of everybody’s attention. The main reason is that these people simply deserve it. Because they’re awesome.

Track

WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

As part of our preparation for the conference, we will ask the global community of Wikipedians to send us their suggestions for who should be featured as part of this presentation. If someone comes to your mind while reading our submission, please feel free to contact us via the email addresses above.

Special requests

None