What impact do you think you can have on the world?

I've always enjoyed encyclopedias and learning information, no matter the subject. As a kid my sister and I had a study hour. I'd do my homework early to read the encyclopedia.

When I got to college and a T1 internet in 2000, there was nothing as a central point of reference for random stuff I wanted to look up. Considering I thought having instant high speed internet would bring me answers at my fingertips, it was disappointing. Snopes worked okay, as well as the Straight Dope Message Boards. Around late 2002~2003, Wikipedia started showing up as a reference to questions asked on that message board. I read casually based on the links, but I'm computer dumb and navigation-while so simple-eluded me. Once MediaWiki was updated in 2004 with .css I figured out how to edit to fix minor things and poke around in articles. I had no idea about any project space other than namespace.

In October of 2005, I noticed an issue with the Main Page Featured article, History of Alaska. I figured I should have an account to complain on the talk page out of courtesy. I received a quick reply and the article was corrected. This impressed me to the responsiveness of other editors. By March of 2006 I had learned how to contact other users and start to work on the quality of content, whether it be vandalism or talk page discussions about inclusion. I passed my Request for Adminship in August of 2006, and wandered around the wiki. I took most of 2008 off because of offline circumstances, and a bit of a lack of desire to edit. I still read articles for hours every day, as well as following noticeboards.

When I started to care is when I noticed the substantial increase in Wikipedia's popularity. I don't think we intended it to be this way, but we had to adapt to it. It is a fantastic reference for a website. Why I started to care is because of both internal and external misinterpretations of the goal of the Wikimedia projects. The outside made it seem as though it was controlled by an editorial board that ignored ill-willed contributions. Internally, we had a crop of core contributors that had insulated the editing community. This part, I think, has been rectified to a reasonable extent.

That concept is what captured my focus, it's a website that anyone can edit. It's a household name. There should be an understanding of the natural difference between Wikimedia projects and the rest of the web, even blogs. Its holistic approach to defining what knowledge entails is fascinating to me, as well as the societal structure that individual projects set up. I have found and always find this extremely compelling, and it fuels my desire to read more than just articles, but the talk pages that shape the articles. The noticeboards that discuss content and contributors. The email that we receive about our content or structure. Quite fascinating, really.

The other part is the altruistic notion of free knowledge, software, and content to aid these means. There is a big difference between theory and practice, but the theory of a collaborative effort to provide knowledge is an admirable thing, and one that should be fostered. In theory we can change the world. In practice, we might or might not. Or halfway. Who knows. The principle doesn't change, and neither does the desire to use volunteer time amidst a full time job to find a rewarding experience as a whole. There's a thing about it that you either get or you don't, it can't be adequately explained.

Keegan04:44, 17 March 2010