“Wikipedian” is a neat little title I can now call myself after having done my first wikipedia edit. I edited the page of the Native Plant Trust, an organization based in the USA dedicated to the conservation of the New England area’s native plant species which, prior to my edit, only had a few lines of information regarding who they were and a quick mention of what they did.
Personally, it’s a good feeling knowing that I’m doing something good and indirectly helping the efforts of a plant conservation organization. Maybe someday, someone will come across their wikipedia page and add on some newer information. Perhaps I even helped someone decide to volunteer for the organization. In any case, it’s good to know that I’m helping to bring a little more attention to a good cause.
EDIT (April 21, 2020):
Coming back here to edit this old Wikipedia blog post, I’ve learned a few things after doing a few more edits to other pages a couple of months later. Registering through Wikipedia Edu brought a lot of important and useful information to my attention. Everybody knows (or should know) to ask themselves if the information they read is credible and reliable, but not everyone might be aware of the specifics of plagiarism and copyright. Things like this and how to use the “sandbox” is already available to every new user upon first creating an account, but it was helpful to have that information set up and ready to review in training modules so as to not miss anything important.
The sections on copyright is one thing I learned as I hadn’t thought much about it until now, nor had I realized it also applied to Wikipedia! Wikipedians must always keep in mind what information is shareable as well as properly providing credit when applicable.
Another point that was brought to my attention was “close paraphrasing.” Admittedly, it’s something I have caught myself doing on occasion and is something I need to make sure doesn’t slip through to any of my Wikipedia edits, or even my academic schoolwork! The training modules proved helpful here, as they helped reinforce a habit I picked up by opening a document during research and succinctly typing notes for me to use as reference in any of my final write-ups.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 