ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Steve Knight and Howard Altman who both has an entry in Wikipedia said that having their biography in the world’s biggest online encyclopedia feels quite exciting, especially if someone you know actually read something about you. Altman, journalist and newspaper editor, believes his coverage of the 9/11 attack is the major reason for earning a place in Wikipedia.

For Steve Knight, he feels humbled and honored to be considered a “notable person” and landing him a spot on the largest online encyclopedia. His entry provides a reference to the band he formed, Mountains, during the early 70’s.

But it has its downside, too, as Chelsea Kate Isaacs learned. Just last week, an entry about her was published calling her as “the most desirable hand model in 1998 in Canada and the United States.” Unfortunately, after a few days of fame and glory her entry was trashed by the site’s contributors.

The 19-year old American actress / model is quite elated to think that she has fans out there who are able to research about her. Although she had no idea who could have written her biography for Wikipedia, she was surprised that the information about her were quite accurate and felt sad when the page was removed. She admitted liking the idea of being in Wikipedia.

This multilingual, web-based free online resource contains more than 2,000,000 entries from about 75,000 contributors that grow exponentially with almost 100,000 new pages created everyday. Anybody can edit any page provided that the following rules are observed: add only information covering existing knowledge or facts that can be verified, not for original research, and written from a neutral perspective.

And as Wikipedia founder Jim Wales said, “If you are notable or successful in your field, you’ll end up in Wikipedia.”