By Ofira Koopmans Aug 5, 2011, 20:14 GMT
Haifa, Israel - We've all read it. Even sceptics refer to it. Its devout followers swear by it.
But who writes Wikipedia?
Well, 35-year-old Jan Ainali for one.
The Information Technology consultant, with an engineering degree from Karlstad University, spends almost all his spare time - 'about four hours on weekdays and on weekends more' - editing the online encyclopedia's Swedish version.
He wrote entries on his university town in central Sweden and - a former break-dancer - on Sweden's national championships in the style.
One look at those attending Wikipedia's annual conference this weekend, he fits the average profile of your single male academic, in his 30s or so, who without getting paid, got caught up in the passion of sharing knowledge and writing about subjects he cares about.
An 'active' contributor is defined as anyone who carries out at least five edits a month, 'which can be anything from placing a full stop where it's missing, correcting a typo, or writing a full paragraph,' says Marek Kosniowski, who at 42 and a married father of two does not quite fit the mold.
At the moment, there are about 90,000 around the globe. About 650 of them from 56 countries gathered in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa Thursday, Friday and Saturday for this year's Wikimania, the contributors' conference.
A headhunter from Britain, Kosniowski wrote much of the English Wikipedia's article on Pope John Paul II. As a practicing Roman Catholic of Polish descent, he met him four times. 'It's not perfect yet. It's not even a good article yet, but it gets about 3,000 hits a day.'
How does he find the time, about an hour a day? 'I try to fit it in, usually before going to bed,' he says. 'You can watch a movie on TV. I find this more relaxing.
'Most people are younger, single, technical types, I won't say nerd,' he admits.
He says he learns while writing, 'plus it gives me a buzz, when the kids are using Wikipedia at school and my daughter Maria says, 'My Dad writes for this.''
Dutch national Huib Laurens, 24, spends about four hours a day, two of them at work - he is self employed 'so I don't mind' - among others writing about World War II military graveyards in Holland. His girlfriend has learned to wait. 'I guess most girlfriends don't like it when they come second. A lot get girlfriends and stop editing.'
He quit several times, but always came back.
There is no escaping Wikipedia. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the hugely popular free encyclopedia has since its creation in 2001 mushroomed to 19 million articles in 282 languages. Despite critics calling it unreliable and messy, because anyone can edit, it is read by about 400 million people a month.
'You Google something and you get to Wikipedia. You see like a spelling error and you edit it, and you're back,' says Laurens.
Most contributors do not even cite ideological reasons, or the non-profit organization's slogan that 'every human being should have access to free knowledge.'
Some do say they want to give back, because they use the reference tool themselves. Others like having a vast audience, but many just cannot stomach a bad entry - or no entry - on a topic they love, or say 'it's just fun.'
There is also the social aspect, with members of the online communities writing the discussion pages behind each article meeting up for coffee.
But with volunteers being the main resource, Executive Director Sue Gardner says Wikipedia is 'struggling' with participation and editors' retention. Few women take part. A target has been set to double the number of female contributors to 25 per cent by 2015.
She even handed out a pamphlet Thursday, urging contributors to be nice to newcomers, give positive feedback to each other in discussion pages, not just criticism, and to use a new tool called 'Wikilove' that they can click on to express appreciation.
In an interview with the German Press Agency dpa, founder Jimmy Wales says the technical difficulty of working on entries scared away many, including women.
'With the editing interface being too geeky, we excluded lots and lots of people,' he says. 'And for reasons outside our control, computer geeks are mostly men.'
Software developers are working on making contributing a lot easier.
Then there is the problem of accuracy, although enthusiasts swear it takes an average two minutes for a wrong fact to be detected and corrected.
In a T-shirt that states: 'Wikipedia, it's not perfect, but it's fantastic,' Swedish Ainali sums it up:
'It's a hobby. Because I'm not getting paid, I can do it whenever I want and however I want.'
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