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The weirdest entries on Wikipedia, posted on one Instagram account.

Annie Rauwerda is a 21-year-old student at the University of Michigan who loves unearthing interesting screenshots from weird, dusty corners of the internet. When Covid-19 started, she had a lot of time on her hands to pursue this interest to the extent of making an Instagram account called @depthsofwikipedia, dedicated to finding the weirdest entries deep in the the internets encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

An example post on @depthsofwikipedia

If the pandemic never happened, I would have probably spent the summer of 2020 doing Biology research in Boston, but since my internship got cancelled, I was swimming in free time. I started the account because I was surprised it didnt already exist, says Rauwerda.

Jackson Weimer: What do you love about Wikipedia that made you want to make an Instagram account about its coolest/weirdest/strangest entries?

Annie Rauwerda: Wikipedia is this crazy internet utopia thats somehow escaped the claw of capitalism, and I never want to take it for granted. Its what the internet was supposed to be collaborative and constructive and democratic and untouched by ads. Its so inspiring that there are legions of volunteers that document all human knowledge for you and me to use for free, and I also am so continually excited by the sites accessibility. Anyone can edit. Theres this altruistic hacker ethos thats hard to find elsewhere.

@Depthsofwikipedia Instagram page,

Weimer: Have you made an edit to a Wikipedia page before? Is that something you would consider doing now?

Rauwerda: I didnt start editing until after I made the account, and now Im a huge proponent. Its a super rewarding and impactful hobby and you can find a great editing community online (Discord, mostly) and in person (there are groups in NYC and DC). I partnered with Wikimedia NYC to host an edit-a-thon in January geared toward beginners. The edits that were made have been viewed nearly 3 million times!

Weimer: What are some of the coolest things youve learned since making your account? Have you discovered any new interests or hobbies? Any notable celeb interactions in your comments?

Rauwerda: The account has given me an excuse to surf the information overload, and along the way Ive picked up about a bazillion fun facts. I also made it to the College Jeopardy live audition this year, and I dont think I would have made it past the first rounds of auditions had it not been for this Wikipedia habit. The celeb interactions are one of the most exciting parts of running the account. John Mayer is a huge fan and author Neil Gaiman once called the account genius. My ego rode on that for weeks!

@DepthsofWikipedia on IG

Weimer: Did any particular entry surprise you with how well it did?

Rauwerda: Early on, I didnt have a good grasp at the content that does well on Instagram. The trick, which I know now, is posts which are short enough to be share-able yet substantial enough to be memorable. And people love punchy, emotional posts involving animals like the article Alex (parrot).

The Alex (parrot) Wikipedia entry.

Weimer: What post led you to your account's first thousand followers?

Rauwerda: During the first few months of the account, I figured that my target audience was young smart people so I mass followed everyone who was active on the Stanford Class of 2024 Instagram account. What sent me into steady exponential growth was short-lived beef with influencer Caroline Calloway. She posted about the account after I posted a Wikipedia article saying her occupation was nothing. I woke up in the morning and my follower count had quadrupled! Now, were on friendly terms so friendly that she gave me a cat!!!

Weimer: Wait, what? Caroline Calloway gave you a cat because of your Wikipedia Instagram page? Elaborate.

Rauwerda: Yeah, she posted on Instagram that her assistant at the time needed a place to stay and I commented that I had a room available. Then, Caroline DMed me one day while I was in line at a boba shop and asked me if I could take one of her cats since she had two and they were not getting along. So, she just dropped off her beautiful Siamese cat at my place one day and now I have it.

Caroline Calloway's cat, which she gave to @depthsofwikipedia

Weimer: What do you think Wikipedia can change to stay afloat? Do you think they should hire you for their social team seeing as you have more followers than them?

Rauwerda: Wikipedia is a great place to give money, but nobody should feel a crushing obligation to donate. The whole point of Wikipedia is that it will always be free to everyone who wants it, and theyre not as desperate for funds as their pleading banners might suggest. That said, I give half the proceeds of merch to them and encourage all who are able to pitch in. Its the best site on the internet! Im friendly with most of their PR/social employees and whenever they release a new filter or have a big announcement, they ask me to share it. My actual dream would be to get a salary for making Wikipedia TikToks with high production value in the style of Planet Money, but I would probably do anything for Wikipedia.

Weimer: As a current college student, what has this experience taught you about what type of careers you might want to pursue?

Rauwerda: As a person, Im excessively curious and nearly incapable of thinking more than, like, two months into the future. And the result is that I tend to entertain a lot of interests. I took time off after high school to do Americorps and then I decided that I did, in fact, want to go to college. I went in undecided and chose to study Neuroscience thinking that it would be an interesting challenge. It definitely is, but Ive since realized that I dont want to be a Neuroscience researcher, so it would have been nice to have studied something like computer science or communications which is more marketable. But oh well! At least I know the names of a lot of enzymes. Since finding success on the account, working full-time in creative spaces writing, content creating feels far more accessible. Id love to work in media, specifically science communications. Im also a trained, certified Pilates instructor. I dont know if this is relevant but most people are surprised when I tell them, so I figured Id throw it in.

Weimer: What do you think Wikipedia will look like in 10 years?

Rauwerda: In terms of web page layout: exactly the same. In terms of editors: hopefully more diverse, thanks to ongoing editor recruitment projects like WikiProject Women in Red and AfroCrowd. In terms of influence: just as (if not more) crucial.

Weimer: What is the future of @depthofwikipedia?

Rauwerda: I recruited my best friend to help me run @depthsofamazon and we got it to nearly 40k in a few weeks. Were thinking about other depths to explore! Additionally, we have a podcast on the horizon. After that, who knows. I think a coffee table book of interesting Wikipedia articles would be cool to put together someday, and Id also love to make super cool merch (beyond just the simple mugs Im selling at depthsofwikipedia.com). Im trying to be more active on Tiktok they just put me an accelerator program which is supposed to incentivize me to post more on there.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

See original here:
The Weirdest Entries On Wikipedia. Creator Spotlight: @Depthsofwikipedia - Forbes

If youre a regular visitor to Wikipedia, you may have seen a desperate plea pop up on the site, urging users for donations to keep the encyclopedia online.

The impassioned pitch for cash gives the impression that the site is struggling to stay afloat. But the reality is very different, as freelance journalist Andreas Kolbe elucidated in the Daily Dot last week.

In an eye-opening piece, Kolbe explains thatthe Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which owns Wikipedia, is actually richer than ever before.

Kolbe, a former co-editor-in-chief of Wikipedias community newspaper, The Signpost, argues that the non-profitsrising revenues and record-breaking annual donations are easily sufficient to keep the site operating.

[Read:This dude drove an EV from the Netherlands to New Zealand here are his 3 top road trip tips]

Rather than needing cash to keep Wikipedia online and independent, Kolbe suggests the WMF wants to further boost its vast savings and fund a range of newprojects.

At the same time, the WMF is launching a for-profit company,which has caused concern among the sites volunteer writers, who work unpaid while some WMF staff receive six-figure salaries.

Kolbes analysis portrays an organization that can comfortably keep Wikipedia online without requiring donations from users in countries that have been hit hard by the pandemic. The piece is well worth a read if youre interested in the inner workings of Wikipedia, or merely want to ease an unnecessary sense of guilt.Find it here on the Daily Dot.

See more here:
Wikipedia is loaded, so whys it asking for donations? - The Next Web

Aussie women are playing a major part in a global effort to increase the number of biographical entries about religious women on Wikipedia.

Currently, less than 20 per cent of Wikipedias biographical entries are about women and less than 10 per cent of its editors are women.

One of the difficulties in creating Wikipedia articles for women is that there are fewer sources of information. Kerrie Burn

To response, The University of Divinity in Melbourne is taking part in a global project called 1000 Women in Religion, coordinated by the Womens Caucus of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. The aim is to add 1000 biographies of religious, spiritual and wisdom women to Wikipedia.

The Aussie contribution titled Australian Women in Religion Project is being coordinated by Kerrie Burn, librarian at the University of Divinitys Mannix Library. The aim is to create and edit 100 biographies about Australian women in religion, by the end of 2021. So far, the small team of around four regular contributors have created 54 entries, and are averaging around one entry per week.

Among the 54 new entries are Brooke Prentis, Indigenous Christian leader and CEO of Common Grace; Cecilia Dowling, a devout Christian and Temperance activist at the turn of the 20th Century; Gertrude Amy Roseby a Congregationalist lay leader and school owner; Mary Maria Andrews, a missionary and leading figure in Sydney Anglican diocese; and Tracey Rowland, a Catholic theologian who was appointed to Pope Francis International Theological Commission.

The efforts of Burns Australian group have also been boosted by other interested women who joined an edit-a-thon event in March this year. Another online edit-a-thon, held over Zoom, is scheduled for Wednesday, June 9, 2021 from 9am11am. This is designed to get people started, so they can continue adding biographies in their own time.

Theres not really that many Wikipedia editors out there, so its often something thats new to them. The more editors we have, obviously, the more new articles that we can get created, Burn tells Eternity.

Its quite a learning process and you have to really kind of keep your hand in. Otherwise it feels like you have to relearn things every time you come back to it So its good to be able to learn from people who are a bit further along the track or a bit more experienced in editing.

Burn has collated a list of around 500 Australian women in religion to draw upon, or biography creators can work on their own suggestions of women in religion.

Aside from the fact the entries can be time-consuming, Burn notes another issue facing those involved in the project.

One of the difficulties in creating Wikipedia articles for women is that there are fewer sources of information for women, she explains.

And so, alongside the 1000 Women in Religion Project, a series of Women in Religion reference books is being published by Atla Open Press (formerly American Theological Library Association).

The first volume in the series was about activists in religion and the next volume, which will be published soon, is about academics in the field of religion, says Burn.

I will be the editor for the third volume, which is about women that have been associated with the Parliament of the Worlds Religions. There will be two chapters about Australian women in this volume.

She adds: By researching and writing the chapters included in these volumes, the project is also creating reliable sources that can then be used to create Wikipedia articles.

This is definitely a long-term project, made easier by the more people that are interested in contributing. Kerrie Burn

While the task sounds daunting, Burn is reassured by the commitment that Australian women have shown to the project. She is confident the her team will reach their goal of creating 100 biographies of Aussie women in religion by the end of the year.

The Australian group has been very organised and we are being used as a model for other regional groups The fact that one of the next volumes in the Women in Religion series will be focussed on Australian women in religion is, I guess, also an indication of the progress that we have made to the overall project.

In saying that, Burn adds, This is definitely a long-term project, made easier by the more people that are interested in contributing.

After the first 100 biographies are completed, Burn plans to continue writing biographies for other women in her list of 500 Australian women in religion.

I just see it as an ongoing project that I might do into retirement, she says.

Many religious women have made extremely significant contributions to Australian life and culture, especially in areas such as education, social welfare, health care, activism, and scholarship. Yet many of these contributions are largely unrecognised.

By raising up these women we are helping to recognise their important work. As well as addressing this knowledge gap, in the process we are also addressing the gender imbalance on platforms like Wikipedia.

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Why its easy for Elise to love her neighbours in Newtown - Eternity News

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is a two-term Republican from Wisconsin, a staunch conservative who claimed the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was "by and large" a peaceful protest and that he would have been more concerned for his own safety if it had been Black Lives Matter protesters instead. A former corporate CEO in Oshkosh, he's recently been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.

He's also a native Minnesotan.

"Johnson was born in Mankato, Minnesota, the son of Jeanette Elizabeth (nee Thisius) and Dale Robert Johnson," reads his Wikipedia page. It says he graduated from Edina High School (wrongly, it turns out keep reading) and the University of Minnesota in 1977 (that part seems to be true).

Sensing that elusive local angle, I set out a few weeks ago to try to connect with some of Johnson's Edina classmates. I soon learned he didn't actually graduate from Edina a reminder that Wikipedia isn't always right. The bio on Johnson's U.S. Senate page provides clarity: "He gained early acceptance to the University of Minnesota, so he skipped his senior year of High School."

Still, surely some Edina contemporaries remember a future U.S. senator in their ranks? Well, no. I connected by phone or e-mail with more than a dozen Edina '73 grads, which would have been Johnson's graduating year.

"I don't remember Ron Johnson," said Curt Barton even though they are two of the four boys identified in a Latin Club picture from the '72 yearbook, when they were both juniors. The photo shows Johnson and two others stretching a classmate on a mock torture rack.

That Latin Club photo was courtesy of another classmate. She lives in the Eau Claire area now and said she's appalled by Johnson's politics, but didn't know until I told her that they were high school classmates.

That was common: Not only did classmates not remember him, they didn't know they went to school with a future senator.

Johnson's U.S. Senate spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking better leads on his Minnesota roots.

Johnson's junior class picture can be found in the '72 yearbook. Also in that class was one Jane Curler, now Jane Johnson; she and Ron were married in 1977.

"I did reach out to quite a few classmates and no one knew either of them!" Pamela Anderson, who organized the last class reunion, wrote to me in an e-mail. "Kind of crazy."

It does seem a bit unusual that a future politician didn't cut a wider social swath in high school. Think of the iconic picture of teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F. Kennedy.

Most of the alumni I talked to stressed their class was big, at nearly 1,000 students. And it seems littered with success stories: Doctors, lawyers, business executives and entrepreneurs were among those I connected with.

The closest I got to the Johnsons was Paul Olson, a Chaska doctor.

"I knew Jane. I remember Jane," he said. "I don't know if she'd remember me. I don't remember much about her. And I don't I can't remember Ron."

More here:
Wisconsin's Ron Johnson: native Minnesotan, but few remember - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes, the old saying goes. These days, thanks to the internet, lies lap the truth even more quickly: A 2019 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab found that falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than the truth, and false tweets reach their first 1,500 people six times faster.

Tara Lockhart, San Francisco State Universitys director of writing programs, wants truth to start winning the race and shes working to even the odds. A professor of English Language and Literature, Lockhart is co-editor of Literacy and Pedagogy in an Age of Misinformation and Disinformation (Parlor Press), a new guide for educators. The book, available for free download, includes essays and interviews with experts on information literacy from education, activism, journalism and more. (SF State Senior Assistant Librarian Nicole Allensworth contributes a chapter on the role of librarians and a bevy of critical information literacy strategies.)

In the era of post-truth rhetoric, teachers must help students learn to approach texts with skepticism and gain a deep understanding of how information circulates, Lockhart says. She recently shared more of her insights into the vital part educators can play in the battle against lies.

What are your definitions of misinformation and disinformation?

The difference relies on intent. Misinformation is inaccurate information. But disinformation intends to deceive or misrepresent sometimes for financial gain, sometimes for political gain, sometimes to mess with democracy and create instability. There is an added level of maliciousness in disinformation. Misinformation can just be a mistake, a typo or something thats decontextualized.

What are the consequences when disinformation is widespread?

People start to distrust government, institutions, distrust their neighbors, [and] they turn to fear-based rhetoric about certain populations or certain kinds of people. Then we lose some of that common ground, that common fabric, that is essential to a democracy.

But people can also be duped. Now, propaganda or disinformation can be surrounding you. We think of research thats come out about echo chambers and our little social bubbles on social media. You can be in a whole world filled with disinformation and perhaps not even realize it.

Having more accurate information or being able to discern what is accurate and weigh different types of information against each other might lead you to do something like get a vaccine that might save your life. Or not be sucked into a fringe political element that might in some way endanger your life. I think that most people, even people who are attracted to something like a conspiracy theory, like to think they want more information. The more information, the better. But the critical ability to use discernment comes into play.

Lets consider a practical question that educators might ask. Can students cite Wikipedia as a source in their papers?

Thats a perfect example. It goes to that rule-based information literacy that has previously guided how we teach. No Wikpedia sources. Ever. Banned. Bad. Right?

Instead of that, the articles and interviews in this book foreground the critical information literacy perspective. This more critical approach helps us get inside that Wikipedia entry. Lets see what the citations are. Lets see what the editing history is. Lets see whos editing it. Which parts of the entry have been deleted, erased, updated? And given all of that context, we can verify whether that information on that Wikipedia entry is pretty valid or not. [If] I wrote my own entry for myself [laughs] with no one else weighing in on it, its of course much less valid.

Whats crucial is teaching students how to conduct that behind-the-scenes work and bringing a critical lens to it. Thats more important versus the rule. Black and white rules may make teaching and learning easier, but theyre a shortcut to students actually learning how to gauge the truth of information, and understand the impacts of how information is created and circulated, for themselves.

Matt Itelson

Continued here:
English Professor Fights to Keep Truth Alive in Post-Truth Age | College of Liberal & Creative Arts - SF State News