Saturday, September 15, 2012

Putting People in Categories - Humanist Manifesto


The following message is from Lei Pinter...

So you’ve been following this blog for awhile and maybe you’ve even set up an account at Wikipedia but you haven’t found a way to get started? This is a great chance for you!

Have you ever noticed the categories at the very bottom of a Wikipedia page? That is a great way to the reader to learn about other pages of interest. For example on the Kendrick Frazier page you see links that will lead you to other Columbia alumni, fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, or American Skeptics.

The newly created category “Signers of the Humanist Manifesto” needs to be added to the 200+ people who support that declaration. According to Wikipedia guidelines the fact that they signed needs to be included (and correctly cited) in the article before the category is added. So this assignment is a version of our Edit Backwards concept – given the fact that someone falls into this category we need you to add the citation and the category to their page.

The folks who signed the three versions of the manifesto (1933, 1973, and 2003) come from a wide cross section of society – philosophers, Nobel Prize winners, clergy, etc. As we touch all of these pages we can also catalog pages that need additional attention or a photo so that more experienced editors can make those changes. In fact as you get more confident and learn more about this distinguished list of people you may find a page that you want to work on more yourself.

Contact Susan if you want to help out on this interesting, easy project.

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Now from me...

Lei has done most of the work by creating the category and a spreadsheet that you will be entering simple data.  I was just messing around with this spreadsheet today and found that many people on this list do not have a Wikipedia page, and a lot of the others have horrible stub pages.  I don't think this project will require a lot of time.  That is unless you count the time that you will find yourself engrossed in reading the pages, and then following the hyperlinks to other pages until you remember you had a task. 

Please consider volunteering to help with this fun project.  Contact me and I will train you.  susangerbic@yahoo.com

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