The biggest and arguably best general online encyclopedia, Wikipedia started in 2001 and now includes millions of entries, in 229 languages. It is not infallible, but then again, as Nature magazine pointed out in a head to head comparison, neither is the Encyclopedia Britannica. In the course of researching an historical memoir, I have logged many hours in libraries and archives, but Wikipedia is usually one of my first stops for some new thread of inquiry or a quick fact check. My informal and unscientific sample of inquiring minds among the Net generation strongly suggests that their research inevitably starts with Google and Wikipedia; and it usually ends there, too.
This is why I found myself thinking about authoring a Wikipedia entry on Ala Gertner, a central figure in my book because of her connection to my family and her role in the Auschwitz uprising of 1944.
I didn’t need to ask an editor’s permission. Anyone can author an article on Wikipedia. And “anyone” does, since the writers are anonymous. Amateurs or scholars, they are all people who care passionately about a subject and want to share their knowledge. In fact, if you look up a name or subject that comes up empty on Wikipedia, you are invited to fill the gap.
My first cautious step was to cruise around Wikipedia to observe the “house style,” which seemed remarkably consistent in its neutral and factual tone. So far, so good. I found tutorials and references to help me get started, but when I actually started to write, I was caught in the quicksand of html codes. As soon as I tried anything fancy, the page was a mess. Many hours later, I had succeeded in posting the equivalent of a sloppy freshman draft. But at least the words were there. My entry on Ala Gertner now sounded like a Wikipedia article, even if it didn’t look like one.
I returned to the site a few days later and behold, I had been Wikified! My words had not changed, but the entry now looked professional. By clicking on the “history” tab, I could see that the article had been scrubbed several times by automated Wiki bots and also by human beings who had fixed my formatting mistakes and added subheads, paragraphs, and proper fonts. These editorial elves were drawn to the task by a Wikipedia alert that identifies all new entries (and probably red-flagged mine as a struggling neophyte) There are reportedly thousands of volunteers who review these entries for the sheer fun of improving them, like the successful investment banker who specializes in editing entries on baseball. He describes his daily edits and fact checks as his “solitaire,” a relaxing brain game for multitasking moments.
It is this process of collaborative editing that is the heart and soul of Wikipedia. So far, no one had edited my words or challenged my facts – but such controversies are not uncommon, and some entries have triggered long and complex arbitrations within the Wikipedia community. But in my maiden voyage, I was charmed by the swarm of nano editors descending upon my page to polish its rough edges until it was fit to join the other 1.6 million English-language entries in Wikipedia.
Emboldened, I tuned up the language in the article and discovered that I could overcome being html-impaired by copying the formatting in other entries, literally cutting and pasting the html codes. Soon I had learned the most important trick of all: how to add hyperlinks to and from relevant Wikipedia articles. Ala Gertner is now in the virtual company of Roza Robota, another extraordinary heroine of the Auschwitz uprising; and of Oskar Schindler, whose labor camp was part of the same Nazi bureaucracy that enslaved Ala. She is also linked to the category of Women in World War II, Holocaust, and featured in the long and excellent Wikipedia article on Auschwitz.
Wikipedia is free, its entries part of the global digital commons. This open source approach to intellectual property was fine until I tried to enhance my article with photographs and images. It was difficult to choose which of Wikipedia’s copyright options made sense without going to the trouble and expense of consulting a lawyer and besides, I couldn’t figure out how to upload and format the images. So for now, my article remains unadorned for legal and technical reasons. But Google Ala Gertner, and you’ll see my entry. It may be different by the time you get there, since it’s no longer mine. Now the article belongs to Wikipedia and to anyone who chooses to read it or improve it.
Ann Kirschner is the author of the forthcoming Sala’s Gift (November, Free Press)
