When we were given the opportunity to create our own Wikipedia entry, I was extremely overwhelmed and frightened. This is because when I think of any person, place, thing, object, etc. I just go to wikipedia for the answers. Wikipedia is everything. It knows everything. It has everything. Therefore, I was not sure how I was going to come up with something different and creative to create a post about – let alone submit it for review.
When I started brainstorming ideas I figured it would be easiest to write an entry about someone in my life. At first I was thinking my grandpa, someone who was born in another country and had to create a life for himself here. But then the prompt asked for outside references and if other people were to really care; and honestly, they wouldn’t. So this led me to my next option. To write about my friend who is an aspiring artist. She has created her own business called The Cash Monet and has been featured on numerous websites and articles in blue-prynt, yahoo, and many more. Her business flourishes off of her social media and her new website that she just launched. After gathering my research and being able to actually speak to her about it and get more background information I was excited and eager to write the wikipedia article.
Although I had a great topic idea, actually achieving and creating the wikipedia article was a huge challenge and I still am not sure if I did it correctly. (I will attach the link and pictures below). To begin, wikipedia is not clear with directions. they bring you to a page with a lot of words and bold statements that completely went over my head. I tried to find my way to create an account and as they call it I created my own “talk page.” After creating this I had to start formatting my article. I searched other artists and saw what their pages looked like so I tried my best to mimic that. For example I began with a brief history and who Sydney Steele is as a person and as an artist. And then I went into her line of work and what she plans to do. I wanted to try and add pictures and more of a biography but the coding and the way to format it all was extremely confusing.
After I submitted my article, it immediately bounced back and in bright red letters said that I was referencing or doing something wrong. So unsure of what to do, I just saved it as a PDF and was content with how my formatting came out. Overall, this was a great assignment and new experience into a different social media, but I do not see myself doing this again anytime soon.
Jaymi Zimmerman Abroad 