Wikis and Trove

Editing a Wikipedia article was indeed quite confronting. All of a sudden I am behaving as an authority and a publisher... I delayed the task for a few days until I realised that my partner was an academic! Immediately I picked a subject of interest and began to trawl for information. This provided for a modest beginning: Here can be seen the article before editing:

Here is the modest edited masterpiece

Having gained some confidence with my new found authority, off I went to the Trove to become acquainted with some history. After reading the obituary of my Great Grandmother (1948) which had translated perfectly (with the exception that the newspaper itself had misspelt my Grandfather's initials) I began searching around for some information. After trying many different subjects along my way I searched on my home town's river and found this gobbledigook:

Here is the corrected article. It's an awesome concept to outsource to the public this task of translation. It was great to be able to make this little contribution to the public knowledge base. As you search the database you can come across some really interesting facts... I found out that my local railway station began it's operations in 1929, but there has never been an official opening. Perhaps here is an opportunity for a community event!